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Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

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Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#341

Post by zepto »

specialist wrote: post #279
jacobion wrote: post #78

The thing about efficient markets is that lucrative activities which don't produce much value—borderline scams—can block activity which would be highly wealth creating. For example, there could be a huge untapped retail market for financial derivatives such as interest rate and fx hedges. However, it's very hard to access this market because historically anyone who has started selling such products has pivoted toward…

> scams can block activity which would be highly wealth creating What's this phenomenon called? "Spoiling the market"? "Shitting the bed"? Basically, when inauthentic activity so increases transaction costs that the authentic market is harmed. My aunt once had a pretty good cottage business selling bespoke wall paper stuff on eBay. Over time, inauthentic entries crowded out her real product. SEO, fakes, knockoffs, mi…

Poisoning the well

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#342

Post by swyx »

meheleventyone wrote: post #58
swyx wrote: post #13

there have been a few prominent criticisms of lambda school recently but it is all anecdotal and disorganized. closest in my mind was fulligin's takedown on NYMag ( https://vincentwoo.com/2020/05/19/on-lambda-school/ which found some bad facts but was sensationalized beyond proportion imo, still, make up your own mind) very hard to tell what specific allegations and changes have been made without also needing to ques…

The person details the issues here: https://www.reddit.com/r/LambdaSchool/comments/kb87od/lambda... Looks like the entire course and support being paid for basically changed.

yeah. this is really bad. austen's in here responding so its not constructive for me to play armchair CEO but i really hope they fix up their act. they were on to a good thing.

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#343

Post by bertjk »

ryanSrich wrote: post #301
bertjk wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait.. so they were securitizing their ISAs? I had no idea they were doing that. It is a brilliant twist I didn't expect, and that also causes me to lose all respect for them. I liked the ISA idea before, but this... is perverse.

What exactly is wrong with it? They’re still heavily incented to get their students hired. If all they’re selling is F tier contracts then eventually they’ll dry up. They clearly need to continue pumping out students capable of repaying those loans. This simply gives them a way to tap into the cash they would get in the future, just a few years earlier. And if there’s a 3rd party that wants to take on that risk I see…

It means that in the sort of zero interest rates environment that we are in, where investors are desperate for yield, they will probably be able to sell these for years longer than they otherwise would have (and ruining lives in the process) before the house of cards finally comes crashing down.

In theory you are right, and in theory savvy investors would have never allowed the subprime mortgage market to get so ridiculous to allow the 2009 GFC to manifest.

But I think in reality it changes the game greatly. Before securitization Lambda is incentivized to produce grads with lucrative job placements. Now they may find that they get a better return on their efforts going for volume and marketing their ISA bundles. Teaching 5K bootcampers to code is hard. They may find that roping in a Masa Son or other less savvy fund to overpay for a portfolio of 100k ISAs (growth produced by lowering standards and taking on unqualified candidates ) to be relatively easier.

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#344

Post by edmundsauto »

nicesnowoman wrote: post #331
austenallred wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CEO of Lambda School here. This is disappointing, of course. We have 180+ people working really, really hard to make Lambda School the best experience it can be. At times we’ll fall short, and, as another poster pointed out, the margin for error is just razor thin; thousands of happy and successful students can be out there, but it’s the ones who don’t make it or have a good experience that cause us to lose sleep (an…

Former student here. You are a grifter and a liar who is fully aware that students are punished for leaving negative feedback.

This is not an appropriate comment. If you can present your issues without personal attacks, it will be a more effective message. If you are a former student, then even though you are frustrated, surely you have specifics in your complaints?

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#345

Post by catern »

austenallred wrote: post #339
effingwewt wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it not This is why I hate you and your product. You come in here and lie through your teeth repeatedly. You sell yoyr ISAs which are already predatory. This means you dont give a flying fuck if students graduate because you get paid regardless, as opposed to the bullshit you spout about incentives being aligned. More softball bullshut or speak answers. Lambda needs to be sued into the groundlike ITT Tech and H…

In the event we finance an ISA of a student who has not graduated we have to refund what we received if a student doesn't graduate. You are incorrect in your understanding of how ISA financing works. Our interests and incentives remain aligned.

>In the event we finance an ISA of a student who has not graduated we have to refund what we received if a student doesn't graduate.

Interesting, I didn't know this. I thought you just sold the ISA outright, which would retain some of the incentive but weaken it quite a bit. It's great to hear that that's not happening.

I found https://lambdaschool.com/the-commons/announcing-our-new-isa-... discussing this in more detail. Seems like everyone complaining about Lambda School ISA financing should just read that...

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#346

Post by NationalPark »

Siira wrote: post #186
11thEarlOfMar wrote: post #181

Just going to throw this out there... The value of top schools is the professors and instruction. The administration, not so much. Perhaps the startup should be in how to automate and standardize university administration so that the majority of tuition goes to the educators. - https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/septoct-2011/administ...

Most of the value is actually in signaling and the peer group.

That's definitely what some students extract from it but the professors are indeed real and they will talk with you if you ask nicely.

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#347

Post by sugarwater »

austenallred wrote: post #268
mondoshawan wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some students see it as one more thing distracting them from writing more code, and believe the only thing that will determine their career success is ability to write code (as you all know, ability to write code is necessary but not sufficient to success as an engineer). As an interviewer, engineer and lead myself, I'd say your students that think this are pretty darn close. If I get a junior candidate that can't co…

Certainly agreed that being able to code is necessary. I’d argue it’s necessary and not sufficient. > Do you plan on at least giving these students a chance to retake prior units without further charging them for knowledge you should have already taught them? Students are actually strongly encouraged to retake units at no additional cost in order to move on to the next level, and in some instances we require it. This…

But you implemented changes so that the students themselves determine whether or not they want to flex? That's what happened the last two units for me... For two build weeks I was in a team of 8 people, and in both cases only one other person showed up. There were no repercussions for those that didn't attend build week and they continued on to the next unit regardless of whether or not they were ready. You grade yourself model and you flex yourself model is horrendous. I know some auto-grading has (very) slowly been implemented in earlier units, but essentially I went through 1/3rd of the program without any feedback other than my own, with two terrible teachers that were both new to teaching.

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#348

Post by a123b456c »

tharne wrote: post #277
cat199 wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a founder trying to disrupt an industry. a founder should be 'trying to' make a quality product that fits a need, not 'disrupt an industry' - 'industry disruption' is a consequence, not a goal - if one is seeking the latter without focusing on the former, ones priorities are skewed, and likely for reasons of promoting one's own self-importance.

> a founder should be 'trying to' make a quality product that fits a need, not 'disrupt an industry' This 1000%. The frequent use of the term "disrupt", just shows how much the culture has descended into degeneracy. When entrepreneurs and their backers are no longer making even a pretense toward things like progress, improvement, or even just running a profitable business, you know things have gotten bad. It seems li…

> The frequent use of the term "disrupt", just shows how much the culture has descended into degeneracy.

This is an extraordinary claim.

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#349

Post by austenallred »

catern wrote: post #345
austenallred wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the event we finance an ISA of a student who has not graduated we have to refund what we received if a student doesn't graduate. You are incorrect in your understanding of how ISA financing works. Our interests and incentives remain aligned.

>In the event we finance an ISA of a student who has not graduated we have to refund what we received if a student doesn't graduate. Interesting, I didn't know this. I thought you just sold the ISA outright, which would retain some of the incentive but weaken it quite a bit. It's great to hear that that's not happening. I found https://lambdaschool.com/the-commons/announcing-our-new-isa-... discussing this in more de…

Right now it's technically structured as a sale to an SPV that is owned by Lambda, Lambda gets a small advance (It's still completely aligned, we just fast-forward some of the cash so we don't have to raise endless amounts of VC.

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#350

Post by sugarwater »

blntechie wrote: post #14

Most open world reviews i.e. non curated ones I have seen for Lambda school have been negative to at best neutral. I believe they have a place in the education market if they do it right. Model is good enough but execution appear to be severely lacking. It’s interesting that pg is a big fan though.

PG should enroll and try the program himself before he offers any praise.
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