

Ask HN: Self Study Learning Path - atdk

Hi, I was wondering if this idea of creating a web app for learning path for different technologies from novice to expert level is a good startup model or not?<p>E.g Fundamentals of data science learning path would include all the MOOC&#x27;s and books in ascending order which would help a novice developer to learn the tech in step by step manner.
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vistakric
Do I think that it is a good startup model (i.e. something that is likely to
get used a lot and/or generate profit)? Yes. Do I think that it is conducive
to the goal of acquiring the problem-solving skills to hack something
together? Maybe, maybe not.

One of the challenges that a novice developer needs to face and overcome more
or less independently is the challenge of making sense of something that looks
totally foreign _with minimal guidance_ , and figuring out how this new piece
of software fits within their understanding of computing as a whole. This
independent contextualization allows the budding developer to know when it is
appropriate to use a new tool, whether or not a tool does its job (and how
well), and what to watch out for in order to avoid bugs in dependent software.

Another crucial thing to being a good programmer is learning how to teach
yourself. If a would-be developer goes out, gets a CS degree, and stops
learning thereafter, they might as well be frozen in the year in which they
graduated. New tools come out all the time, and it's important to know how to
sift through documentation (rather than relying solely on tutorials), how to
find good explanations of new concepts, and how to get questions answered
without necessarily having a buddy or professor on hand who can definitively
resolve the issue for you.

I think that your idea would be really helpful to organize the especially good
resources on certain topics by increasing difficulty, but at the same time, I
think that it could be a bit of a crutch. Learning how to self-teach sucks
because it's hard, so a startup like you're describing could provide an easy
way out that would catch up to users sooner or later when they need that
skill.

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bruceb
[http://www.coursebuffet.com](http://www.coursebuffet.com)

Arrange MOOCs in a course catalog format showing what approximate year a
course would be.

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acconrad
Upcase does something like this for Ruby, JavaScript and a few other
languages/disciplines.

upcase.com

