

Codecademy Partners With The White House - bproper
http://blog.codecademy.com/announcing-meetups-and-our-partnership-with-t

======
tnorthcutt
_Today, we’re proud to announce that we will be working with the White House
to get more kids and adults learning to code. With their Summer Jobs+ program,
the White House has been working on finding jobs for hundreds of thousands of
people over the summer._

Did anyone else's stomach turn when they read this part? I think it's great
that Codecademy want to help people learn to code and are effectively reaching
such a large audience. However, I also think it's absolutely revolting that
such a program exists at the federal government level. I think that's
ridiculously beyond the scope of what the government should be doing.

Remove some/most/all of the hindrances to running a business and hiring
employees (convoluted and rage-inducing tax and HR regulations) so that more
businesses would be willing and able to launch, expand, and hire. That would
create jobs, including probably thousands of coding jobs.

</rant>

~~~
superuser2
Okay. Let's try a government that conforms to your scope. No welfare, so
employment is necessary for survival. No mandates for health insurance,
facility safety or minimum wage.

A few already-wealthy individuals form companies that offer jobs with 18-hour
days, no weekends, no vacation, no health insurance, and just enough pay to
keep the employees alive. Anyone who can't work (even for medical reasons, or
because of the employer's negligence) is left to die on the street, their
position easily filled by a new hire. Employers realize that, so long as
nobody starts it, competition is voluntary. Any startup threatening to raise
the market value of labor is quickly purchased and disbanded or undercut on
price until it fails. Those few people become fabulously wealthy until
everyone else catches on and nobody can afford to buy things anymore.

Hm... sounds familiar. We went through this more than 100 years ago. Foxconn
and other Chinese companies are still doing it. This is what happens when
government doesn't step in with its "revolting" "hindrances" like making you
pay people a living wage.

Stop whining about government and come up with a business plan that doesn't
depend on slavery.

</rant>

~~~
ericd
Consumer protections aren't what set programmer wages at $100/hr+. Your entire
premise is wrong.

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nhangen
Wow, these guys have had incredible success in the press, almost as if they
were first to market. Since they aren't, and there are many sites doing things
like this already, I wonder what the secret is.

Is it their investors? Is it the name? Is it something I'm missing?

~~~
timjahn
I agree with you, I'm confused as to why they're constantly talked about. The
idea is nothing new and there's plenty of competition. Personally, I think
it's just the industry's current shiny thing.

Regarding the constant press, I'd be willing to bet it's the investors. Money
talks, right?

~~~
frasertimo
Geez, way to be so cynical guys.

I think it's because they have a great UI, they respond to feedback, they've
worked hard at marketing it, they impressed some VCs, and all the million
other reasons that start-ups succeed. Don't complain about it, ask why.

~~~
nhangen
My point is not that the product is bad, but that there are many products just
as good, hitting the same demo.

I'm sure the team is great and the investors are great, but let's be honest,
the product is fairly light right now. The UI is nifty, but there's nothing
special about it.

I'm not trying to knock the guys, I'm simply trying to determine why they've
become such media darlings without really having delivered anything.

~~~
wahnfrieden
Please share these other products with us. I genuinely want to know - out of
curiosity and because Codecademy tops out too quickly as it is (I had a
relative of mine try it out.)

~~~
nhangen
Here's a quick list:

<http://teamtreehouse.com> <http://tryruby.org> which I believe is an
extension of <http://codeschool.com> <http://learncodethehardway.com>

Then of course there are sites like Peepcode, Udemy, and a host of others that
offer tutorials, which aren't quite the same, but stil serve the same purpose.

I'm sure there are more I don't know of.

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mkramlich
Yes I want a 100,000 people with no prior experience or proven talent in the
area to take a few web-based tutorials and then start sending out those
resumes for programming jobs.

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jleader
They mention Los Angeles Code Academy meetups, I live in LA and know some
people interested in learning to code, and in an admittedly brief search I
haven't been able to find any evidence of such meetups.

~~~
Samuel_Michon
The first meeting is on February 7th in Santa Monica:

<http://www.meetup.com/codeyear/Los-Angeles-CA/>

~~~
kafkaesque
Wow! I just found out about Codecademy and immediately signed up! It looks
pretty cool!

I basically have no programming experience, only a tiny bit.

Do you know what the requirements are to attend the meeting? Or what it'll be
about?

Thanks for your help in advance!

~~~
Samuel_Michon
Oh, I'm not Codecademy staff, I just read the post a bit more careful than
_jleader_ had.

~~~
kafkaesque
Oh, my apologies. I was too excited and signed up quickly without reading it.
Now that I have, it more or less answers my question: "You can meet weekly to
discuss each Code Year lesson or whenever you’d like.".

Thanks, anyway! (:

