

No Excuses - baha_man
http://weblogs.asp.net/rosherove/archive/2009/08/11/no-excuses.aspx

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projectileboy
Well, referring to potential students as "victims" when the author is asking
them to pony up $2000 for his wisdom on TDD... I think the metaphor works in
ways beyond what the author intended.

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pmichaud
2 grand is chump change. If you learn something valuable there, you'll make it
back in spades. Stop thinking about "cost" and start thinking about "value."

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jgrahamc
Big "if" though. This is a $2,000 training course we are talking about. I'm
very skeptical about the value of training courses and rarely send any staff
on them. Smart people can learn a lot from books.

If this guy doesn't have the cash for the course, I suggest he buy the
author's book and read it. Chances are the content is the same.

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helium
Was anyone else annoyed by his inconsistent capitalization or am I just being
pedantic?

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ratsbane
Some people post Facebook, Twitter messages, etc. about how miserable they are
about being laid off and needing a job - other people post messages about how
they're using time off to read a new book about design patterns or Erlang or
whatever. I'm thinking the second group are more likely to be hired.

Although projectileboy's comment about paying $2k for a class on TDD is spot-
on.

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allenp
There is truth in the notion that all of us have to decide we want something
and then we have to go after it.

The way the author makes this point really comes off poorly. There are always
going to be people that say they would buy something if it were only $5
cheaper, or if it included X or Y features. These people aren't your
customers, so why waste time bullying them into buying?

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billswift
"I for one would immediately discard a software developer as less than worth
his salt if he felt he needed any sort of paid tuition to pick up new
technologies. If you're not learning something new practically every week,
you're probably not a good coder." - from a comment on the linked article.

Different people learn in different ways. I actually learn better from books
than from lecture type courses; unfortunately, there are always bits of
information that slip between the cracks in writing. I have been teaching
myself to use linux and programming in my spare time for years and I all too
often have to waste a lot of time in trial and error because some minor detail
that the expert writing the book thought was "too obvious" to include
explicitly.

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pmichaud
This is a really important message. Do not be a victim, everything is
possible. People -- especially geeks like us-- love to feel like it's us
against the world, but it's not. If you go out and kick ass, you can get what
you want.

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peregrine
I'd argue for some people the world is against them, it all boils down to
random chance. Instead of poorly paraphrasing I will just link to this video
which I believe sums it up nicely.

[http://www.ted.com/talks/alain_de_botton_a_kinder_gentler_ph...](http://www.ted.com/talks/alain_de_botton_a_kinder_gentler_philosophy_of_success.html)

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darkxanthos
People like Roy are half the reason why guys like that act like they do.

I whole-heartedly believe in Roy's thesis.

This is the last guy who should have been offered a 50% discount.

EDIT: removed a sentence and rearranged.

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jongraehl
It sounds like I'm essentially going to be crippled for life if I don't attend
this seminar.

