
The Truth About Hack Schools - luu
http://www.fastcompany.com/3023456/become-an-ios-developer-in-8-weeks-the-truth-about-hack-schools
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gregjor
I'm all for anyone who wants to learn programming to get that opportunity, and
I support non-traditional education as long as it's not a scam. But these hack
schools and boot camps just can't be graduating significant numbers of
developers ready to do real work, unless I'm missing something.

I learned how to program in the mid-1970s. I was in high school so I had no
bills, no kids, and lots of spare time. My grandparents bought a terminal and
dial-up modem for me so I had access to timesharing systems from my room. I
had two mentors available who both worked as programmers. I read every book I
could find, read and wrote code every day for three years, learned every
language I could find a compiler or interpreter for. When I eventually got a
job as a programmer I was a junior making decent but not great money. I still
had a lot to learn at that time.

Programming was much simpler back then. The languages and tools were an order
of magnitude (at least) less complicated than today. Getting a terminal and
text-based application to work is a lot easier than developing a web
application or mobile app today. I've been able to gradually add skills over
the years as new technology comes out; I can't imagine how long it would take
to get productive with software development today.

Maybe the bootcampers and hackers are a lot smarter than I was, but I doubt
they are that much smarter, or more motivated, or have more free time and
energy. I can't see how anyone who doesn't already have years of programming
experience is going to spend a few weeks or months in even intense courses and
come out ready to develop something more serious than a Rails tutorial-level
to-do list app.

If anyone has personal experience with these hack schools and boot camps and
can explain how they can cram so much information and experience into such a
short time I'm interested in how that works.

