

Codecademy (YC S11) Raises $2.5 Million To Teach You How To Code - nickfrost
http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/27/codecademy-raises-2-5-million-to-teach-you-how-to-code/

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2arrs2ells
Have others gone through their second JS course? I thought the first course
was great (albeit a bit rigid) - but the second course was really terrible.
Most of the "interactivity" was just hitting enter, and reading another blurb
about JavaScript.

Codecademy will live or die on the quality of its courses, and it gives me
pause to see them publish an iffy course so early on. I hope they raise the
editorial bar as they release the additional courses they've teased.

~~~
HaloZero
Well I hope they will take this feedback and take that into account. They are
new and going to make mistakes.

Hopefully they're testing out different types of lessons on different people
and gauging proper metrics.

~~~
zds
We'll definitely take the feedback into account - we're perfecting analytics
that should tell us the same thing. Feel free to email us more feedback!

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alexhaefner
This is really a fantastic idea. Although there was an article on HN recently
about not dropping out, I have to say I feel that computer science is a field
that requires no formal education to be successful (economically, and
intellectually) in.

Also I find something detrimental about college to the individual, and I'm
thinking in a individualistic sense.

Anyways, I'd love to see sites like this pop up, and micro grant programs
around them to help encourage individuals to build something great.

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llz
I think you mean computer programming here, which I completely agree with.
Computer science is an entirely different beast.

It's one thing to learn how to lay bricks, but another to learn how to
architect a skyscraper.

~~~
pavlov
Architects can also focus on design, which reduces the need for a rigorous
engineering training. An architect doesn't have to be a construction engineer.

For example, Tadao Ando started as a truck driver and became one of the
world's most celebrated architects with no formal training:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadao_Ando>

The software world is missing a job title that would approximate the role of a
design-oriented architect. There are plenty of software architects, but this
is usually a misleading title because they design infrastructure rather than
public-facing spaces. The software architect is more like a "software
municipal engineer".

~~~
illumen
It's called Information Architect.

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j2labs
America has been discussing the lack of females that code for some time, but
I've never seen women show more interest in programming than when they
discover this site.

They're really onto something and I wish them success!

~~~
zds
thanks!

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vaneck
With the risk of sounding naive or out of place - am I the only one surprised
at this idea raising $2.5m? Not that the site isn't cool and well done, but I
can't figure out how developing and hosting a site like this, say for the next
five years, may cost something in that range.

What would they possibly need that kind of money for?

~~~
Hitchhiker
Check out how much Khan Academy raised :

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Academy#History>

Education is the next big thing. Recent public classes in databases, machine
learning and AI from Stanford is proof enough that even the most traditional
learning ops are looking at the Khan meme very seriously.

If anything , these guys have raised frugally and probably will be a big hit
in approximately 24 months from now.

~~~
sdz
The difference, though, is that the money that Khan Academy has raised is
donations. They're not investors who are seeking a (financial) return on their
capital. Education is a tough space for startups trying to make money:
[http://avichal.wordpress.com/2011/10/07/why-education-
startu...](http://avichal.wordpress.com/2011/10/07/why-education-startups-do-
not-succeed/)

~~~
Hitchhiker
Salman had options to go either way, he chose it to be structured differently
due to philosophical reasons. There are other folks who are doing pretty well:

[http://www.vccircle.com/500/news/niit-sells-element-k-
corp-t...](http://www.vccircle.com/500/news/niit-sells-element-k-corp-to-
irelands-skillsoft-for-110m)

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rsobers
I like it, but this space is getting crowded. I wonder how these sites will
start to differentiate themselves?

codecademy.com, codeschool.com, teamtreehouse.com, lynda.com, et. al.

~~~
petercooper
I thought that initially, but long term it looks better. After all, there are
lots of different _book publishers_ in the programming/tech space alone and
they're all doing OK. With their potential to reach even larger numbers of
people further down the skills ladder, these interactive tuition sites are
still at the leading edge of a potential explosion of providers (solely IMHO,
of course).

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joshu
I participate in the round. Congrats guys!

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rglullis
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I have to say that I _still_
can't use the site due to how they handle keyboard events. It breaks with my
normal keyboard layout: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3120338>

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tikhonj
It's great to see them teach JavaScript. It's a really nice language and lets
people do shiny things immediately.

JavaScript doesn't have the barriers to entry that other languages do: it is
dynamically typed, already installed and fairly transparently tied into both a
UI framework and distribution channel.

I also rather like the interactive approach they take. I learned programming
by reading random tutorials and using Notepad, but I think I would have
learned faster with something like this.

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stupandaus
Really cool. Hope they add some stuff for other languages soon!

~~~
zds
soon enough!

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samchan
This is very exciting for me. I have a communications background, and zero
coding experience. (I've tinkered with Wordpress, HTML, and CSS, but nothing
anymore hardcore than that). I've started using code academy and it seems
great thus far. However, as a non-coder, they do seem to run through a lot of
stuff quite quickly - am I supposed to remember everything I learn after I run
the code and steps just once?

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fourmii
Just playing with it just now. Very cool site, the sign-up is super easy and
quick. And you just dive straight into the programming. This more hands-on
approach I find better for learning than just watching online videos. Congrats
to them for the round!

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MonicaMuranyi
I tried "2/0" operation in the console. If this is for programmers, I think
the result should be "divide by zero", not "infinity". But I think the idea of
the startup is good and the UI is catchy.

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simonista
Congrats to the team! I've run through the exercises they've posted and I
think they're really on to a cool learning format here. I'm excited to see
where they go from here.

~~~
zds
thanks! we're excited to show you (soon).

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nickfrost
Thanks for all the comments and votes folks! I agree that Codecademy has a
ways to go until they are a really effective way to learn coding, but it's a
start. :)

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100k
This is a great idea, and the site is fun to try. Congrats, and good luck!

