

How To Live The New American Dream - triplec1988
http://www.compylr.com/post/how-to-live-the-new-american-dream

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jzwinck
Is this some sort of ad for Codecademy? It seems like it, and not a very good
one at that.

The sidebar says "Codecademy can teach you the skills you need to get a solid,
well-paying technical job."

The article says "And after 800 hours of hard work, Liz has just been hired
full-time as an Administrative Coordinator at the University of Washington,
where the skills she honed in Codecademy will be central to her success."

What?

Nothing against dear Liz, but an Administrative Coordinator position probably
has very little programming involved. Guessing by the title, it sure doesn't
sound like her 800 hours of hard work landed her a "well-paying technical
job." It sounds like she's a middle-aged office clerk with a pockmarked
resume.

Oh, and Liz: please stop applying to companies who have rejected you "hundreds
of times before." You're wasting their time and yours.

~~~
ericgibbons1
So I actually don't work for Codecademy, and Liz's job allows her to support
her husband and son. She's not an office clerk, and her job does in fact
mostly rest on her technical ability with Java and PHP. They hired her because
she was the most skilled person. So ... yeah.

~~~
jiggy2011
You don't work for Codecademy , you were just found the parent comment so
compelling you had to sign up a HN account just to reply to it?

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ericgibbons1
@jiggy2011 I wrote the piece because I legitimately find Codecademy admirable.
I've never met the founders, I don't know them in any way. It's just a service
that helps people for free that I find to be fantastic. Not sure what's so
hard to believe about that.

~~~
jiggy2011
I'm guessing you haven't met the founders of Venmo , Timbre or any of the
other companies you have written gushing articles about either.

~~~
ericgibbons1
That's correct, though at NY Tech Day I did run into the Venmo people, and
they seemed to have liked the press. Have you actually used Venmo? It's
fantastic. There's a reason Braintree bought them, I use that app daily.

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fmstephe
Is this really the new American Dream?

"work as hard as you possibly can, and you will be able to raise a family"

That is an enormous come down.

~~~
michaelochurch
The American Dream is _freedom_. The concept goes back to the 1770s and
originally had nothing to do with cars or houses in the suburbs. Freedom from
old relationships and inherited ruling classes and entrenched, market-
capturing oligarchies.

Corporate employment is _not_ the American Dream. It's a sign that the "Dream"
is over.

~~~
fmstephe
I like your version of the American dream. :)

~~~
michaelochurch
It's not mine, but the guys I stole it from for this post died 200 years ago
and weren't major fans of long-lived copyright.

The good news is that 95% of historical progress comes from the most talented
people (the "cognitive 1%", that Jefferson called the "natural aristocrats")
overthrowing the entrenched elite. This time around, that's us. We are the
ones who'll come up with what replaces VC-istan.

VC-istan isn't _that_ terrible. Neither was George III. (No, I'm not
suggesting we use violence as was done in 1775-83. Electoral systems and
markets are designed to allow nonviolent overthrow. I'm suggesting we
outperform them on the market regarding the use of talent.)

The bad news is that when the rising elite wins, they have an onerous tendency
to become hypocritical (see: American slavery from 1776-1865, company towns
and Pinkertons from 1866-1939, the failure of Fordist paternalism beginning in
the late '70s, and the failure of VC-istan to provide something better than
regular old Corporate America circa now). We need to agree not to do that.
Historical cycles run faster now and if whatever we build sucks as much as
what we replace, then we'll see it torn down within our lifetimes.

It's also not the "American Dream" anymore because whatever we are is trans-
national.

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up_and_up
> Lost amidst the non-stop chatter of tech rockstars and billionaire
> twentysomethings is the fact that not all technical jobs require in-depth
> knowledge of complex algorithms, machine learning, and whatever new
> programming language that’s currently trending on Hacker News. A lot of them
> simply require hard work, patience, an easy facility with certain core
> languages, and close attention to detail.

This is a great point. Most companies dont use bleeding edge tech nor need
complicated algos. Instead they use run of the mill technologies and need
solid, dependable workers that deliver value and will stick around for more
than 6-12. months.

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triplec1988
Clarification: This is not an ad for Codecademy. Compylr has no affiliation
with Codecademy, or any of the other companies we review or write about.
Compylr is completely independent. The site is maintained by an independent
collection of people who happen to work in technology, and the content is
contributed by those same people.

If you're upset about a positive story because you simply don't like the
company yourself, that seems like a personal problem. Not everything is a
conspiracy.

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noir_lord
I love stuff like codeacademy.

It gives people with even the remotest inkling of an interest in programming
the opportunity to explore that interest in a hassle-free environment (much
like those of who grew up in the 80's had with Speccies and C64's) and instant
positive feedback is a great thing.

If however you think completing codeacademy courses makes you fit to program
for a living you are dangerously (and expensively) insane.

Knowledge of a particular programming language in-depth is a tiny part of what
makes you a competent programmer.

In fact once you have learnt one or two languages you can learn another pretty
quickly (though mastery of the idioms can take a while).

However to me a "coder" and a programmer (software engineer/developer) are
completely different beasts.

Personally I'm waiting for surgeonacademy always fancied having a go at a
transplant and they do seem to spend a lot of time on the golf course!.

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kailuowang
I do feel the fact that human society relies more and more on software and
digital assets could make the labor market a fairer one.

First, anyone can learn almost all the skills he need from online (especially
with the free online open course programes provided by reputable
universities). Then she can prove her capability by writing a small software
and showing it to potential employers.

So if you like being a software developer, there is very little excuse not
being a successful one. You can say that living the American dream is almost
guaranteed.

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viame
She should create an ebook - 55 year old makes $899.00 per day as a programmer
- make monies online in 1 month. Would probably sell as well!

~~~
noir_lord
The secrets that matter, Programmers hate her! Buy Now.

~~~
jiggy2011
1) Pay SEO marketers to make shill blog posts. 2) Outsource all of the work to
india. 3) Profit.

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bluedino
What's the fallout going to be like in the next 5 years, maintaining
applications and code written by 90-day bootcamp programmers?

~~~
jordan0day
Much the same as it's been for the last 20-odd years I'd guess, since the
advent of RAD tools.

Anyway, although it's pretty cliche, everyone's a beginner at some point. What
you did before you got your first "real" programming job tends to matter a lot
less than what you do subsequently.

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jiggy2011
So, this is what the programming equivalent of "Mom in X learns $5 trick to
remove wrinkles"?

