

Offer HN: I'll help you become a hacker - jpadvo

I want to help people make things, and I want to become a better hacker, teacher, and writer. Teaching people to become hackers over email kills all three birds with one stone. :)<p>So if you are a non-technical HNewser who wants to start hacking, I want to help you. The idea is that we'll figure out what you want to learn, then three times a week we'll correspond via email. And over time, you'll learn technical skills -- and more importantly, I'll help you learn <i>how to learn technical skills.</i><p>What to expect from me:<p><pre><code>  - Help choosing learning materials
  - Answers to your questions.
  - Help coming up with projects (homework!)
  - Comments on the work you do
  - Commitment for 30 days, then we'll reevaluate
</code></pre>
Here are things I can help you with.<p><pre><code>  Server side:
  - PHP
  - Ruby on Rails,
  - MySQL,
  - Apache administration

  Client side:
  - HTML
  - CSS
  - JavaScript ( jQuery optional )
  - Design
  - Usability

  Basics:
  - Setting up your computer ( Linux / Mac / Windows ) for development
  - Git version control
  - Unit testing
</code></pre>
Sign up here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dEJVOGRCQ2tvY1FmUUVBRFUwQWxpcWc6MQ
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jpadvo
Disclaimer: I'm not an expert in these areas, I'm just a regular hacker. You
won't become a Rails ninja-rockstar-guru under my tutelage, for example. What
you'll hopefully become is a confident beginner who has knows how to learn.
Like the old saying:

"Teach a person to hack and they'll hack. Teach a person to learn to hack and
they'll gradually become a ninja-rockstar-guru over the rest of their life."

~~~
Athtar
Thanks for you offer, jpadvo. Much appreciated!

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tst
Maybe you also want to go on <http://hackerbuddy.com>. It's a site where
hackers can help other (future) hackers

~~~
jpadvo
That's a great idea. You should <http://news.ycombinator.com/submit> it!

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rrhoover
Wow, very virtuous of you. I've always wanted to have a better technical
experience and perspective which would be complimentary to my Product
Management role. The challenge is finding the time - I'm currently in an early
stage startup atm. :)

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htp
If you were looking for help with all of this, what would you be looking for?

~~~
jpadvo
I'd be looking for another hacker to help teach/mentor some of the people who
are interested. If you want to help, let me know here or you can shoot me an
email. My gmail account has the same username as my HN account. :)

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ambertch
Bravo! I'd help you out with this but don't have the bandwidth at the moment,
so the least i can do is I upvote all your comments to contribute hehe...

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jpadvo
Thanks. ;)

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roversoccer18
Are you looking for potential business partners/programmers based on who
excels in the 30 days, or you just really want to teach that badly?

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jpadvo
Haha, I like how you put that. Yes, I just really want to teach that badly. ;)

It's possible that friendships and collaborations could come out of this, but
I'm already working on bootstrapping a startup, and we aren't looking to
expand our team. And probably won't have money to hire people for quite a long
time.

Although, now that you mention it, I'm going to file this away as an idea for
how to find good people in the future. Thanks!

~~~
roversoccer18
Sounds like at great idea, I already signed up. Thanks can't wait to start.

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matdwyer
This certainly sounds interesting, but is it something that will turn into
"pay me $xxx/hour" after the first month?

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jpadvo
No. :)

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atgm
I've applied, and regardless of whether or not I'm accepted, this is an
outstanding offer. Kudos!

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naithemilkman
Why are you doing this?

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jpadvo
"I want to help people make things, and I want to become a better hacker,
teacher, and writer. Teaching people to become hackers over email kills all
three birds with one stone. :)"

No ulterior motives or schemes, I promise. But now that I think about it, you
can add "wanting to talk shop" to the list.

~~~
naithemilkman
Just checking :) Are you at college or something? How are you finding the time
to commit to this projects?

~~~
jpadvo
I'm bootstrapping a startup, and plan to find time for this by using it as a
break from coding and designing my own stuff. I think if I'm disciplined and
efficient I'll be able to find enough time...I hope. ;)

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alienreborn
Thank you for doing this!

