

ShowHN: I learned to code and got a job in less than a year. Here is my ebook. - natasham25
https://gumroad.com/l/learntocodebook

======
Irregardless
> @devbootcamp graduate

Thought this was going to be about someone who was self-taught in under a year
until I saw that part.

Dev Bootcamp is an amazing program and pretty much guarantees you a job if you
make it through (at least from what I've heard). But it's only in San
Francisco, and they take what, 20 people every few weeks? Not exactly a path
that everyone can follow...

Edit: Just realized this was posted by the author, so here's my concern:
Considering the fact that you went through a fairly intense 9-week program
taught by several experts, how can we be confident your book is useful to
beginners who lack that option? The excerpt on your page seems more like a
promo for programming/entrepreneurship -- it doesn't tell much about the book
or add to your credibility as someone who could teach people to program.

~~~
natasham25
I've been learning to code on my own for 6-7 months before applying for Dev
Bootcamp, and I've tried pretty much every resource. At a certain point,
although I've made some serious progress, I hit a wall. I could build things
and make them work, but I wanted to follow the best practices and know good
from bad code. Dev Bootcamp really filled the gaps in the my knowledge.

That said, Dev Bootcamp is not a necessary condition for learning to code. If
you have a specific learning style, especially if you're good at reading
books, you can learn on your own, although it might take longer. If you do
well with networking, personal branding, build a few projects, and contribute
to the open source community, you can get the same result.

I cover all these options in my book, including Hacker Schools all around the
world and a lot of online class and resources that are completely free.

------
desigooner
Congrats on your journey from learning to code through to landing a job and
congratulations on the book.

That being said, you might want to at least provide a sample of your writing
from the book for people to look at.

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totalrobe
Has anyone read it? Any unique approaches here or just the usual recipe -
focus and time?

~~~
natasham25
Yes, it can be boiled down to the usual recipe - focus and time. The other
component, that I think is really important for learning how to code and is
often overlooked, is knowing your learning style and finding the resources
that match it - that is how you learn the fastest.

~~~
wiseone
Great call, I forgot to include that. After what seemed like an infinite
number of lost battles with teachers yelling at me for drawing in class and
forcing me to take notes in list form, I finally accepted and truly saw that I
wasn't stupid just because my learning style differed from most (I learn best
by drawing what I hear or read). It took me maybe 10 years to realize this.

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ciferkey
In a very humorous series of events, while checking my RSS feeds I read
[this](<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4843795>) immediately before
seeing this title.

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Major_Grooves
At least the Table of Contents would be useful. Maybe the 1st Chapter or
something?

~~~
natasham25
Great idea! This is my first ebook, so I'm still learning :)

------
shayonj
did you start learning it by yourself (i.e, watching videos or reading books)
or did you attend devbootcamp first?

~~~
natasham25
I've been learning on my own for about 6 or 7 months before I joined Dev
Bootcamp. I wouldn't recommend doing it if you haven't tried learning
yourself.

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finkin1
Seems like a much better investment than college, imo. Unless your passion
drives you elsewhere.

~~~
dkokelley
I don't quite agree, although I won't completely disagree yet either. Learning
a valuable skill like programming will make you employable and may even have a
better ROI than college[1], but going through a "developer crash course"-style
program is akin to a trade school or apprenticeship. You might say that going
to a trade school to learn to weld is a better investment than college, using
the same metric.

College should not be considered a place where you go to get a better job. It
used to be that way, but some major problems like grade inflation and the
simple fact that a greater percentage of the just-graduated-highschool
population is going in to college means that a degree doesn't distinguish you
as much as it used to. But there are still major benefits, including lifelong
friendships, intellectual stimulation, and learning tertiary skills that are
required to be a "well-rounded" person".

[1] Back-of-envelope calculation: $100,000 tuition for an average $1,000,000
increased lifetime earning means that college ROI is about 10x not counting
the time-value of money. $10,000 dev school plus personal investment for
(let's say) a $40k/yr salary increase over a 25 year career is also
$1,000,000, for an ROI of 100x.

