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. :)

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 how to learn technical skills.

What to expect from me:

  - 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

Here are things I can help you with.

  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

Sign up here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dEJVOGRCQ2tvY1FmUUVBRFUwQWxpcWc6MQ

[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 → jpadvo]

Thanks for you offer, jpadvo. Much appreciated!

[tst]

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

[jpadvo → tst]

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

[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. :)

[htp]

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

[jpadvo → htp]

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. :)

[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...

[jpadvo → ambertch]

Thanks. ;)

[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?

[jpadvo → roversoccer18]

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 → jpadvo]

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

[matdwyer]

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

[jpadvo → matdwyer]

No. :)

[atgm]

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

[super9]

Why are you doing this?

[jpadvo → super9]

"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.

[super9 → jpadvo]

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

[jpadvo → super9]

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. ;)

[alienreborn]

Thank you for doing this!