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Comment by throwsincenotpc | Hacker News Reader

I don't get it, people paid $100k to this guy to get courses through slack and online videos ? The article says 19 students, who paid $5k each for that ? are you kidding me ?

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Yeah, this was a crazy story, but the fact that people were paying what amounts to college tuition for learning-via-Slack-from-a-guy was the biggest shock to me. And I am a fan of bootcamps and think that there are bootcamps where you will get far more out of your $10,000 than you would for a year in college.

But those bootcamps are physical places, with hands on instruction from a variety of instructors. I don't keep track of the bootcamp scene but I imagined it to be saturated by now with a bit of the race to the bottom, in terms of quality and pricing. A teacher-via-Slack isn't shocking, the prices he commanded are. But maybe such an arrangement is the only resort for folks who don't live in big cities like New York, or growing hubs like Omaha?

It's clear evidence of market demand. Even in 2016, it's likely a good bet to start a bootcamp, especially outside of the US.

I want to know how he marketed that. I got plenty of shit I still remember that I could teach them for $5k. I'll give them a whole, damned CompSci education for $100k per set of students never leaving my house.

I did an online course for about that much a few years ago. It was worth it, a nice compromise between self study and full priced bootcamp.

Sure but this obviously was a scam as the guy lied on his credentials, pretending he worked for Microsoft, Apple and co . I wouldn't pay that much money unless the courses are issued by a well known institution or give me access to college credits anyway.

People pay as much, or more, to go to a room a few times a week and have someone lecture them, then assign work which will be evaluated and eventually produce a piece of paper. Some don't even have physical rooms much anymore, and just charge to watch videos!

We call it "college", and it can also be risky (especially some of the shadier ones).

Crazy considering that Launch School (formerly Tealeaf) has an online program for $199 a month (working at it full time you should complete in about 4 months)

(we have a junior dev using it)

They used to charge apprx 2.5k for the whole program.

Either way, a massive bargain, compared to what's out there

I know this all-too-well. :-) We actually bought the first section ($499 if I recall) and then they made the pricing switch - while that content is still available, in terms of completing the program, we had to switch to the monthly billing.

How did you read the article? You signed up on the website?

http://archive.is/SojlJ

thanks!

I'm guessing many of them paid the $5k fee for the promise of a $55k job at the end of the course.

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