Hacker News Reader

Comment by arielcamus | Hacker News Reader

Microverse.

We are launching a tuition-free and remote software engineering program based on ccollaborative and project-based learning.

Our mission is to train 1 million software engineers by 2030.

Not everyone can afford to spend thousands of dollars or was born in the right place to get access to a college degree.

On the other hand, most people don't have the superhuman willpower to learn alone from home watching videos online for 8 hours a day during a year.

We use Collaborative Learning (e.g. Pair programming between students) to create a learning experience that is as supportive (e.g. Mutual accountability) as a traditional learning experience (e.g. College or bootcamp) and as scalable and affordable as online learning platforms (e.g. Coursera, Udacity).

View on HN

great. Let's turn programming into a blue collar job. Increase supply so that we all get paid 7$ per hour.

That's short-sighted. Eventually, things that are highly skilled become less so, and eventually integrated into the baseline running of society. At some point in history, the fact that you can read and write would be a big fucking deal, but it isn't today. At some point in the future, making the machines do things will be in everyone's skillset to some degree. This just seems like a step in that direction.

To use an example, this sort of thing has about as much impact to data engineering as someone coming to the table with Excel skills does - they both generate some lines of code to work with data, but we're not working on the same level of issues. Doesn't mean I don't want to raise the floor, though, that has value to the whole organization.

EDIT: To be clear, I'd never heard of Microverse until 10 minutes ago. I have nothing to do with them, but I think it's a cool idea.

Well, to the extent that a programme such as this will increase supply, you could argue that it's currently kept artificially low because of the costs of education in some countries.

I don't think that is quite the situation we are in though. Computer programming is an unusually easy industry to enter. I didn't study computer science, only started working as a developer much later and my experience is that potential employers and definitely clients if you're freelancing care very little about _how_ you learned it, they just want to know _what_ you can do. A portfolio is much more important than a diploma.

This is why i really take issue with this statement: "On the other hand, most people don't have the superhuman willpower to learn alone from home watching videos online for 8 hours a day during a year."

If learning programming entails you watching videos 8 hours a day for a year, I submit you are have chosen the wrong profession. You will be competing for jobs with people who love coding, people that it would require a "superhuman" effort to _keep_ from programming.

Anyone with a real interest and access to a computer with internet, can _easily_ learn to program. Not so much by watching videos full-time, but by a combination of actually programming, reading tutorials and yes, watching some videos.

Then there are people who are not passionate about programming, people who are not naturals but just want a decent job. I suspect this programme is aimed at them. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that of course, but it's unlikely that they will be competing for the $200k jobs in Valley startups.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com