- the videos are not lectures; they're short, scripted segments. While the production is polished, I found the format irritating. I much prefer actual recorded lectures like the many wonderful (and free) ones available from MIT
- the programming assignments were not challenging. I didn't really feel like I gained anything from them.
You know all of those videos are optional? You can just skip the intermediary assignments if they are too easy, and go right to the final project in each section, which is the only part that is graded anyways. Also, the last project is a portfolio piece of your own design, so you can make it as hard as you want as long as it meets certain criteria.
Were you able to switch jobs/careers at all eventually?
I was in the first cohort of the front-end nanodegree, and I also took the full-stack shortly after. I'm pretty shocked by this statement. For me, the vast majority of learning happened by implementing the topics that were discussed in the short videos. Given that the videos are very brief summaries of the topics you're meant to implement in the projects, It's pretty odd you gained nothing from doing them. Did you know the material before starting the nanodegree? If so, I'd argue the fault is on you for choosing a curriculum meant for beginners whilst being intermediate or above. Otherwise you're a very rare person for being able to learn more from watching videos and reading articles than by actually practicing what is taught.
That said, the fault is not his. Shitty udacity never ever mentions they are for beginners. They sell it as "career changing". So blame is on them.
A large portion of learning material (feels like >95%) caters to beginner or junior level people. Very rarely do you find books or tutorials or material meant for those beyond the junior level.
Even the "advanced" or "intermediate" videos on places like Pluralsight, Lynda, etc feel like it's barely a step above beginner. I don't have much experience with Udacity but I'm guessing it's the same?
It seems, IME, like the only way to learn the intimate/advanced knowledge is to talk to core developers or others who have a similar problem domain.
It feels like for every C# in Depth or YDKJS there's 100s of other resources strictly for the beginner. It's just hard to sift through 100s or 1000s of resources before you find something worthwhile.
after that, you have better honed long tail search queries for online.
One simply has to muster up the motivation and effort to seek them out.
Honestly the best way to improve, IMO, is to just start participating and contributing.
"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand."
-- Confucius
It felt like a connect the dots drawing - giving an ipython notebook with pieces of code missing.