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Comment by jamestimmins | Hacker News Reader

Whatever problems Udacity may have as a business, I will always be thankful bc they're responsible for me getting into software development as a career. CS 253, Intro to Web Development by Steve Huffman of Reddit, was an incredible introduction into full stack development.

Udacity has always taken bold bets about the future of education, and I sincerely hope that they survive and thrive, simply because of their willingness to push the envelope.

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I completely agree. Udacity was the one that helped me move into my career in data analytics. I took Thrun's excellent Intro to Stats[1] class to brush up my Stats skills along with some other courses such as Intro to Descriptive Stats[2] and Intro to Inferential Stats[3].

[1] https://www.udacity.com/course/intro-to-statistics--st101

[2] https://www.udacity.com/course/intro-to-descriptive-statisti...

[3] https://www.udacity.com/course/intro-to-inferential-statisti...

I can also say that while that particular course was not formative for me (I took and enjoyed it, but it wasn't what got me into programming), I also can attribute at least the start of my career to Udacity. The CS101 course Udacity offered in Python many years ago was what really gave me the confidence to enter the dev scene and to start thinking about things as a real software engineer instead of hacking things together as I always had in the past.

The old CS101 was the first course I took online. It was a very enjoyable one as you said.

Same goes for me. It was an invaluable course for me.

This is the course that set me on the path to my new career from a failed legal career. I can't be thankful enough.

Since we're discussing particular courses. ..

Can anyone recommend a good online course for learning about lambda calculus and type theory?

I have some language design ideas, but I suspect I'm at risk of various type system blunders until I understand those basics better.

Edit: I really need it to be an online course, not just a text book. I find self-study to be particularly difficult for this topic.

Same here. I took the CS101 course then went into CS 253 and it's what pushed me towards a career as a web dev. 5 years in and I'd say it's worked out.

I'll be forever grateful to Udacity for that but I'm sure it's difficult for them to meet their business goals. I have friends ask me how I got into web dev and I've tried to point them to Udacity but with all of their focus on Nanodegrees people think that's all they offer and balk at the high price point. Now I usually say to look for a Udemy course on sale for $10 or a course from Wes Bos. Which is a shame because I find the instruction and format of Udacity to be high quality.

I also subscribe. Having a non-technical background, CS101 and CS253 were essential for the start of my career in web development. And even though at the time (2014) I went with PHP to get my first dev job, I soon returned to Python because of that strong foundation.

Echoing this. Took their intro to CS with Sebastian Thrunn around my senior year of high school, and it made me decide to get a degree in CS. 6 years later, i work as a dev, so I definitely feel like i owe some of it to taking that course

Yes! I just finished their python one (first real intro to coding for me), then moved to this. This got me going too. Not sure if I had even finished it before I started working a web app which on my current full time job.

That course, practically, got me my first job!

That course was amazing! It also started my career and led to my first job.

That's the only Udacity course that I've ever completed...

This was my start as well. Thanks Steve!

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