How to learn to program without going on a £1,000 training course
swombat.com
swombat.com
I make a living doing consulting on user acquisition and funnel optimization for other companies, and I feel like I run into the same sorts of objections when selling work.
Clients that have any sort of tech staff often want to do several sit downs to try to get free directional consulting, then try to implement in house.
Learning to program is another similar path. Sure many people CAN program without a $X000 course (1000 pounds sounds really low, esp here in Chicago with dev bootcamp and starter league).
It's not that they CAN'T do it themselves, it's that they WON'T.
Code schools are like personal trainers. Everyone who pays for a personal trainer knows they can get stronger lifting heavy objects and they can get thinner by eating less cookies, but after years of thinking "I could do that", they capitulate. Having:
- an expert resource available on hand
- someone else invested in your success
It's not that it has to be expensive, it's that sometimes that's the activation energy to go down the path that actually leads where you want to go, rather than the fantasy world that you could achieve.
If you need someone else to make you learn to program - then you will never learn to program. Conversely, if you really want to learn program, you don't really need anyone else.
I don't think learning to program and funnel optimisation are similar. Funnel optimisation is a highly specialised toolkit to be used in certain very specific, narrow circumstances. You might arguably learn to make use of this skillset in a timespan measured in days. Programming is an extremely broad skill set that changes the way you look at the world and takes a decade to learn to be competent at.
personal trainers don't make you stronger/skinnier, either -- they're just cheerleaders and a convenient source of immediate feedback which accelerates the task.
arguably, sitting in classes in college was really just reinforcement for self learning as well.
reminds me of the scene in good will hunting: "you dropped 150 grand on an education you coulda got for a $1.50 in late charges at the public library" -- kind of true, but a lot of us need the handholding. (or maybe just me, but i definitely didn't have the focus to learn much without undergrad to help me).