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Comment by jonhmchan | Hacker News Reader

Creator of Bento (http://www.bentobox.io/) here - I'm really happy to see more sites using free resources around the web to build curriculums. There's a huge wealth of free information out there and I find it strange that so many web development resources charge full-steam ahead with original content.

That being said, I think there's something to exploring those resources on your own. The principal problem I've seen with teaching people to code, especially when confronted with a set track, is that learners start rigorously, taper off, and never finish. I'm curious what The Odin Project's approach to this issue is.

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The biggest problem that early students have is actually getting distracted by too many resources because it's so easy to get sucked down a million educational rabbit holes and never actually make real forward progress. I hear it all the time.

Many of our students start from the beginning and work through the curriculum in order but more tend to cherry pick lessons as needed to fill in the gaps in their knowledge. That's fine too and it's why the whole thing is available at once. The important part about having the path laid out, though, is that it keeps you accountable for your progress -- you know when you're getting off-track because you can see each piece of knowledge in the context of the bigger puzzle. For many, that's what they need to keep them focused.

I think just sticking to one framework is the best way to go - I decided to go rails because it's the lowest common denominator, stupid amount of resources on it and approachability for a beginner.. even then.. it's still pretty damned hard. (for me anyway)

Amazing resource! Thanks for the link and keep doing what you do.

Although, how are these organized? The colors seem to imply some kind of grouping, but besides "the big 3" at the top, the rest seems to be a random order. Maybe group by alphabet, or front end/back end, frameworks, tools, level of skill required, etc. Finding what I was looking for took a little scrolling, no big deal. I appreciate the resource and I will definitely be using it more.

Truly amazing site. Thanks for aggregating some of the greatest free tutorials, for most of the languages and frameworks.

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