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Comment by zedshaw | Hacker News Reader

I'm super confused. This is actually how they created their business. This is not how they expect to teach people, or even how they're currently doing it. Still interesting from a business perspective, but the title is way the hell off from the content.

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I can see how it could be confusing, but for us, finding our business model and learning how to teach were in tandem with one another.

I think the main thing we discovered about teaching was that we weren't going to get anywhere by relying on other people to do the teaching for us, or with a fancy web application. The thing I find most interesting about our story was that it took us four iterations to realize that the best way to teach people was also the simplest -- teach what we know and do it directly. As far our methodology, it's going to be pretty simple: try to teach people, online, as if they were all in the room with us. That means lots of Skype calls, chat room, etc.

Yeah that just sounds like marketroid startup dude speak. If you want to say that your business model and $3000 price tag are weeding out all but the most dedicated students, well then don't claim that's an effective teaching model. It's an effective way to find people who will learn no matter what, and doesn't say anything about how effective what you're doing is or is not.

Teaching people directly and offering personal mentorship is the teaching model. The price is just set at a point that people are willing to pay us. It has the added benefit of keeping the bar for student motivation high. That's not the only way, as Hacker School has shown, where the tuition is free and they instead filter purely on applications.

Not many websites are offering the personal touch online, and I personally think more people should. I think http://railstutors.com/ are an example of two guys doing it right.

Judging by the success of DevBootcamp/Hacker School/Etc. have had, I think it can safely be said mentorship is a pretty effective teaching model. Our job is to make that model work online as well.

Are you aware of any mentorship models in San Diego?

Ok, so I commented in a thread here, and just now saw your username. Thanks for your work. Your "Learn the Hard Way" books are great. And your advice on being a professional programmer vs. being a professional who knows how to program really gave me some new perspective, and, I say this in all seriousness, affected my career path in a good way.

It's weird that you mention that specific point. I was talking to someone about that just the other day during the Bloc course. That bit of advice has really stuck with me since I first read it. +1 on thanks for the resources too Zed, appreciate it.

Congratulations on your success. I applaud anyone who is trying to help educate novices in coding. I've never code in Ruby/Rails, and I have to say I'm tempted by the idea of having talented start up dudes I can skype with. The fact that you make your students blog is pretty interesting. Just a suggestion, based on my experience as a paying (work paid) student at O'Reilly School of Technology (for data warehousing/analysis/etc.): You should have tiered levels of handholding so that you can maximize your revenue. There are some students who might be willing to shell out 500 for your class, just for a weekly chat and a more self-guided experience. Hit multiple price points, and you will more than double your revenue without killing yourself over scaling issues. There are a lot of people who benefit tremendously from structured lessons, to the point where they don't need an instructor.

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