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http://www.wired.com/2014/11/reskillusa/

"Coding education has taken off in recent years, driven by reports that the demand for quality programmers in America is drastically outpacing the supply. So everyone from the White House to Google has jumped on the coding bandwagon"

Funny, when demand outpaces supply, aren't prices supposed to rise?

anonuser910on Learn the Command Line

Also, as I stated in my post, I don't think CodeCademy actually works that well at all, so your suggestion that I'm envious of new people because they have access to CC when starting out while I didn't is groundless. I tried one of their courses two years ago and found it extremely shallow. If someone asked me today how to learn JavaScript, I would probably direct them to Mozilla's tutorial or to the Rhino book and wouldn't even mention CC.

The glut of free programming books and tutorials on the internet along with open source operating systems and development tools and the Stack Overflow and other Stack Exchange websites have collectively done much more programming and CS education than CC has done and likely ever will do.

anonuser910on Learn the Command Line

Programming has always been accessible to new people. The only way it couldn't be is if programmers had organized themselves into some sort of union and then sought and received for it a legal monopoly on their profession as enjoyed by the American Dental Association.

And yes, I am afraid of CodeCademy, bootcamps, H-1Bs visas, and any other scheme blessed by industry, the media, and government that seems tailor-made for reducing my wages and my prestige. Remember that it wasn't long ago that a massive wage suppression cartel in SV was exposed, and its architects were punished with mere wrist-slaps. Quite frankly, you're foolish if you're not afraid.

Further, who are these "new people" you speak of anyway? Most of the "old people" I've met in this industry are there because they love programming, with the high salary being something of a perk. That's why so many of them contribute to open source projects on the side. This new breed of bootcamp and CodeCademy graduates are thoroughly mercenary in character. One of CodeCademy's own success stories is from a lawyer who got into "coding" because the job market for lawyers was so poor - why should I contribute to my own marginalization by supporting people like him?

anonuser910on Learn the Command Line

Not a fan of CodeCademy. Other than the obvious (look who's backing them) though unacknowledged objective of flooding the market with low-quality devs to suppress wages, I've seen too many complaints from users to the effect of "I completed all of the exercises, but I feel like I haven't really learned anything."

Too much hand-holding. A good book, a comprehensive tutorial, or even just reading the documentation still probably works best.

In fact, this training wheels-tutorial system, regardless of its effectiveness, fits perfectly with their goal of devaluing software engineers (whom they deign only to describe as coders); after all, if "Coding is sooo Easy!!!" it shouldn't require one to read dozens of thick books, right? Just playing a sort of game and "leveling up" every now and then should suffice. Then you too will be a coder - and Zuck will be richer.

anonuser910on Learn the Command Line

The tutorial I linked to is of very high quality. Who, based on the information content of my post or the obviously disposable nature of my account, would waste downvotes on it?

anonuser910on Learn the Command Line

Or, learn the Bourne shell (which is on every UNIX) with this: http://www.grymoire.com/Unix/Sh.html

Even better, it doesn't require registration and passing a CAPTCHA Turing test.