Programmers- Is this a reasonable idea? (teaching myself Ruby.. online)

Ronnie55

Ronnie55

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Mar 12, 2013
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Question for those who can code..

I'd like to learn Ruby, or at least Ruby/Rails to begin with. I cannot code right now, period. No prior computer science knowledge.

I saw a place like LaunchAcademy charge $12,500 for a RoR course lasting less than 3 months. I'm sure it's an awesome course with great instructors and they help with job placement. But I wouldn't want a 9-5 job right after graduating anyway.

So here's the idea that struck me- I could take $12,500 and basically cover living expenses for a whole year in southeast asia or eastern europe.

I'm guessing (and this is where I wanted opinions) that there's a huge open source Ruby community that I could learn a lot from, and I think in a year of learning on my own, I'd gain equivalent knowledge to the 2-3 month intensive course.

Is this reasonable if I'm intelligent/analytical, and motivated enough to stick with it 5 days/week?

I'm eager to hear any thoughts on this. I'd much rather spend the cash on a year of living in paradise than 2 months of grinding hard in NYC or Boston or something. I'd work hard as fuk. I'm not lazy. I just think it'd be a really neat experience to do it on my own and combine it with a living experience. Could even blog about it, etc.
 


potentialeight said:
I don't know the details of your situation, but I'd assume that saving 9 months could be worth it for that price.
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Good point. Time is valuable.

But I'd view it as a great life experience. Killing 2 birds with one stone. I'd also work on other IM projects during that year, learn a foreign language maybe, etc. It'd be an enjoyable experience overall.

I totally agree that if I want to be able to build a basic website in Ruby as fast as possible, it's easily worth $12500 to get it done ASAP. But I don't care if it takes a bit longer.
 
I think you're fucking nuts. Why would you piss off your savings and move to ***? That will leave you broke and distracted. You can learn ROR right in your moms basement. The best way to learn is to work on a project. Do you even html/CSS bro? ROR is nothing but a glorified website framework.

If you want to go piss off your savings on a vacation go and do it. Just don't kid yourself about the reasons.
 
I'm not a programmer but I'll tell you this - You're out of your mind if you think you'll just snap into focus when being hit by the stimulus of eastern europe and se asia, assuming you've never been.

Like dude. Anyone can tell you feel good shit here but it's not based on reality. When you're out there, as a young guy trying to make the most out of life, you'll want to explore, fuck, try out new things, people will hit you up left and right assuming you're fun. You'll barely manage to squeeze in a few hours, and that's even if try to put up barriers. The experience in itself is AMAZING, but if you think you'll be internalizing and getting serious shit done in that part of the world without plans to permanently settle then forget it.

Bottom line: If you want the skill, go full time laser focus in nyc. If you want new once-in-a-lifetime stimulating experiences while dabbling around, go do the trips.
 
I know a few people who did just that (not Thailand though) with good results. Where you thinking about going? I'd suggest somewhere quiet and "easy" (easy to get shit done) to minimize the noise. I've coached people (don't ask - I'm not in that business) from 0 to full-time freelancing in under six months so definitely doable.

Edit: I also agree with dmnEPC... it really depends on your personality/character/lifestyle.
 
I think it's a great idea, but I also think the others are right, you will spend a lot of time drinking and chasing girls.

There ARE a lot of programmers hanging out in SEA and there are plenty of groups to join.

Depends on your age and dicipline. If you're young, why not go for it. Don't fool yourself that you're going to be able to focus hardcore, since SEA is extremely distracting.

You might also want to scratch some of the 'worst' party place like BKK and Manila off the list. Taiwan and HCM, might be better.

Of course, the guys above saying get yourself together just learn it at home, are probably right and the most successful. Then again, there are different ways to a goal and not every successful person is a highly diciplined, highly organized person from the beginning.

I'll conclude by saying age matters again. If you're early to mid twenties then knock yourself out, plenty of time for a normal fall back career if it fails.
 
Ronnie55 said:
Question for those who can code..

I'd like to learn Ruby, or at least Ruby/Rails to begin with. I cannot code right now, period. No prior computer science knowledge.

I saw a place like LaunchAcademy charge $12,500 for a RoR course lasting less than 3 months. I'm sure it's an awesome course with great instructors and they help with job placement. But I wouldn't want a 9-5 job right after graduating anyway.

So here's the idea that struck me- I could take $12,500 and basically cover living expenses for a whole year in southeast asia or eastern europe.

I'm guessing (and this is where I wanted opinions) that there's a huge open source Ruby community that I could learn a lot from, and I think in a year of learning on my own, I'd gain equivalent knowledge to the 2-3 month intensive course.

Is this reasonable if I'm intelligent/analytical, and motivated enough to stick with it 5 days/week?

I'm eager to hear any thoughts on this. I'd much rather spend the cash on a year of living in paradise than 2 months of grinding hard in NYC or Boston or something. I'd work hard as fuk. I'm not lazy. I just think it'd be a really neat experience to do it on my own and combine it with a living experience. Could even blog about it, etc.
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You don't need to spend any money at all to learn how to code, or to learn how to program with Ruby, or to learn how to use Rails.

Just install a development environment on your computer and start following tutorials, after a while, start making shit and learn as you go.

I learned maybe %20 of what I know from instructors at university, and %80 from trying to make stuff and googling how. I could easily have learned the %20 from google as well, all I really got out of post secondary was an expensive piece of paper that can get me a cushy day job if I need one.

12k for a certificate is really not a good way to go about getting a piece of paper either, take out some loans and do night courses at a cheap college, then finish a CS degree at a university. It will take longer, but you will be able to get a job making slightly less than an engineer afterwards, if a steady job is what you really want. All that 12k will get you is a cubicle monkey ticket, you will be lucky to make 35k a year and you will also be easily and completely replaceable.

%30 of the people working in the field don't have a degree at all anyway. Just make stuff in your spare time, build up a portfolio of cool shit and start applying for jobs if you don't want to go to school.

You don't need to go to fucking asia to do that either.
 
What is your end goal? Is it to run your own business? Is it to freelance occasionally? Is it to work for some web development outfit?

The thing is a 3 month course on Ruby isn't going to really prepare you to work in the web development field. You're basically getting a shotgun introduction to web development, and that alone won't get you very far.

I am largely a product of self study over the course of like 15 years, so I'm not saying self study is bad. However I find in life when you actually have to fork money over for something, I tend to take it more seriously.

In that respect, actually going to the classes will keep things structured and on track and give you clear feedback. You will be forced to learn and you can determine fast if this is for you or not. You will be able to get honest help probably too. However your 3 months really means fuck all in anyones eyes, no one is going to hire you.

On the other side, going solo you can focus on just doing what you want. Which is honestly the best way to learn programming is to just have an idea and try and build it and fail and learn along the way.

I look back and wish I probably took some classes earlier on, but at the same time the internet was not quite as vibrant with answers back then as it is now. With the advent of stackoverflow.com and similar sites you can pretty much find the answer to anything.

So my recommendation is if you are 100% confident you can put in the time solo, do that. Otherwise take the class.
 
Why Ruby?

I'm not a programmer, so this isn't a language X vs language Y thing, I'm just curious if you have a specific reason that you want to start with Ruby since you have zero programming experience.

I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but do you at least know what type of development you want to do? Do you plan to make mobile apps, build websites, write software that runs on embedded systems, something else - or did you just decide you want to learn to code and randomly picked Ruby?
 
Unarmed Gunman said:
Why Ruby?

I'm not a programmer, so this isn't a language X vs language Y thing, I'm just curious if you have a specific reason that you want to start with Ruby since you have zero programming experience.

I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but do you at least know what type of development you want to do? Do you plan to make mobile apps, build websites, write software that runs on embedded systems, something else - or did you just decide you want to learn to code and randomly picked Ruby?
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As a another newb programmer, I decided on Python/Django/Flask because if you Google demand, then Ruby is on top, Python second and PHP distant behind, going by salaries that is. Now it seems like AngularJS would be a better choice, but I like the non web applications for Python and the very easy syntax and data processing libraries.

Ruby does seem to be the language of choice among startups so if you want to join or create such, then it seems reasonable.
 
I can see the appeal of going abroad somewhere "cheap" while you learn, but I don't think it's a good plan if you're serious about starting a new career / business without a steady income stream already established.

1) It may not be as cheap as you imagine.

Southeast Asia / Eastern Europe may be "cheap" in terms of the average cost of living, but how cheap will you traveling there be as a total outsider? Air fare, cabs, eating out, boozing, short term lodging rates, getting ripped off constantly until you figure out the lay of the land, etc. 12k might not hold up as long as you think.

2) Moving to a different country has non-trivial mental and time overhead.

Culture shock, learning a new language, not knowing anyone or how to do anything, figuring out how to do basic things in a foreign country, exploring, etc. These are all great experiences if you allow yourself the time to indulge in them, but you won't have that luxury. That's all going to kill your momentum and drag out how long it takes to become proficient.

3) Living an exciting place with a gazillion distractions and no formal structure tests the work ethic of the best of us.

Are you the best of us? Does it even matter if you are? You're still stacking the odds against yourself.

My advice would be to lock yourself up in Boringville, USA that's dirt cheap but clean and safe until you're earning enough money to live on from dev work. Then you can travel abroad from a position of strength instead of placing all these giant boulders in your path and hoping you make it before you burn your savings and don't have enough money for a plane ticket home.
 
If you want to go into software engineering as a profession, then you would be much better off learning programming theory and fundamentals than any particular language. Things change *very* quickly in the software engineering world. The hot language today might be almost unused next year. Knowing object-oriented principles, efficient data structures, and algorithms will always be useful and applicable to any language. Stanford offers several free courses on these type of things through coursera. That would be my suggestion.
 
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Sign up to codeschool and treehouse. Run through their courses and if you finish then I have heard a lot of good things out of those 3 month intensive. I have a family friend that did one and landed a 110k job shortly after.

Just don't tell them you're not looking for employment because most of those programs also profit off the back end via placement fees.
 
12 months to learn a programming language? If you already know HTML/CSS and logic, you can use CodeAcademy for free to get a working knowledge. pmaddox brings up a key point-- understanding the logic of how to create effective software is more important than the choice of language. There will always be a new super-amazing framework/language that everyone hypes up, but if you don't know what your objective is, then its analogous to a monkey having a brand new shiny typewriter trying to write Shakespeare.
 
Well it's official. Every internet marketer on the planet is moving to Thailand. It sure seems that way because there's at least one thread about it in STS daily.

Is there some sort of commune or hostel down there in Phuket where all the IM'ers migrate to? Are you planning on making the swim over to the secret island with massive marijuana fields and the awesome beach? Just curious.
 
efeezy said:
Well it's official. Every internet marketer on the planet is moving to Thailand. It sure seems that way because there's at least one thread about it in STS daily.

Is there some sort of commune or hostel down there in Phuket where all the IM'ers migrate to? Are you planning on making the swim over to the secret island with massive marijuana fields and the awesome beach? Just curious.
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Jealous of the ladyboys brah?

I also saw NickyCakes once.
 
Not to point out the obvious, but... you have $12,500? You're hoping that is going to cover your flights and cost of living for 12 months, while you explore SE Asia and gain a great life experience?

Dude, you're most likely going to blow through that bank roll in 2 months.
 
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