Amazing. What would happen if we replaced every crappy teacher with one like this one? How different would the world be in 5,10,15 years? We need more teachers that are as passionate and devoted as this guy.
I was reading your website and all I thought was, this is the convenience of CloudApp(http://getcloudapp.com/) but for a one time payment that plugs into your dropbox and hence you don't have to pay a subscription.
Anyhow, I agree with having a free version of some sort,e.g. less features. And it would be definitely awesome if this was the equivalent of CyberDuck but for file sharing, in the sense that plugs into dropbox, s3, whatever other file sharing system out there, hosted or self-hosted.
If you offer a free alternative you should highlight that, not hide it in plain sight. Perhaps you should go with `Signup for Free` rather than simply mentioning it on a small font which reduces relevancy. That would be a good AB test for your conversion rate.
I think these two commentators (TillE and hodder) have put into words what I have been grappling for many weeks now. And I give can you a specific example.
I've been trying to learn about GUIs and cloud computing. For GUIs, for weeks now I've been saying I know how to program, but I have no idea how I can make something visual. I used Processing, and that was excellent, but then it turned out that it wasn't what I needed (there was no 'delete', so if I rendered a circle, I couldn't delete it). I also looked into Quartz Composer and I thought it was called ngraphics, but Google isn't showing anything called that. It was a Graphics Library for C++. I even installed a VM and Linux (I had to learn how to install a VM and Linux) to try some open-source software instead of trying to learn about GUIs, but that didn't suit my needs either.
So that's GUIs. The other one is cloud computing. I want, say a website and an app, and I want them to submit a form, then the server would do some calculations with these forms and then send back the calculations. I have nothing to say about this. I have no idea where to start. I don't know what this is called. I don't know what to Google.
But having these two people put into words what I have been grappling with is a huge relief. I think I will take a step back and re-evaluate my situation.
Definitely. Meta-learning is something that's tough. Recently I enrolled into CodeSchool.com and there are lots of interesting sounding tutorials. I code in Python and want to be more proficient in web development, the problem I face is, okay, where should I start?
Another example is, if I learned programming in python, what do I do to get to the next level?
Awesome feedback! And I understand, my background is on computer engineering and even sometimes when starting to learn about something completely new that I had not done before (e.g. web-services/mobile), despite my previous knowledge or background, it can be frustrating. So, how could we fix this?
What was your process to figure it out? What did you search for? Where did you search it? Did you ask someone?
I have been thinking about this problem for a while, but I'm still not really sure how to solve it. I somewhat like the idea of a site with broad topics which narrow down into steps and tutorials, or links to tutorials. I'm not sure if this would really work.
I think I just read, googled, youtubed, and forumed my way out of the box. Surely this can't be the best way.
1) Why is discoverability awful? How would you change/improve it?
2) So a tool/place that takes into consideration what you already know and gives you suggestions on what your next steps should be would help you on your learning process?
1) Try it and see (pick a topic like "pyschology" or "linguistics" and try to find the best introductory course).
It's broken in pretty much every way possible, you can't sort the content by ratings or popularity, you can't browse by lecturer/publisher, there's no recommendation system, there's virtually nothing to distinguish between lectures on the same topic, some have awful sound recording but you have no way to know unless you listen to them, etc.
2) I think the more fundamental problem is that knowledge generally isn't available in small discrete chunks but rather in books, lectures, etc.
What if every resource on the web was put to the test against a community? Rather than just existing, a community would have to sort-of approve you in order to be relevant on a certain topic?
What if that resource was somehow validated/curated by people that have used it before? Or was submitted by an expert that topic? Would you be more willing to give that resource a try?
What if you wanted to learn something that is not related to programming? What if you wanted to know the best books/blogs/etc to learn how to make awesome tutorial videos?
Where do you usually go in that case (for validated/curated resources)?
At least for the things I'm interested in (programming, music, cooking, marketing), there are plenty of good reputable sites and apps with high quality content. Google, Youtube and Stack Overflow are a good starting point. Now there's also Udemy, Coursera, Udacity etc.
Could finding resources be better? Of course! Everything can be improved.
But if your question is what's the most difficult part of my learning, then honestly it's not finding material. It's getting over the roadblocks in the journey.
I have thought of this problem a lot, and I can sense that you may have already formed an idea around making a better search or discovery tool. That's an easy one for programmers to fall for. But just because it seems doable, it doesn't mean it's the most important problem to solve.
For example, before Khan Academy came around, no techies really understood that one of the most important things in learning is simply good material. No amount of cool tools and search engines will help you unless you have good content to begin with.
I don't really have a problem finding the material either for a topic I am somewhat familiar with. Might take some time, might take discerning over more than a few resources on the web. But I do find it. However my point is what you just said, good material is important. And the tools for finding the material search the whole internet which has a bunch of useless stuff. And thus cost me sometime I rather spent elsewhere.
Your sense is correct. But is not around the idea of a search engine. Is about a tool/place that only has good material. Relevant, validated, curated material. Would something like that help you?
Do you feel just as confortable finding the material for a completely new topic as you do for when you are looking for something you know and you are only trying the deepen your knowledge regarding that topic?
Is meant as a hook. And the most important part is that you complete it, that's the kind of validation they are after. But all feedback is good, so I am sure they'll have harder challenges soon.
