A coding bootcamp is a hostage situation with benefits.
Without a bootcamp's autocratic structure, how can you avoid abandoning your self-learning project? Kindless is key.
“Stay in the program, or we’ll keep your $16,000, and all you’ll have left is broken dreams.”
It’s the power of the sunk cost fallacy—the reluctance to abandon a plan after you’ve invested heavily in it.
Hostage-taking works.
According to a report by the Council on Integrity Results Reporting, the dropout rate at coding bootcamps is a mere 8 percent. Costco loses more members than that.
But if you’re teaching yourself a computer language, the penalty for bailing is low. What do you lose by quitting—$24 you paid for a book?
When it’s easy to quit, an anti-bootcamp works better.
A bootcamp puts you through hell, and you have to take it. But if you want to reach your goal through self-learning, treating yourself harshly won’t work. It’s too easy to get fed up and bail.
Kindness is the key.
Don’t be so damned obedient.
Before I started Harvard, a Harvard graduate advised me, “Do 10 percent more than they ask you to do, and you’ll be fine.” Instead, I did 75 percent less.
In my freshman year, I was surprised to discover that I wasn’t the scholarly type my mother had always told me I was, and probably didn’t belong on any college campus, much less Harvard’s. I didn’t want to be there.
So I focused on the small slice of coursework that would get me the only thing I really wanted from Harvard—a cum laude degree to hang on my wall. And I got it.
I took this same noncompliant, no-frills approach when I started learning JavaScript at age 70. I refused to grapple with an author’s dissertations on theory, to memorize his baffling definitions of nonessential terms, or sit still for his dives into computer science arcana.
I skipped all that and just learned to make things.
Ten years later, I’ve authored five computer language books. They’ve taught 200,000 self-learners to code. They’re nothing but pure how-to instruction. There is no fluff.
Want to keep going? Put some fun into it.
Are you learning a computer language to know things or to make things? If you’re like me, there’s no debate.
So start creating little computer programs within ten minutes after opening the book. It’ll keep you entertained, and, as a nontrivial side benefit, you’ll learn faster and better—by doing.
Free online ways to jump into live coding.
Shuttle between the book and W3 Schools’ free online tutorials. Their “Try It Yourself” feature lets you test-drive everything you’re learning.
Sign up for a free code playground like CodePen.
Free live coding exercises are paired with my books. You’re welcome to use them even if you don’t own my books. Exercises are available for JavaScript, Python, HTML & CSS, and jQuery.
Use your vacuum cleaner as an educational tool.
Harvard Medical School says that when you’re doing hard mental work, brain fog starts to roll in after as little as 10 minutes.
After about thirty minutes of hard mental work, I become Mister Potato Head minus the plastic anatomy parts. That’s when I get physical.
After taking a ten-minute break to run the vacuum, walk around the block, or shovel snow, I’m good for another thirty minutes of mental work.
Try it.
But it has to be a mindless physical task. Ten minutes on Twitter isn’t the right kind of rest.
Never go to bed discouraged.
When you’re self-learning, you’ve got to keep your spirits up. A learner rarely quits because they lose interest in programming. More often, it’s low morale that sinks learners.
Unburden yourself to a friend. When I was about to give up on writing these Substack essays, my friend, another author, comforted me and recommended some reading that changed my perspective. Two days later, I was back on track.
Discuss your struggles with ChatGPT. I’m not kidding. The chatbot isn’t perfect, but it can play the role of an encouraging mentor.
Avoid books and teachers who make you feel dumb. Some of these people boost their own dopamine by flaunting their technical brilliance. You can feel your neurotransmitters plummeting. Don’t let them do it to you.
When you get stuck, get unstuck as fast as possible. Just five minutes of confusion can make you feel like you’re trapped in perplexity forever. This is an emergency situation, because it can lead to project-ending despair. Do whatever you have to do to pull yourself out of the quicksand.
Search Stackoverflow for help. (But if you start to feel dumb, bail out. Showoffs tend to hang out there.)
Have a question-and-answer session with ChatGPT. Sometimes you just need a two-way conversation with an expert. What’s special about the chatbot is that it welcomes follow-up questions. And it is a coding expert. Frequently, you’re stuck because there’s prerequisite information you skipped or didn’t understand. Ask the bot what’s missing so you can backtrack to fill the holes.
If you can’t solve the problem with free online help, there's someone at Codementor who can. A fifteen-minute session with one of these pros costs as little as $8, a bargain if it keeps you from quitting.
Email me. Like you, I’m a self-learner. Whatever you’re going through, I’ve probably gone through, too. I may be able to help.
How did you manage to do "75 percent less" at Harvard and graduate at all, much less graduate cum laude?
Encouraging post -- thanks!