The Hacker School Experience

http://www.wired.com/geekmom/2012/12/hacker-school-experience

by nicholasjbs • 14 years ago

85 63 14 years ago

yial3• 14 years ago

Where you place the most attractive people in the front row for each photo. ;)

But, in all seriousness, I think it is a fantastic idea to make women feel more welcome in that field, as too many girls I know who are IST majors, or something similar, frequently talk about how they really feel that it's more of a "guys" area.

Adrock2• 14 years ago

Don't say ridiculously sexist and superficial crap and put an emoticon next to it like that makes it ok. It's not ok.

brain5ide• 14 years ago

Don't attach the sexist label to things so easily. That devalues it in the mind of people that care not mindlessly.

yial3• 14 years ago

I was saying that to due to the fact that it's true for each and every photo, even the guys I find attractive are in the front rows. I felt that the photos were slightly weird because of that. Additionally, I think many things about the logo are sexist, the needle and stitch thing is more sexist then any comment I made.

jamii2• 14 years ago

Where we place the shortest people in the front row for each photo. You know, like every other group photo ever...

thechips• 14 years ago

As someone in the back I resent the comment above

jfarmer• 14 years ago

You might not realize it, but your first sentence is an example of what makes "too many girls ... feel that it [the technology field] is more of a 'guys' area."

When people say "sexism," that's a big part of what they mean. It's not necessarily treating women as if they're inferior to men, but rather creating an environment -- sometimes knowingly, usually not -- where women don't feel comfortable or welcome because they are women.

Pinching butts, whistling, making sexual advances, hiring unqualified men over qualified women, etc. are all ham-handed ways of creating that environment.

But sexism is also embedded in things like our instinct to comment first on a woman's appearance, call them "girls" instead of "women," and constantly sexualize them in small and seemingly insignificant ways.

nicholasjbs6• 14 years ago

Hacker School founder here. I'm happy to answer any questions anyone has about Hacker School or applying.

doctorpangloss• 14 years ago

What is the next step? How do you translate what Hacker School does into something State University can do?

Some State Universities can explicitly accept and reject candidates on the basis of gender.

Some State Universities can let students pick their own projects and grade on effort.

But others have admissions criteria determined by law, and others must have final exams that are the same for each student.

In other words, how can Hacker School adapt higher-ed pedagogy to better accomodate women engineers?

nicholasjbs6• 14 years ago

Sorry, I don't think I understand your question. Could you please rephrase it?

charlieflowers2• 14 years ago

Nicholas,

What do you think a family of 3 would need to pay for rent during Hacker School? (Assume the goal is to live as cheaply as possible, but to be in a safe area).

nicholasjbs6• 14 years ago

It depends on what your family of three would need (i.e., if you're a couple with a young baby, one room would probably suffice; if you're a parent with two teenagers, you might need two or three bedrooms).

When I last polled our students, they were spending $800-1,200/month individually. Some people have been able to go below that ($600 is the cheapest I've heard) and some have opted to spend more.

Assuming you need a two bedroom place, my guess is you could get a reasonable one that's transit accessible and in safe part of Brooklyn or Queens for 1.5-2x the above. For example, here's a Craigslist post for a 2-bedroom apartment for $1200 (http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/sub/3504867065.html) and another for $1600 (http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/sub/3509197277.html)

I hope this helps!

alecco11• 14 years ago

Please reconsider. These people are not elite hackers like they pretend to be. It's more about self-promotion than anything else. I bet a job with skilled people as mentors will suit you a lot better than this random risky gamble.

jerrya• 14 years ago

Can you talk about the age range of the students of your Hacker School and your understanding of the age range of the students at other Hacker Schools?

The pictures all show a bunch of well, young and attractive people. Regardless, coming out of the downturn, there are many experienced engineers struggling to shift from a diminishing part of the industry into web development.

Do you support such training/retraining and what would be the best thing such a candidate could do to get in?

SethMurphy2• 14 years ago

While I entered Hacker School as a professional web developer, I did do it as a part of my "retraining". I wrote a blog post about it here: http://sethmurphy.com/my_programming_reboot

I already had over 10 years work experience. Of course my HS experience was as unique as anyone else's. It is what you make of it, nothing more, nothing less.

jamii2• 14 years ago

My impression was that the average age was mid-20s but there were definitely older people in those photos and at least one or two people with families of their own. It must be the revitalizing effect of hacker school that makes everyone look so young :D

I suspect the bias is not in the application process but in the applicant pool. It's far easier for young people with no ties to pick up and spend three months in NY without income.

RyanZAG• 14 years ago

https://www.hackerschool.com/blog/12-what-we-mean-by-hacker

"Hacker School made it very clear what their definition of “hacker” is (curious go-getters) and what it is not (pompous know-it-alls)."

"Someone who enjoys sharing what she learns with others. "

"Someone who is friendly and communicates well."

Bandwagon much? Don't go redefining 'hacker' just so you can jump your school on the 'hacking is hot' phenomenon.

From a Google definition: "An enthusiastic and skillful computer programmer or user.", and yes, skillful is a far more important part of it than "friendly and communicates well".

That said (from a pompous know-it-all, no less!), the school itself seems pretty awesome and big kudos to them! Just the kind of thing the world needs more of.

SethMurphy2• 14 years ago

Everyone goes in enthusiastic and comes out more skilled. The definition has not been altered. Sure, in three months you can't learn it all, but you learn to keep learning. You go to become a hacker, not because you are one. I think that was the point trying to be made.

DISCLAIMER: I am on the Hacker School bandwagon as a participant myself ;)

nicholasjbs6• 14 years ago

I think our definition fits pretty well with ESR's and the definition of "hacker" from the Jargon file[1]:

1. A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary.

2. One who programs enthusiastically (even obsessively) or who enjoys programming rather than just theorizing about programming. (Though as we point out, we don't think being obsessive is necessary.)

Also, in ESR's "How to be a hacker"[2] he includes both learning to write and communicate well and sharing what you learn and build with others as requirements for being a hacker.

[1] http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/H/hacker.html

[2] http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html#skills4

EDIT: To anyone reading the parent comment without clicking through to the blog post it's excerpting, please note the parent comment ignores the first two criteria we list:

Someone who is intellectually curious. Hackers enjoy tinkering and understanding how things work. They revel in going deeper into things, and love asking questions: How can I make my code easier to debug? What is making my program slow? How does this work?

Someone who enjoys programming. We spend most of our time at Hacker School programming, there aren't grades or tests to make you study, and you don't get a degree or certificate for doing Hacker School, so it's important that you like coding.

alecco11• 14 years ago

No.

You are a marketer/promoter/pusher. Junior programmers coding on fad frameworks at borderline user level are far from hackers in every possible definition of the word.

dillonforrest• 14 years ago

Disclaimer: I'm a Hacker School S'12 alum, but these words are my own only.

I don't believe Nick or any Hacker School facilitator look to revolutionize "hacker." I don't believe they want to get into any semantic argument.

If anything, they're sharing their school of thought on hacking. On the one hand, they indeed have their opinions about programming and what it means to be a "hacker." On the other, they are also openminded to hearing different opinions and expanding their own.

In my observation, they don't intend to redefine anything. They just want to expand an ongoing conversation with others who care about programming.

subsystem• 14 years ago

"An enthusiastic and skillful computer programmer or user."

That's an awful definition of a hacker. Hacking, regardless of definition, was always a subculture. It was never about just being skillful, that's more inline with the modern washed out definition.

charlieflowers2• 14 years ago

Who wouldn't love 3 months of hardcore programming and collaboration with other smart, fired up people?

dustineichler• 14 years ago

You'd think, but it's not for everyone.

rdl• 14 years ago

I wonder what the value is of having it in NYC (or SFBA) vs. somewhere else, ideally cheap and with minimal distractions, like a university campus over the summer.

Also wonder if there's a good argument for doing a non-US hacker school to solve visa issues -- is there anything going on like this in China now? India?

lnanek2• 14 years ago

There are a ton of interesting tech things going on in NYC. General Assembly runs events and classes, AlleyNYC similar, WeWork Labs has cheap office space for startups, New Work Labs has a free night, NY Gaming Meetup, multiple competing Java Meetups with technical presentations; group coding; networking, NY Tech meetup, User Experience Meetup, iPhone meetup with tons of people advertising gigs and looking, ad startups offering above even NYC rates to get people into a distasteful subject - and those are just the things I've encountered personally.

Honestly, if someone going to school meets a more established opportunity to work at a real startup or with a real company with a production product, then I think that's a good distraction anyway, since they'll move on to the real deal, instead of just working on educational open source projects, and really start their career.

alecco11• 14 years ago

The word hacker is so abused for marketing purposes it now means entry level programmer of whatever trendy fad of the times. (e.g. node.js hacker, rails ninja, mongodb god)

  * Originally (70s-80s) hackers were programmers/technicians who could
   modify programs or machines to perform tasks beyond their original
   intended use (for good or bad).
  * Afterwards (90s), journalists hyped the word to mean  security
   hackers, people expert on security issues of software (itself a
   subset of original hackers).
  * And then further journalist confusion, changing it to refer to
   people cracking into systems
  * In the last few years it became a glorified buzzword losing any
   useful meaning.

A lot of insecure people who need cool names use it to describe themselves. There's no substance and no way to verify their claims. This is like ghetto cars with neon lights and flaps.

doktrin• 14 years ago

You don't provide any evidence to support your claim.

>> "hackers were programmers/technicians who could modify programs or machines to perform tasks beyond their original intended use (for good or bad)"

That is incredibly vague. In fact, by that standard, I was a "hacker" in 8th grade.

Is there some unspoken and arbitrary measure of skill in the "original" definition you are referring to?

If not, then there's absolutely nothing wrong with any entry level programmer referring to themselves as a hacker.

>> A lot of insecure people who need cool names use it to describe themselves. There's no substance and no way to verify their claims. This is like ghetto cars with neon lights and flaps.

That analogy isn't helpful. How does the so-called dilution of the "hacker" term relate to "ghetto" cars with neon lights?

alecco11• 14 years ago

Evidence? Are you joking? 2600, Phrack, BBS archives. Hell, there's even a half-decent page in Wikipedia.

Not some random 90s nobody like ESR disenfranchised by the same people who made him famous (the slashdot crowd of the 90s).

xiaoma6• 14 years ago

As a man who has been hustling flat out to get into a program such as this for the past several months and is currently dead broke living in an 8 square meter apartment in SF, it's very difficult to read this kind of article and not wonder. I'm passing the technical filters (which admittedly should be weak for a school), but not quite making it in. I not only went out of my way to visit multiple schools and talk to former graduates, but I even sold a bank on the idea of giving me a (small) loan to cover living expenses.

With such high applicant to acceptance ratios, I can't take things too personally, but it's hard not to feel discouraged. Am I getting passed over largely because people just don't value investing in a 30 something man? Would a female in my shoes have gotten in long ago?

I know having more money would help, but it's a bit of a reinforcing cycle since the social proof and skills gained at such a program help greatly in making money. As my last submission to HN should make it clear, I love this kind of teaching system. I strongly believe that people learn way faster with guidance and peers working towards the same goal than they do working alone. What can I do to up my chances of acceptance into a similar school/bootcamp/dojo/academy?

tgebru• 14 years ago

Have you actually applied to Hacker School?

xiaoma6• 14 years ago

Yes. I did the application form on their website several months ago. I never heard any response. Due to the distance and the fact that their need-based assistance is available only to women, I left it at that. I can't chase every opportunity all-out, so I've focused on the places in SF where I thought I had the best shot. And while I haven't gotten in, the teachers have been extremely kind and I do feel like I have at least gotten close.

dizzystar3• 14 years ago

I'm over 30 and I was accepted into one of these schools. I couldn't go for myriad reasons, but mainly money. Although these schools do say that they don't want money to be an issue, it truly is unfair for anyone to ask them for a free education, though deferment is perfectly valid if they deliver their promise of making you good. The initiative goes both ways.

The filter is very high. They get thousands of applicants for each cycle, so there has to be some convincing proof that you have what it takes. The implicit question from these schools is very simple: If you did NOT go to their school, would you have gained the requisite knowledge anyways through your own learning?

The reason they have to ask this question is multi-fold:

1- They are asking you to invest tons of time in very little time to learn and pick up all the skills they ask you to pick up.

2- They won't look good unless their students do good at the class

3- They won't look good if their students don't get jobs.

And since this is a two-way street, what have you done to convince them that you will deliver on your promise to make them look good?

Examples:

1- Did you take, and become certified on any of those MOOC courses?

2- Have you created anything of significance like a website? I'm not talking about plugging up a WordPress Site without even customizing the CSS, but something where you had to understand the technology you were using, like hand-coding PHP and MySQL. Do you have anything in github?

3- What programming languages do you use? Have you attempted to learn anything more special, like Scala or Lisp, or are you still mucking around with whatever you began learning with?

I know the above sounds excessive, but it really isn't if you consider the goals involved, which means you are to get a good-paying job, and you were pretty much on your way anyways. Yes, it will probably take a tad more convincing if you are older, have no experience, and don't have any recent tough filters to prove your abilities to them. If these schools are to be taken seriously by future employers, they have to prove that they were tough to get into, because otherwise, saying you educate people to become junior-level programmers in 3 months would actually be a joke, not sound like one. The bar is set very high for these schools or they will go out of business, so set the bar very high for yourself first, then apply. Don't blame them for your age or your gender, because it is not likely that is what is happening here.

xiaoma6• 14 years ago

You asked a lot but since this goal means so much to me, I'll do my best to answer. I don't believe rejected students would learn just as much outside the school as in. If this were the case, there would be no value at all in attending one.

    1- Did you take, and become certified on any of those MOOC courses?

Yes, I did. Maybe I could have spent that time finding one more piece of contract work that would have let me raise the quality of my living conditions/diet, but I took the Berkeley SAAS course and I did very well.

    2- Have you created anything of significance like a website? 
    I'm not talking about plugging up a WordPress Site without even 
    customizing the CSS, but something where you had to understand 
    the technology you were using, like hand-coding PHP and MySQL. 
    Do you have anything in github?

Possibly. I'm not sure how you define "of significance", and obviously I don't already posses expert level skills of I wouldn't be so interested in training.

I've made several JS tools, three 80s style games in flash, and most my projects that have been keeping me going have been WP customizations (generally a child theme with some PHP and a lot of CSS work). Check my profile and I'm sure you'll find one. Some of the above is on github, but nobody is forking it or anything.

    3- What programming languages do you use? Have you attempted to learn
    anything more special, like Scala or Lisp, or are you still mucking 
    around with whatever you began learning with?

I've dabbled in tons, including lisp, but not scala. I worked through part of Land of Lisp, though I did end up getting stuck at a point.

    Yes, it will probably take a tad more convincing if you are older, 
    have no experience, and don't have any recent tough filters to prove 
    your abilities to them.

I find your general tone towards me a bit disheartening, to be perfectly honest. If the result of sharing any kind of personal set on HN is to be implicitly blamed by commenters, it's a lot harder to be open with people here. I'm not exactly sure why you would assume I have no experience or haven't done anything tough.

I've learned to speak and read Chinese well, built and run a business in Taiwan from 2006-2010 and got a job at a tech start-up in China 18 months ago with fewer skills than I have now! Yes, it has been a very, very hard time since moving back to the US this past 6 months, but I haven't exactly been a slacker.

    The bar is set very high for these schools or they will go out of business, 
    so set the bar very high for yourself first, then apply. Don't blame 
    them for your age or your gender, because it is not likely that is what
    is happening here.

First of all, I am not and have not blamed anyone. Every individual I've dealt with related these schools and most hiring managers and recruiters have been very polite and in many cases helpful. And you could be right-- maybe a woman with my skill set and background would have encountered every bit as much rejection from interviewers and schools that I have... and received the same sort of comments if she shared her failure on HN. The reason I don't like articles like this is that they make it difficult not to wonder.

Can you elaborate a bit on "setting the bar very high for myself" or offer something constructive? I'm a lot more interested in the "how to get in" than the "why you didn't" kinds of answers.

The Hacker School Experience

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