| Jonathan Pool | I have blogged about Learners Guild, calling it an “Unbootcamp”, every week, for the 28 weeks I have been enrolled here (http://stulta.com/forumo). It works well for many of its enrollees. Suppose you thrive in a little-structured setting, where your sources are a mixture of the web, peers, more advanced programmers, solo project practice, and team projects. Suppose you are comfortable discovering that every programming problem has multiple solutions with competing advocates, and you need to choose your own coding strategies because no authority will tell you what is “right”. Suppose you are willing to customize your own curriculum after getting skilled in the fundamentals (joining special-interest clubs on AI, blockchain development, React/Redux, etc.). Then, I would bet, you will find the Guild a stimulating and rewarding place to build yourself into a software developer. Face it: The Guild is a one-year-old startup, still working to find its niche in the market. The happiest learners here seem to be the most inventive, entrepreneurial, ambitious, adaptive, sociable, and risk-acceptant ones. If that describes you and Oakland, California, is a convenient place for you to study, then the Guild might well be a good fit for you. While some reviewers have reported feeling a need to hold their tongues here to avoid punishment, I have witnessed massive criticism by current learners, never anonymously, and I have seen the Guild reverse itself on fundamental decisions because of this criticism. The Guild is learning to do more than just accept criticism: It is also learning how to involve us learners in its reinvention process. The Guild has a social mission: to make dignified life accessible to those who face bias and other barriers. If you join the Guild, you will have an opportunity not only to learn, but also to participate in redesigning the environment in which your successors will learn. And you will pay the Guild only if and when you make enough money afterwards. The Guild is a social business rather than a charity, but if you share its vision you can help it in its struggle to make that vision come true. |