Code Bootcamps are a Costly Scam

What do bootcamps promise: to make you a programmer.

What do bootcamps do: they have you memorizing code.

Before I dive into the wide chasm between the two, let me demonstrate:

Many of my clients come from Codementor, a lucrative 1-on-1 teaching platform. Here are people who have ALREADY paid $10,000 — $25,000 (the greed! but later about that) to a bootcamp, are now shelling out $60/hour and more on a private tutor to help them!

Only 10–20% will find success on the path they imagined before starting, and the bootcamp’s promise fulfilled. And they are the people that most likely could have done it on their own, to begin with.

Why such a miserable outcome? Here are the 5 main reasons:

1. They teach HOW but not WHY

The WHY seems so trivial to the teachers they never give a second thought to explain it. WHY use a variable? An array? A map function?

It is so neat when the teacher demonstrates HOW, but once the teacher leaves, the student has no idea what to do. This is the difference between knowing code (simple memorizing) and a programmer that knows WHY certain tools are the right ones for a job.

2. They go against the neuroscience of learning

Generally speaking, the mind has two modes, and without both, learning cannot happen:

1. Conscious effort
2. Subconscious processing

The two modes exist on a scale, the stronger one is, the weaker the other. Sleeping is 100% subconscious brain activity, daydreaming is somewhere in between.

Conscious Effort allows us to create small circles of knowledge, Subconscious processing draws lines between those circles. It gives us those “aha” moments, making us understand the WHY.

After a certain amount of conscious effort of learning, the brain needs time to let go, and slip (at least partially) into the subconscious. Once that happens enough times, we start to gain “intuitive” ability, like riding a bicycle.

Ever had that shower epiphany? This is the result of letting the conscious brain rest and letting yourself daydream, slipping into partial subconscious mode where the brain keeps working on that knowledge we fed to it consciously.

Most schools force continuous conscious effort. They assume the more time you spend solving problems or memorizing, the better you become at something, giving the students very little breaks. You spend many hours gaining little progress.

3. Poor mental models

Code, in sharp contrast to popular belief, is more of a manual craft, rather than academic knowledge. As a blacksmith needs to know the feel of the iron, how it responds to his tools, the same way the programmer needs to feel code. We learn to expect the behavior of the material.

One does not become a blacksmith from a YouTube tutorial or a lecture.

Yet this is exactly what bootcamps do: they show a few examples, and expect students to memorize them for all eternity, knowing when exactly is the right time to use them.

4. Group teaching is always worse than 1-on-1

I’ll say just this: the concept was invented in favor of the institutions alone. Individual students gain nothing from having to adjust to a homogenized speed and process.

Although there are many similarities in the way our brains learn, each one of us has her or his unique preferences and stronger skills. On the other hand — there are always emotional limitations that need to be dealt with.

5. Financial stress adding to overall stress

Almost all of us have some kind of trauma from learning, be it school, teachers, parents with unrealistic expectations, etc. Not only the Bootcamp learning environment is stressful on its own, but it will bring up those emotional issues too.

Stress is the enemy of learning. The more processing power in the brain is directed to survival, the less can be directed to conscious and subconscious learning.

Most of the students are still trying to get into the industry or switching careers. If you are in constant stress your learning suffers dearly and no promises of future glory and riches can help that. Even the cheapest bootcamps are far from being “accessible”.

Someone needs to pay the rent.

Conclusion

No wonder the poor students are willing to pay for extra mentorship: not only they are not being taught properly, but they are also being made feel stupid! In addition to being pressured, and comparing yourself to your peers.

Kinda reminds me of high school, only you pay ridiculous money for it…

On a more abstract note

I see programming, like any other type of learning, as a double journey of exploration: internal and external. The external one is discovering a new world of ideas and tools. The internal one is discovering how your body and mind respond to those ideas, how do they connect and resonate inside of you.

If you listen to yourself, eventually both paths will merge into one and the learning process will become much more personal and satisfying.

I provide a 1-on-1 mentorship process to build a web-app you are passionate about. With me, you will avoid all the pitfalls listed above (including the price, I don’t charge nearly as much).

My promise is to teach you to think like a programmer, and hopefully, to take those thought skills and apply them in any other craft.

Schedule a call with me here: https://calendly.com/ilya-dorman/student-consultation