I'm unclear on what experience level you're looking for in applicants. I'm a fairly good programmer (phd in cs) but I'm shit compared to Norvig. I'm in NYC with time to kill this summer. Should I apply to be in hacker school? Or would I be a "Resident" instead?
Any thoughts on the risk of a change in "demographics"? It seems like one of the coolest things about Hacker School is the diversity of people. If the motivation for applying changes and/or it gets a lot harder to get in, there could be a big change in at least the applicant pool. Not necessarily for the worse, but still a change.
Good job. But Hacker School shouldn't be the model for future disruptions in education. If anything this can be an exclusive coders retreat (well, unless we get to cloning Peter Norvig and other great computer scientists), and is sort of a goal to achieve.
Each Hacker School attendee needs to be the best they can be and motivated to learn more and teach others. The fact that there are no teachers and each attendee is a teacher is a wonderful model, and as such they have to be exclusive. Not everyone who could code up a FizzBuzz deserves an admit.
This is not where you go to learn common stuff, this is where you go when you're already good at coding & looking to expand further and can contribute positively to the class.
Disclaimer: I applied for the second or the third batch and got rejected promptly. Only then did I realize that I never deserved an admit.
i am a novice programmer (learn python the hard way, codecademy, coursera, etc), but i'd do anything for a chance like this.
does anyone have any advice on what specific skills/areas to work on to maybe have chance at admittance into this program next time around? i don't think i have anything worth submitting for the may 2 deadline.
Hacker School founder here. Some thoughts on how to get started:
Choose a single language, and focus just on that. Python (which it looks like you've already started with), is a good choice. Spend some time with books, online classes, etc, but spend ~80% of your time actually programming and not just reading. Start with small projects that take you an afternoon and gradually increase in size as you successfully complete them (some ideas: a game of hangman, a game of tic-tac-toe, a game of tic-tac-toe with artificial intelligence). Find someone you know who's a better programmer than you are, and ask him or her to review your code -- going over the code together is best. Do this repeatedly, if possible. Make sure you have a clear understanding of what all of your code is doing. Learn to debug systematically (i.e., when something doesn't work, don't just change your code randomly -- read the error message or look at the output, think about what might be wrong, form a hypothesis, and then change your code accordingly).
Most importantly: Don't give up, and have fun!
I hope this helps and I hope to see you apply sometime down the line!
EDIT: To more directly answer your question, we look for smart, friendly, intellectually curious people who enjoy programming and want to get dramatically better. We care much more about people demonstrating that they can get a good understanding of one language than a shallow understanding of lots of languages.
Norvig is a great scientist and teacher, but you don't need this. In Residence concept is a throwback to the bad old days of exclusionary education. We have the Internet and great books (Norvig wrote one) and MOOCs the future is egalitarian.
Unfortunately admissions decisions are final for this batch. I'm sorry this felt like rubbing salt in the wound :(. On the bright side, as long as you continue to improve as a programmer, you can apply for the next batch, hopefully with different results.
We have plans to better communicate what we're looking for in admissions and our thoughts on becoming a better programmer, which will hopefully be helpful when you apply again.
Yeah, I had the same thing happen to me. It was really disappointing not to get in. The email said not to take it personally and that they try to find the best fit but it's hard not to take it personally and wonder why they didn't find you fit enough for Hacker School. I'm sure they have good reasons though.
I hope Peter Norvig will be around for more than one batch. I can't make the summer batch, but I'd rearrange a lot of stuff to be in the next batch he's there for.
Seems like it's in the category of things like going to Paris to learn advanced culinary skills...the kind of thing that you typically only have the resources to do if you're either extremely wealthy or have the Leo Batuta/young-Steve-Jobs detachment to eschew comforts in search of a higher goal. Perhaps that's who they're looking for?
It is not at all the case that 5k doesn't do much. If you live somewhere relatively inexpensive in Brooklyn (or even Queens) & live reasonably you can cover most of your expenses for 3 months with 5k. If you are good at being frugal you could easily cover all your living expenses with 5k.
[+] [-] davidbalbert|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] silverlake|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hschool|13 years ago|reply
I would love to vicariously live through the experience.
[+] [-] danielrakh|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] subsystem|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pnathan|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ih|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ameen|13 years ago|reply
Each Hacker School attendee needs to be the best they can be and motivated to learn more and teach others. The fact that there are no teachers and each attendee is a teacher is a wonderful model, and as such they have to be exclusive. Not everyone who could code up a FizzBuzz deserves an admit.
This is not where you go to learn common stuff, this is where you go when you're already good at coding & looking to expand further and can contribute positively to the class.
Disclaimer: I applied for the second or the third batch and got rejected promptly. Only then did I realize that I never deserved an admit.
[+] [-] revx|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rycho|13 years ago|reply
does anyone have any advice on what specific skills/areas to work on to maybe have chance at admittance into this program next time around? i don't think i have anything worth submitting for the may 2 deadline.
[+] [-] nicholasjbs|13 years ago|reply
Choose a single language, and focus just on that. Python (which it looks like you've already started with), is a good choice. Spend some time with books, online classes, etc, but spend ~80% of your time actually programming and not just reading. Start with small projects that take you an afternoon and gradually increase in size as you successfully complete them (some ideas: a game of hangman, a game of tic-tac-toe, a game of tic-tac-toe with artificial intelligence). Find someone you know who's a better programmer than you are, and ask him or her to review your code -- going over the code together is best. Do this repeatedly, if possible. Make sure you have a clear understanding of what all of your code is doing. Learn to debug systematically (i.e., when something doesn't work, don't just change your code randomly -- read the error message or look at the output, think about what might be wrong, form a hypothesis, and then change your code accordingly).
Most importantly: Don't give up, and have fun!
I hope this helps and I hope to see you apply sometime down the line!
EDIT: To more directly answer your question, we look for smart, friendly, intellectually curious people who enjoy programming and want to get dramatically better. We care much more about people demonstrating that they can get a good understanding of one language than a shallow understanding of lots of languages.
[+] [-] Evbn|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] darkarmani|13 years ago|reply
> "...runs the Boston Python Meetup,"
From http://meetup.bostonpython.com/
> "Organizers: Ned Batchelder, Deb Nicholson, Giles Hall, Jason Michalski, Jessica McKellar"
I don't know enough about the other organizers, but I know Ned does a tremendous amount of work for the meetup group.
[+] [-] nicholasjbs|13 years ago|reply
Thanks for the correction!
EDIT: Just updated the site.
[+] [-] euccastro|13 years ago|reply
http://pyvideo.org/speaker/377/jessica-mckellar
[Disclaimer: HS alumn, from a batch before she joined.]
[+] [-] edw519|13 years ago|reply
With that in mind, please remember:
QualityTimeWithResident + HardWorkBuilding = HigherProbabiltyOfSuccess
QualityTimeWithResident + not(HardWorkBuilding) = LowerProbabilityOfSuccess
not(QualityTimeWithResident) + HardWorkBuilding = HigherProbabiltyOfSuccess
not(QualityTimeWithResident) + not(HardWorkBuilding) = LowerProbabiltyOfSuccess
So while very nice, QualityTimeWithResident is neither necessary nor sufficient, but HardWorkBuilding is definitely necessary.
Best wishes to those who get this opportunity. And best wishes to those who don't.
[+] [-] AlexanderDhoore|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] majke|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hschool|13 years ago|reply
Is there anything I can do to make it to Hacker School this summer?
[+] [-] davidbalbert|13 years ago|reply
We have plans to better communicate what we're looking for in admissions and our thoughts on becoming a better programmer, which will hopefully be helpful when you apply again.
[+] [-] stmchn|13 years ago|reply
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