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So I decided to get into coding/web development and try to learn (and eventually master) the skills required to be a Front-End developer. I have a passion for graphic design and enjoy the logic-based thinking in programming, so when I gave it a shot, I wasn't too surprised that this type of thinking clicked with me.
I'm currently using Codecademy to learn the foundation required to start making basic things and then teach myself the rest of the way. So far I really enjoy the program and have been learning a ton of stuff. I spend on average about 20 hours a week (for a week so far) doing lessons and trying to apply them on my own.
However, reddit seems to be uniformly opposed to Codecademy for a particular reason, saying that it only teaches you 1% of what a programmer knows, that it teaches you irrelevant things or that it teaches you bad practices.
All these negative comments (not just on reddit) make me feel like Codecademy is a waste of time if I want to break into the world of web development.
When I began this, I never expected Codecademy to teach me everything I should know, but instead that I will teach myself more advanced things as I begin to apply the skills I've learned there, such as proper practices, how to prevent/find errors in my code, and how to organize it in a practical space saving way that will allow other programmers to understand where I left off in my code etc etc. I also have a few mentors who are computer programmers that are willing to help me and give me tips.
I KNOW the process of me becoming a developer is a long, but rewarding process, and I'm willing to put the legwork for a couple of years in order to be as good as I can. Also, I think my graduate degree and location, as well as design background can give me an edge once I get a lot better at web-dev.
Which goes to my question and also TL;DR:
TL;DR: Is Codecademy really that bad, or are those people expecting too much from it? I'm aware that the process of becoming a novice to expert coder is long and that Im going to have to teach myself a lot that Codecademy doesn't (which I came into this assuming). Am I doing myself a disservice by chosing Codecademy?
because it makes it easy to learn the first 1/1,000 of programming and people talk about it like it gets you 80% of the way. I recommend it to people as I great way to dip your toes in the water. But when people tell me they're doing code academy so they can get one of those high paying programming jobs, I have to bite my tongue.
I think Codeacademy is a great introduction to a language, but isn't anything beyond that and there are better options. Here are some of major issues.
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Totally abstracted ideas. Most of the things you learn aren't put into proper context. You might learn how to do for-loops, but will likely have to re-research them when you have to loop through a dynamically-created array of json objects when working on an actual project. Learn-by-doing educational sites (udacity, railstutorial.org, my favorite Team Treehouse) you learn the same things but in practical scenarios.
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Sorta spinning off of the above - when you complete a track in Code Academy you get a false sense of accomplishment. I remember when I finished the Ruby track I thought I was a Ruby expert, and then when i went to write my first Rails application I was so confused. This is where I think that Codeacademy is actually a disservice. It can be a real letdown when you finish a learning track and then try to do something real with it and keep having to research implementations of the same things you just learned.
If you're working on side-projects alongside Codeacademy, and familiarizing yourself with sites like this sub-reddit and stackoverflow, then maybe you'll have a better experience than I did. Otherwise just pay the $50 for Team Treehouse and be happy that the knowledge you get from there will make you more money in less time than the $50 you'd save by just doing CodeAcademy.
/endrant
The quizzes seem interesting, and the personalized path is enticing, but has anyone subscribed and agreed that it was worth $60