ben402•1mo agoProlific Poster

That "learn Python in 30 days" bootcamp ad is selling snake oil

I overheard a guy at a truck stop in Wyoming bragging about finishing one of those 30 day bootcamps and landing a 6 figure job. No way you build real problem solving skills in a month. Has anyone else seen these promises fall flat for people they know?

2 comments

2 Comments

white.grant1mo ago

I mean, the whole "quick fix" thing is just how we live now. You see it everywhere, not just with coding bootcamps. People buy those "lose 20 pounds in a week" supplements at the gas station and wonder why they gain it all back. Or the guy who watches a few YouTube videos on fixing drywall and thinks he's a contractor now, then his patch job falls off the wall two months later. That gray_perez52 said about "preying on the dream of a quick paycheck" hit the nail on the head. It's like everyone wants the result without putting in the boring, frustrating time to actually get good at something. And those bootcamp ads know that feeling exactly, so they sell you the dream and leave out the part where you gotta stare at a screen for two years before you really know what you're doing.

gray_perez521mo ago

Yeah but the real problem isn't even the bootcamp itself, its the people who think coding is just memorizing syntax. Ive seen guys cram for a month and then freeze when their code breaks in a real project cause they never learned how to debug anything. The bootcamp sales pitch works cause it preys on the dream of a quick paycheck, not the reality of sitting there for hours trying to figure out why your stupid semicolon is missing. You can learn the basics in 30 days sure, but becoming a dev who can actually solve problems and work with a team takes way longer.