Lazy Person Summary:
I wanna learn how to program in Ruby on Rails, using the self-study program One Month Rails, and I’m lazy, so I want to invite others to join me so we all stay on track. Start April 1st. Finish April 30th.
Costs $100 to join the group + $75 to buy One Month Rails. Signup for both at bottom.
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I’m about 10 years behind on web development, and want to learn again.
Obviously I can easily get stuff outsourced or hire people to do all this for me, but I WANT to learn. I find it enjoyable, and it’s a huge advantage to at least know the basics (especially when talking with engineers and freelancers).
For this reason I want to learn to program Ruby On Rails.
So I have enrolled in a $99 online course called One Month Rails.
However…..I, Neville Medhora, am a super-lazy bastard. Here’s me on a normal day:
Like…..so lazy there’s NO WAY I’ll stick to learning this everyday. So for this reason I am inviting YOU to come join me in learning Ruby On Rails in the month of April 2015!
You see, I’ve pondered a lot about why if you enroll in college, you almost ALWAYS finish the class….however if you enroll in an online course, you almost NEVER finish it.
I think it has to do with several factors why you would FOR SURE finish a college class:
Social Pressure = Your friends, your professor, your parents….all expect you to finish a class.
Financial Pressure = You paid money for this damn thing, so you better finish it.
Super Clear Goals = There’s super-specific dates and times when you begin the class, take tests through the semester, and when you finish the class. This keeps you on track. Even if you fall behind, you’ll at some point make up for it by cramming before a big test or the end of class.
I want to emulate these three factors for myself so I have pressure behind me to finish this 30 day goal…..that’s why I’m inviting other people to join me!
So join me in learning Ruby On Rails from April 1st – April 30th, using One Month Rails.
Lots of SOCIAL PRESSURE will keep us going:
I’ve made a cool Google Spreadsheet where you’ll be updating the days you’ve completed (all the way to 30 days) during the challenge.
✖ = Haven’t done the lesson :-(
✔ = Done with the lesson :-)
At a single glance you can tell where you are in comparison with the rest of class…..this is will create great social pressure for you (and me) to keep up!
By the end of the challenge we’ll try to make the whole spreadsheet fill with ✔✔✔✔✔✔ !
…..but if you fall significantly behind it’ll be easy to see who isn’t keeping up with the class. This creates social pressure for you to keep up with everyone.
Not only that, but we’ll have a Slack Chat Group going where we can discuss all our worries and woes and hangups:
This way the entire class can communicate together.
Guaranteed you will lose ALL the money you invest!
That’s right, whether you complete this challenge or not, you lose 100% of your money and I ain’t giving it back!!
I’m doing this mainly because I’m a greedy Indian man.
but also because…..
It will put $$financial pressure$$ on you to finish the 30 day coding challenge!
Think about it:
On day 12 of the challenge if you’re really behind, you know you can’t just drop out and get your money back, so you’ll push yourself to finish with me and rest of the class.
So in addition to this being a class and putting social pressure on you, now we’ve got:
Social Pressure + Financial Pressure
Super clear goals keep you on track:
The best way to get something done is to have super clear goals on what needs to get accomplished and exactly when it needs to be accomplished.
This is a 30 day challenge that requires you to watch some videos and practice a little each day. Most lessons are between 15 minutes and 1 hour long. You can also do many of them in one day to catch up or get ahead.
You can see the full curriculum here. It seems very doable if you were to dedicate less than 1hour/day:
Now since we know this is doable if you dedicate just 1 hour a day (probably even less), then we can find a nice little 30 day period to try this.
And whhhaaadddyyaa know, April 2015 is a perfect 30 day month!!
This means we can assign exact start dates and end dates.
Start Date: April 1st, 2015 (Wednesday 8am)
End Date: April 30th, 2015 (Thursday 11:59pm)
Having precise start and end dates and a curriculum is why most people who start a college class.
So now we’ve got a pretty good cocktail of motivation going on::
Social Pressure + Financial Pressure + Clear Goals
What platform we’ll be using:
One Month Rails
We will be learning the programming language Ruby On Rails through a course called One Month Rails.
I didn’t pick One Month Rails because they approached me or any weird thing like that, I picked it because I researched it, asked around, and figured out who actually got results.
I also wanted a platform who assumes the student is a 100% complete newbie beginner and knows NOTHING about programming.
I chose Ruby On Rails because it’s a super popular programming language right now that lets you build stuff on the web fast. This is more than just “web design.” In fact, by the end of this 30 day course you’ll be able to build your own ghetto-ass version of the hugely popular photo-sharing service Pintrest.
You’ll have people able to login to your website, post stuff, and edit stuff. Just from 30 days of coding!!
I know there’s a million other programming languages we could learn together, but losers sit around and debate which language to learn for months…..while winners pick one, jump in, and learn it in one month.
Once you learn to code, you can easily pickup another coding language. So we’re moving ahead with Ruby On Rails.
There’s literally NEVER a “good time” to do something:
If you always wait for a “good time” to learn something new, you’ll never do it. Think about in high school or college….there were times when you had to buckle your ass down and study allllll day long just to meet some deadlines. You would never do that kind of intense work voluntarily, but you did it because you had pressure on you.
I am replicating that pressure for myself, and if you wanna share in that sweet sweet pressure then you can join this one-month long challenge to learn to code. Let’s do it together (giggity).
What you get if you join this 30-day Coding Challenge:
1.) You join me (and others) in promising to complete the OneMonthRails course in 30 days.
Starting: April 1st, 2015 (Wednesday 8am)
Ending: April 30th, 2015 (Thursday 11:59pm)
2.) You will be added to a chat group (on Slack) where we’ll discuss our updates and problems and hangups. This creates the social pressure that helps with completing something.
3.) You will be updating a shared Google Spreadsheet that will show you where you stand in the class, adding more social pressure.
4.) You will have to pay me $100 to join the challenge (CLOSED)….and $74 to buy One Month Rails. This will put $175 of financial pressure on you.
Join the 30-day Coding Challenge:
Ok cool, I’m in, I wanna learn Ruby On Rails with everyone!
By paying this $100 of my hard-earned money to Neville, I am agreeing that I commit to learning to program Ruby On Rails in a month. Learning stuff on your own is hard, so having financial pressure helps push me, and having social pressure pushes me too.
So if I wuss out and don’t stay up-to-date with the group, I simply lose my money and I deserve it because I’m a lazy ass.
Yes I understand all of this, and I still wanna join Neville in learning Ruby on Rails in the month of April 2015:
Step 1.) Join the Coding Challenge group with me for $100. (CLOSED)
Step 2.) Signup for One Month Rails here (It’s $99 normally but I got us a discount so it’s $74).
Step 3.) Start learning to code and seeya inside the group!
(Registration is closed)
Yes, I’d like to know the results too.
Aaaand …. it’s almost a year since you did this challenge.
How about another coding challenge this April?
Hi
So what are the results ? How many ppl applied how many finished ? Was it hard ? How much value was added ? Can you make a site now :) ?
Can anyone speak to the marketability of the course or job outlook?
I’m on the fence, but want to manage my expectations and understand what it will likely lead to. This front end development is for the birds and I need out!
I somehow doubt after just ONE MONTH of an internet course you’ll be a full fledged developer.
So definitely don’t expect that.
This will be like an intro to development.
Of course, I’m not expecting to come through this and be gifted a six figure Sr. Developer job, but it would be nice to see a little light at the end of the tunnel as well.
I guess I’m fishing for others’ experiences. Perhaps someone went through this and was able to pick up an internship? You’ve established A and B, but I want to know what C holds before jumping on board :)
No, I seriously doubt this is for you then Ryan.
It seem like you’re expecting:
[Do this for One Month] = [Get job]
We’re doing this to learn to code, and doing it out of curiosity and self improvement. If you view this as maybe a FIRST STEP to learning to be a programmer, then that’s fine. But don’t view it as your ticket to get out of your sucky job.
Others that’ve gone through this got their first taste of programming and went on to further their education. Definitely. But this would be your tepid first step. Not the end-all-be-all :)
Hi Ryan, I am a senior developer and consultant specialising in Rails and JavaScript. I’ll try to answer your question.
One month likely isn’t going to be enough for you to become amazing at coding, but it will be enough for you to realise if it’s something you love and something you have a knack for. Not everyone can be amazing at code, just like not everyone can be amazing at music or language or art, but most people can become pretty good given time.
There have been developers who have made some very significant contributions with just a couple of years of experience.
Coding is something you have to love, have to think about in your spare time, have to want to do. Sometimes coding is hard, you might be stuck on a problem for a day, perhaps even a week. You have to have a stupid persistence that just keeps battering, not because it’s fun but because it’s wrong and you need to make it right or it will haunt you.
A newish developer with a couple of decent projects and a bit of spark will easily pull 30k, a good developer will net 60k, a great developer 80k, an experienced contractor 100k, a consultant 150k. Found a startup and you can potentially make millions, or you could lose it all. Most good developers have a startup or two brewing on the sidelines.
There’s a massive shortage or good developers to fill the jobs (partly because it’s quite hard to be a good developer) and it’s a complete sellers market. Companies literally buy other companies just to hire the developers that work there. It’s called an aquihire, it’s a real thing.
It can’t ever be about the money though, it has to be about the fact that the pattern in your head doesn’t exist in the world yet, and if you don’t bring it into being it will hurt you inside until you do, at which point you will feel such blissful closure you will never want to do anything else.
You need to learn how to comprehend pattern in the same instinctive way that you comprehend a novel, or a landscape. You will feel the shape of the software, and gradually bring it into being one line at a time. It’s a marvellous feeling which is why I say you have a treat in front of you.
I wish you the best of luck. Neville, I think it’s a brilliant thing you’re doing. If you wanted to dial me into the slack chat I’d be happy to be on standby to answer any questions that might come up. I can’t promise to be wonderfully responsive, but I’ll do my best. Don’t worry if not.
Best of luck with it!
Nicholas, what an eloquent response!
Thanks so much for adding that, sounds scary yet encouraging :)
I have gone ahead and added you to our little private Slack chat. I’m assuming in the next few days some of us might run into some roadblocks that could use a little clarifying.
Feel free to participate as little or as much as you’d like Nicholas!
-Neville
The range of comments have been interesting. To hijack a classic ad: “They laughed when I sat down at the keyboard but when I started to code!~”
I’m working through an ios course. I have no expectations of being a rock star ios guy when I’m done with a single course, but I’m already a heckofa lot more knowledgeable and am getting better every day.
Dissers are gonna dis and lame-o’s are gonna be lame.
Best wishes with your coding journey. I’m working on a coding journey too and am feeding on the positive energy (& ignoring the negative).
Thanks Annette!
Well there’s already enough people who’ve joined to make this a good challenge……I’m even feeling a little nervous about it which is a great thing! That means I’ve effectively put enough pressure behind me to make sure this gets DONE!
Hopefully you take some of our vibes and use April 1st – 30th as well to complete your iOS course!
This is awesome Neville! Wish I had something like this when I was learning Python. Took me several attempts before finishing a course on my own.
Best of luck
Thanks Eric! Only 2 days before I embark on my own coding journey!
Wow Neville …. I don’t know why anyone should pay you 100 dollars to you for making him accountable .
Most of the people whom you are pitching all need to have internal motivation to do this and will not end up being a coder … not sure external motivators will work (atleast the case with me )
Second why should anyone pay to you … you are not the expert
Mattan griffel course is pretty well laid out and the community on his course is more then good
Holy crap you are a DOWNER!!
I’m not sure if you read the above, but it’s Financial Pressure + Social Pressure + Clear Goals.
By paying $100 you’re getting all three of those through me.
If someone wants to do this course on their own, they totally can. However I know many people (myself included) will stop when the going gets tough.
I’ve had OneMonthRails for 2 months now and STILL haven’t done it. That’s why I put this challenge together, so I personally have all three areas of pressure covered. And if others wanna join, my price is $100.
Plain and simple.
Yeah, Neville wants to be a coach like coach.me. He’s right though, I had One Month Rails 3 in 1 since Christmas and only did 74% of HTML so I like the group approach. The only thing I don’t like is that Neville gets rich on our dime regardless of the outcome. I’d like it much better if we had the chance to put it up and risk losing it.
Dwayne, stop being a little pussy who wants EVERYTHING HANDED TO HIM FOR FREE.
If you can’t put up a $100 to ensure you learn something, then this isn’t for you. Best of luck dawg.
This isn’t a product “I’m trying to get rich from.” I’m charging a super-low price and trying to help myself and others. Quit bitching.
NEV!!! :D I’m iiiinnnnnnn :) not sure how I paid $99 though for the course but I did. What’s next?
Sweet, then you’re in! April we’re gonna start learning!
Neville, may the force be with you! Love your enthusiastic energy!
Thanks Chantal!! Hope you learn something new, whatever it is you think will help!
lol, I’m a pro coder, you should pay me if you want me to help you out! you cunning man.
Nah, other people volunteered for free :)
Awesome idea Neville! I’ve taken One Month Rails and I have to say it leaves you with a ton of confusion afterwards. It’s a decent introduction, but it’s really hard to learn Ruby (the main language) after Rails (the additional layer/framework).
From what I’ve learned, Team Treehouse is much better as it’s $25 a month and goes through Ruby before diving into Rails.
By the end of OMR you will have built a functional Pinterest clone! Really neat, but after you have completed the project, you have no idea what you’ve done and find it very difficult to build another project.
I would love to join a group (via Slack) learning Ruby and then Rails using Team Treehouse.
Hmm…I remember seeing a YouTube video where Mattan says he learned Ruby on Rails in a week by starting with Lynda.com videos. I would start with Chris Pine’s Ruby book first, too.
Good Luck!
Hey Dillon, I don’t expect to be an EXPERT by the end of this.
Moreso I’m looking to just bone-up on the existing skills needed to program today.
For example:
–Installing Rails
–Using GitHub
–Refreshing on some basic html and whatnot.
Obviously 1 month of programming is going to be super basic….and from there I can decide whether to continue or stop.
BUT MAINLY it will get me to the point where I can at least discuss something with a programmer with SOME knowledge!
Love TTH! Tried them with few things and I’m getting back on it this summer.
They changed the pricing plan? Now it’s either $25 cheaper (if you do one course per month) or more expensive (if you want to do multiple courses).
Yeah Matt, they JUST changed it to be cheaper, but on a monthly basis.
Awesome. I’m all signed up and ready to go. Looking forward to the course. I hope this aint no April Fools prank Neville ; )
Hell yeah! Slack invite sent. WE DOING THIS RUSSELL!
Definitely no April Fools joke….although how awesome would that be!!
Hey, Neville. I signed up for both the coding challenge and the optional 3 in 1 package that seems to be no longer available haha. But I don’t have any email or anything notifying me I’m in the coding challenge (I do have the receipt though). Is this normal? Will I gain access to this Slack Chat Group on April 1st?
Yeah dawg….this is GHETTO since it’s not a real product. Adding you to the Slack group now and yes….you’re in the challenge :)
Best of luck with it. Coding is an exquisitely beautiful thing to be able to do. If you get into it, it’s like dancing in your head. You have a treat in store.
I agree! It’s so fun to code (and very frustrating at times though).
I like building something and putting it out there, it’s a good feeling.
It certainly is, and it’s by pushing through the frustration that we learn big lessons. You have to really love correctness.
If I might suggest you spend some time learning the basics of how to code. Learn Ruby, not just Rails.
Ruby / Ruby on Rails is one of the easier languages to learn compared to the many other languages that should also be part of software engineers repetoire. Good luck with the challenge.
Thanks Redge, I can’t wait to start digging in April 1st :)
Brilliant!
I’d sign up if I weren’t commited to finishing the “complete ios developer course” that I’m 45% through on udemy. Rails course looks like a good one.
It’s a hard slog some days. There’s always something else … like reading this blog post and commenting when I really did sit down at my computer to do the next lesson.
April 30 will be here regardless. You gotta ask yourself: On April 30, would I rather have frittered away my time, or learned something useful and improved my chances at success?
Totally agree Annette! I don’t think I’ve taken the time to learn something, then REGRETTED it later. I really think this will be a great investment of time (and not even that much money) for everyone.
HA! love the accountability built in with the 100% lose money.
A more serious note I HIGHLY recommend this course. I took it several months ago and it was one of the BEST intro to development courses I ever took. Why?
1- You actually build a usable app! I used the base code to go out and make a Gear Rental website!
2- Short time frame. What have you done in the last 30 days!?
3- Talking with other Ruby developers. Lets face it, software isn’t going away. The more you understand the more you can discuss challenges. Software is eating the world and you can either think of it as voodoo magic, or you can understand a base level of it so that you can weave it into your business or career path.
4- Mattan is a really great teacher. I really enjoyed this class.
Nice to see you here, bud!
I am considering this…but making Neville rich….oh no! :)
I do have a Comp Engineering degree and have worked in startups, but just like Nev, by now I am so far behind the curve.
I will sleep on it, and see if I want to join up
Yeah,
I feel the same way! I will put the pressure on myself to finish it, and give give $100 to charity if I don’t get it done. I can do that automatically with Stickk.com. This idea is sort of similar.
Don’t worry, Neville, most likely, I’ll buy your Autoresponder and Kopywriting Kourses, too. But I have to finish your little book I bought on amazon.com first and this Coding Challenge that I am so up for!
PS you guys should take a look at Chris Pine’s book, Beginning Programming. You can read it in a week. Maybe this week!
See you guys at the end of April. I will check in and see all your happy writings of success!
Cheers!
Dwayne
Thanks Kevin, this makes me look forward to it even more :)
I totally agree with #3 being the case. If software is going to be the basis of MOST things, you better understand it if you wanna stay competitive.
Nev you spelled “guarantee” wrong you in your Lose Money Guarantee, idiot.
Thanks, lame-o ;-)
I’ve got One Month Ruby already, and I’ve yet to start it. So this idea is kinda good. But it could be better.
If Neville was really trying to help us get this done he’d take my offer of $200 if I dont get it done, and refund it all if I do. If nothing else, preventing a greedy Indian man from keeping my $200 bucks would be more motivation than not. Maybe make it $250 and keep $50 for your trouble if we finish and keep the whole thing if we don’t.
That’s the model I was thinking about putting together in my future coding camp! Make it hurt!
I could do that, but I wanna keep all your money :)
I’m actually taking money so it created financial pressure on ME to motivate people.
Feel free to join the group Dwayne…I bet 100% you’ll do the work then!
I’d be in for a react.js or angular bootcamp. I don’t see what’s the hype about ruby. Also, this Laura girl in the comments is fucking retarded.
lol…..she does have a pretty terrible attitude!
I’m moving ahead with Rails….although I’m sure there’s a million languages to learn.
Ruby is a pretty reasonable language to start with. Its super friendly and there’s a large, helpful, educated community behind it. JavaScript is also a good option.
Ugh. Have no desire to learn Rails.
Am working on learning Meteor right now though.
Oh sweet, good luck man!
love this post! Wish I were interested in Ruby On Rails. Can you do a copywriting boot camp this style?
I’d be all in for a copywriting bootcamp.
What Kendra said!
I could….but it ain’t gonna be just $100 as I’ll have to edit EVERYONE’S copy. This style of class is pretty much exactly what my AutoresponderKlass is (that I launched last month)
YOU KNOW IT.
I’m in.
SWEET!! Seeya inside Andrew :)
I am tired of giving money away, now the only way I will do it, it’s if first I make money then pay for it, give me 30 days free of charge show me how to make money and then I will give you the money,
thanks
Laura
This guy
er… gal
If ya don’t have the money, then don’t sign up. 9/10 times, when you simply get something for free, you would not be as nearly engaged than if you were to pay it. So tip: get job if you don’t have one already. Hustle. Then get these courses to expand knowledge. You will not work if it just handed to you. Good stuff here, Neville.
Lol….you’re gonna be poor forever with that “Gimme fire before I chop the wood” attitude :)
Hahahha! Loved it! (The other Spanish Laura)
Sounds like it’s an issue of you not going & following through with things rather than “giving away money”
I’m in, let’s go. I’m gonna code the shit out of this thing!
Also got up sold to the 3 in 1 package so I’ll basically be Mark Zuckerberg by May 1st.
NICE!! Can’t wait to start on April 1st!
Plot twist: you find out on April 1st that it was April Fools joke – 100% loss guarantee applies :-p!
Forgot to add this:
I like the model, but I’d be more interested in a PHP course, maybe next time!