This fall I’ve been taking the Rails for Designers class at The Starter League here in Chicago.
My classmates come from as far as South America and as close as a few desks down (fellow 37signals designers Jamie, Mig, Jonas, John, and Shaun are also taking the class). One student, not in our class, came over from Hong Kong.
My classmates also come from a variety of backgrounds. Some are designers with no programming experience. Others are programmers who work in languages other than Ruby. There’s also a lawyer and a couple Chicago Public School teachers, too. There’s a good 30 year age range spread as well. It’s a diverse and dedicated group. They’re inspiring people.
Class ends in a few weeks, and applications for the next quarter close in a few days, so I thought it would be a good time to reflect on the experience.
Was it worth it? Absolutely. Would I do it again? Absolutely. Would I recommend it to someone else? Absolutely.
I’ve been around Rails since the beginning. At 37signals, designers and programmers work together on the same codebase, so every 37signals designer has seen plenty of Rails in their time. And I’ve tried to pick it up on my own over the years by reading books or getting a few crash courses from co-workers. But it never clicked like it does now after taking this Starter League class.
I think the magic is in how Jeff and Raghu, the two teachers, understand how to teach absolute beginners. Teaching beginners is a unique skill. It requires a ton of patience and a truckload of empathy. You really have to start right at the beginning and assume nothing about what people may or may not know. You have to think like a beginner again. That’s really hard.
Am I a fantastic programmer now? No way. Would I hire myself as a programmer at 37signals? No, I wouldn’t. But that wasn’t my personal goal.
However, after just a few months I have a solid basic understanding of Ruby, Rails, and what programming is all about. I can build a database-backed web app on my own. I can pull in data from external APIs, manipulate it, and return it formatted the way I want. I can read and understand a bunch of code in the Basecamp code base that was complete greek to me before. I know what this code does, why it is where it is, how to manipulate it enough not to break the basics, and how to make changes without having to ask for help. That’s a huge leap forward for me, and it means fewer “hey, can you do this for me?” questions for my co-workers.
I can’t tell you how liberating it is to be able to find my way around our codebase now. It makes me a better designer, too. I can quickly prototype new ideas without having to get someone else involved. Big win. Further, I know where to go from here if I want to dedicate myself to getting better.
And on top of all of this, I feel like I’ve gained an invaluable skill: The ability to see problems from a new angle. Learning how to program has introduced me to a new perspective on problem solving, a new way of thinking. That doesn’t come around often and I’m thrilled to have found it at The Starter League.
If you’re interested in learning Rails – even if you don’t have a single bit of experience – check out The Starter League’s Web Development Class. Just want to learn HTML/CSS? Check out the HTML/CSS class (and there’s an advanced HTML/CSS class, too). There’s even a User Experience Design class. Want to learn visual design or how to improve your current design skills? Our very own Mig Reyes is teaching the Visual Design class.
Applications for The Starter League Winter session are due by Sunday. If you’re on the fence, hop off and apply. You will not regret it.
(Disclosure: 37signals is a minority investor in The Starter League)
Tom Ordonez
on 30 Nov 12uh? I thought you were a programmer. You just became my hero.
Dr. Zen
on 30 Nov 12I wish nothing more than the return of the Renaissance man. This post really hit home with me.
Going outside your comfort zone and not only seeing, but learning and knowing from a different perspective opens up huge opportunities for creative connections and synergy.
Case in point, just before I read this point, I finished an afternoon combined design and marketing session with a friend. He has a boutique BI company and I’m looking to extract an SaaS offering from my recent project for a medical clinic.
The deal is we meet once or twice a week and I advise/tutor him on design and Rails development and he spends equal time advising me on marketing and data analysis.
I’m a software guy that loves marketing and he’s a marketing MBA that loves to code. We have a lot of fun, learn a lot, and work well together. What we learn from each other immediately and dramatically improves our respective products.
The ability and confidence to take an idea from inception to realization with clarity of vision (even if its just a prototype) on one’s own is very empowering and a huge competitive advantage.
Emil
on 30 Nov 12How do you convince designers (not working at 37signals..) to learn how to program? Not to take the role as a developer, but to improve their design skills.
Designer friends often tell me that they are visual people. They want to see, draw, change (i.e. Photoshop). They tell me it’s too far way to change a bit of code, save, reload.
I see myself as a visual person, even though I know how to program.
Arvin
on 30 Nov 12@Emil,
I think there’s a misconception that code is too mathematical, and people often shy away from it. Personally having taken the classes, and now working with The Starter League, I’ve realized it’s more closely related to writing. Great writers, make great coders as well.
Following the same vein I think visual artists stand to benefit greatly from learning to code, even at a foundational level. I think I’d point out a few cases to them,
1. Remove the middleman, be able to design within the code itself, yourself.
2. Learning even the basics of front-end will help them understand how their designs translate into code, what’s feasibly done in code today, and better able to scope projects based on how long they know it will take to build.
3. For the love of learning. It’s rare you can find something new you can grow a passion for. Finding yourself a fully capable developer in itself is a great feeling. It will challenge what you know, and like any muscle, a great workout (even if it’s your brain) helps.
Anonymous Coward
on 30 Nov 12@Arvin
I would make a correction to your statement above.
Instead, I’d say:
I’ve realized RUBY is more closely related to writing than mathematics.
As someone who’s spent quite a bit of time in Assembly language, their no doubt Assembly, as well as languages lower level higher order languages like C are definitely more mathematics based.
Stella
on 30 Nov 12I feel the same way as Jason does after doing Starter League (formerly Code Academy) last Spring. The challenge will now be maintenance of the skills recently acquired…just like learning any new skill, keeping up with Rails requires practice.
Unfortunately, while I felt all the same emotions as Jason did, now over 6 months have passed since I’ve touched code. Why? Life moves on and so do endeavors…I’m in the middle of launching a new startup (built in PHP by my technical cofounder) and learning different topics in business school. While I applaud Starter League and would recommend it to anyone who appreciates live learning (I can’t learn from books), it’s important to keep in mind that being proficient requires a dedication of time and passion for a lifetime of learning.
Harold Harper
on 30 Nov 12I’m in Jason’s Rails class—I’m the lawyer—and wanted to add a thought, maybe a few.
Also like Jason, I’m not a programmer—my days consist of taking depositions (fancy-speak for questioning witnesses), working phones, and negotiating and arguing. At some point in my life I realized—unfortunately AFTER law school—that what I wanted, rather than to fight with people, was to build stuff, not stuff like a house or widget or a chair, but ‘software stuff.’
My stumbling block of course wasn’t any dearth of ideas—fortunately or unfortunately even good ideas are not terribly hard to come by. ‘I just didn’t have the skills, man; I didn’t have the skills.’
So, very fortuitously, I heard about the Starter League—through Signal vs. Noise actually—and applied.
The long and short of it? Being able to scratch your own itch is AWESOME. Yep, it’s baby steps and, yep, the learning curve is incredibly steep, but now I’ve got a foundation (of skills) to build from and am genuinely confident I’ll birth many of those ideas I’ve long carried around.
My point? If you’ve ever wished you knew how to program or could build these things—you know who you are—take the plunge. In personal satisfaction alone, the Starter League is worth the investment of time and money.
And, yes, I’m a fan of 37signals and Jason Fried, but, no, have nothing to gain if the Starter League succeeds (except of course a warm, fuzzy feeling inside, due to the fact that they are wonderful teachers, and people.)
Anthony
on 01 Dec 12If 37s was a public company, I would expect to see its stock price go up based on this post alone. It’s great to see this type of mentality from the top of an organization. Never stop learning and never stop improving.
Based on clues from interviews I’ve seen of Jason, I’m going to guess that 37s does beween 70 – 100mm in revenue per year. This is a man who does not NEED to learn to program as he can easily pay someone to materialize his thoughts. By learning it himself he’s able to better communicate with his technical employees, think through problems in a new way, scratch his own itch, and set the expectation that resting on your laurels won’t fly.
Jason, any plans on teaching a business class at the Starter League?
Anonymous Coward
on 03 Dec 12Do you know of anything like The Starter League near Southern California/Los Angeles? There seems to be an unnerving lack of clear, well-taught classes in a city overrun by need for just this kind of thinking/education.
Bernard
on 04 Dec 12I am the student from Hong Kong.
Jason summarized the awesome experience I have had with Starter League so far. I’d like to add another aspect – it feels absolutely fantastic to regain the confidence that I could learn (pretty much anything).
Unlike many of my classmates who are in their early/mid twenties and starting out their career, I am in a much later stage in life. I finished my MBA 6.5 years ago and that’s the last time I was in a classroom. I came not because I was looking to switch into a web development career. I just believe the Internet is the future.
After years of working I forgot how gratifying learning was. More tragically I became unsure of my ability to learn – I mean really acquiring a new skill. It is combination of patience, dedication, discipline, and aptitude.
With Starter League, I am happy to say that I can learn. And I am hungry for more.
Coming half-way around the world for 9 weeks to learn web development while I wasn’t looking for a programming wasn’t exactly rational. But I’ve noticed some of my best experience in life was exactly when I wasn’t being rational.
This discussion is closed.