I'm Quincy Larson, the teacher who founded freeCodeCamp.org. Ask Me Anything July 25, 2019

[quincylarson]

Hey everybody, I’m Quincy Larson.

I was a 30-something teacher who learned to code and ultimately founded freeCodeCamp in 2014. I am now working on the nonprofit full-time to help expand these learning resources.

I’m doing an AMA here on Hacker Noon’s community forum. I’ll answer questions live at noon EST on Thursday, July 25. You can ask me questions in advance here on this thread, and heart other people’s questions to make sure I see them and answer them.

Click here to add this to Google calendar.

[dhanushka]

Hi Quincy,

I’ve heard you through the 100DaysOfCode. I’m so much interested in this free self-learning platform as it helps hundreds of developers enhance their programming capacity.
To the extent that I discovered FreeCodeCamp presently provides learning materials for web developers. Especially for developers who are using javascript. Are there possibilities/plans to scale up to practice coding other languages such as Java, go, Rust, etc?

Thanks

[piratebeachbum]

Who is your code camp targeted toward, and what should someone do to prepare themselves for one of your camps?

[Hackerhodl]

Hi @quincylarson,

Thank you for doing this.

One Silly Question: A lot of devs do not consider HTML to be a programming language. What do you think?

A Serious One: What is ‘The One Thing’ that you want FreeCodeCamp to achieve in the short run?

[taners]

Hi Quincy,

With the word “free” even in the name, where do you see the value in giving away high-quality learning resources essentially for free to your users, and what is your model on capturing some of that value back to sustain your organization?

Thanks for the AmA

[niravbhatt.cpp]

Hi @quincylarson

Glad to chat with you here! Always amazed at your giant sized generous enterprise…

I am kind of curious about your general story and the process…

When you were developing the platform what were the challenges involved?
What component it was built upon?
How did you manage to keep up the motivation - for something of this non-profit nature…

Sorry if this is too much for the scope, feel free to link anything that answers so it’s not heavy on your time here…

cheers
-N

[IAMCOMPUTER]

Is the nature of consciousness analogous to how software works? Will code and the human brain become one?

[linh]

As you know, we are working on own migration, something you know a thing or two about.

At what point after the transition did you have time to move on from the past and focus on the future? (if you have moved on, that is)

And, what are your 3 most important metrics to measure the growth & health of FCC in 1 year, 5 years, and 10 years?

And thank you for being here. Love what you’ve done for so many people.

[kien]

Hi Quincy, thank you so much for doing this AMA!

If you do not mind, please share your experience with migrating from Medium!

• What are the challenges you have to face before and after the transition, from Medium?
• How long did your team have to prepare for the transition?
• How did you help make the transition easier for the readers?

Again, thanks for being here!

[mathurdpk]

Hi @quincylarson, I’ve learned a lot from your platform and I’m excited to participate in this AMA.

[mathurdpk]

That would be deadly combination, if it will.

[faithcorinne]

Hey @quincylarson ! Thanks so much for giving us access to your brain for a stint

My question is: What’s the next section you’d like to add to your curriculum, and where do you see the space in another year?

[utsavjaiswal]

Hi @quincylarson, you mentioned in another interview that you got your hands dirty with software development when you had an urge to automate some of the tiresome tasks of the teachers and staff. What are some of the tools and platforms you got yourself familiar with?

[Grace_McKenzie]

Hey @quincylarson,

I wanted to ask you how do you see the current education system when it comes to teaching software development and computer science? How are we going to close the gap between what the industry requires and what has been taught in the schools?

[daniel-murphy]

Hello @quincylarson. Pleasure having you here.

When you do so many things ranging from software development, learning new technologies and spending time with your family too. What is your secret to your time management skills?

[community_nick]

Hola @quincylarson.

Why do online programming resources revolve so much around web tech (HTML, JavaScript, PHP, Ruby etc) but it’s somewhat difficult to find good quality embedded systems programming resources or anything relating to bare metal programming? If there are some out there, then what are they?

[andy-connory]

Hi @quincylarson,

Who inspires you when you run out of your own motivation? Do you have any role model or someone you would like to definitely spend time to learn more on software development?

[gregory]

Hi @quincylarson,

What other resources you would recommend to someone who is trying to get into software development space and land a job?

[jack-maccourtney]

Hey @quincylarson,

What were your biggest challenges in starting freeCodeCamp?