Do Coding Bootcamps Charge Too Much For Indie Hackers (Non-Job-Seekers)?
Being an Indie Hacker is all about launching MVPs and testing them.
One of the highest leverage things you can do is learn to make your own MVPs because rather than burning money hiring a freelancer or wasting time getting a flaky developer to partner with you, you jump straight in and start iterating!
Problem is, each of your three options for becoming a coder have heavy downsides:
1. Going to school: way too much time and way too much money
2. Going to a bootcamp: too much money (they price based off of your projected salary once they help you get a job)
3. Learning on your own: too much time (you don't know what you need to know, so most of what you learn is not necessary to your goals)
I chose the third option. I believe it is still currently the best option for Indie Hackers, but when I look at what I learned versus what I've used these last several years, I estimate about 68% of it was a complete waste of my time. Here is my math (it was a while ago - these are estimates).
What I learned:
- HTML: 1 week
- CSS: 2 weeks
- CSS frameworks: 2 weeks
- Vanilla Javascript (Programming language): 1 month
- Vanilla Node (Javascript runtime): 1 week
- Vanilla Python (Programming language): 1 month
- Django (Python framework): 2 weeks
- Computer Science Stuff: 2 months
- Express (Node framework): 2 weeks
- nginx (server-based backend): 2 weeks
- heroku (cloud-based backend): 1 week
- SQL: 1 month
- MySQL: 1 month
- noSQL (MongoDB): 2 weeks
- AngularJS (Javascript framework): 1 week
- VueJS (Javascript framework): 1 week
- ReactJS (Javascript framework): 1 months
- PassportJS (Javascript framework): 1 week
- FeathersJS (Javascript framework): 1 week
- socket . io (handles real-time chat): 2 weeks
- GatsbyJS (ReactJS framework): 2 weeks
- NextJS (ReactJS framework): 2 weeks
- React Native (ReactJS-ish code that makes both android and iOS apps): 1 month
What I've used:
- CSS: 2 weeks
- Express (Node framework): 2 weeks
- heroku (cloud-based backend): 1 week
- ReactJS (Javascript framework): 1 months
- React Native (ReactJS-ish code that makes both android and iOS apps): 1 month
The Math?
If we do the math, I spent 57 weeks, or 14.25 months learning what I learned versus 13 weeks, or 3.25 months learning what was actually useful to me. I believe the time could be further reduced by making use of mentors/instructors.
Yes, you can avoid learning most of these useless things by going to a coding bootcamp, but there's no chance I'm spending $5k-15k on one. Besides that, bootcamps will still waste your time by teaching you how to pass archaic coding interviews which have zero crossover to the things you'll be building.
TL;DR
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The structure of a coding bootcamp offers the fastest way to learn to code, however, they charge way too much and still waste time teaching skills that are not useful at all for building MVPs.
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Going the self-taught route is cost effective, but you still end up wasting time because instructors benefit more from you the more you learn which is a glaring alignment issue.
Why am I droning on and on about this?
I'm gauging interest for a new kind of coding bootcamp - one that teaches builders how to build MVPs and nothing more. They say to build something you wish existed, and I really, really, REALLY wish this type of bootcamp existed back when I first started to learn.
I already have a rough 3 month curriculum detailed out in Figma. I could link to that if anyone is interested.
Anyways, let me know what you think! Do coding bootcamps charge too much for us Indie Hackers?
