I really like their concept, and believe this is the direction non-free education should move toward (satisfying the goals of both the provider and most students). I hope that they are so confident in their program that the answers to your questions will lean much more toward giving the job seeker the freedom to choose what is best for him/herself.
I understand your aversion to ads. When I tried affiliate marketing, it made me sick just learning of the products shady companies were trying to trick consumers with. I quickly moved toward creating websites to offer useful content and including ads or affiliate links. Most of them failed to earn anything substantial.
I don't think you're wrong, but many great websites that provide content people really want rely on Adsense-type earnings to sustain themselves and afford the content creators the income necessary to continue producing it. It's unfortunate that the financial fate of some really great contributors is so closely tied to that of others who seem to produce little or no value. I wonder how those who offer high quality content via their own free website will continue to thrive.
I share your concern for the few website with high quality content, damaged by the reputation or shady moves of a lesser population. One of the greatest examples is, to my mind, Ted.
But, regarding to Ted, they have done something absolutely genuine: they run ads, yes, but at the end of the videos. And often the ads themselves are very high quality (comparing to the one on your average TV channel).
For me the benefit is twofold: I believe their behavior is rewarded by people, like me, who will stay and engage with the ads; because they don't feel betrayed and because they might learn something new or interesting during the advertisement. And, I believe it will become so difficult to make money with shady trades (because people are more and more protecting themselves), they will eventually come to disappear.
So, to be short, I think great websites which offer high quality advertisement, will earn back the trust of the users at some point. And, if they can manage to keep genuine user experience above their own greed, they will be rewarded for that.
PS: Not sure if it's relevant, but I should have disclosed this, I'm currently working for a startup who sell a recommendation engine to the travel industry. The product itself is not very far from an ad, but at least it only include references to the client's content. It's pretty ironic when you think of this.
The sentence, "The truth is this: I think Noa is raising us as much as we are raising her." and the paragraph it heads really resonated with me as a parent of a young child.
Upon seeing the title, I expected the article to be about the unknown languages infants sometimes seem to invent. We speak two languages to our son, but my wife and I both understand each language quite well. Our son was very vocal as an infant, but less than half of his words were English or Portuguese. He's nearly three now, but he'll still use some of his invented words to unnecessarily lengthen phrases. I imagine this is to mimic adults who express themselves with more words. He may believe that longer phrases are given more consideration as he tends to do this more often when making a request with a small chance of success, like asking for another treat after being told he can only have one.
Many on HN, including myself, are very excited about Starfighter. However, many HN readers are probably already employed or can easily find employment if they desire. You guys and gal know that maximizing outreach will be critical to your success. You aim to find buried talent, but that talent must first know Starfighter exists and understand it well enough to be enticed to try. I assume you want to both find talent whose ability is not accurately represented in a typical technical interview, but also those who have aptitude for these skills but whose resume wouldn't even be considered.
I grew up near a small town surrounded by family farms. I've really enjoyed manipulating code and finding bugs in games and other software since middle school, and I suspected I was the only one when I was younger. There were very few "nerds" at our school who focused on computers, and even those that did almost never discussed the discovery or exploitation of bugs. Although I stumbled upon a few communities online that shared my interests, I hadn't found one that just clicked. I happened upon HN while learning more about startups, and it was just right for me. I'm grateful I found HN, but I wonder why it took me so long to find the community I was looking for.
I didn't even know about CTF games until tptacek's recent hiring post, and it was another "How could I have been oblivious to this awesome thing for so long?" moment. There are many people who are a great fit for your clients, and they won't know about Starfighter unless you cast a wide or deep enough net. How do you plan to address this challenge?
>>At this point, my biggest fear is that I might not have the technical chops to complete the challenges.
I fully expect that I don't have the technical chops right now to complete the challenges, but I can barely contain my excitement to get started. Learning whatever it takes to overcome a defined challenge is so much more thrilling than learning a topic for the sake of knowing it.
I found sama's class (http://startupclass.samaltman.com) to be a particularly great collection of knowledge. I remember catching a few almost subtle drops of wisdom that I'd have underappreciated had I not previously known some info I'd already picked up by studying other educational resources on startups. I'm sure there are more that I did not catch. So if this class is one of the early resources you utilize, then I'd suggest you revisit it again later as well.
I don't think people need someone with a relatable trait to believe they can also accomplish audacious goals. However, I am convinced that it provides disproportionately more inspiration.
I agree that schools are failing all students, but I don't believe your idea of segregation will help resolve the diversity problems in tech. Perhaps it would be better to treat computer and coding skills like science, math, history, etc. and make it a mandatory subject for the entire class.
When I was in school in the 90s, computer classes were mandatory, but not scheduled as regularly as math, science, or history classes. Rather they were scheduled like gym, music, or wellness/personal-health (all also mandatory, but each only taking place once or twice a week.)
Because the schedule plainly indicated how important adults thought those courses were relative to others, those courses were considered jokes by me and my peers.
Regular and frequent scheduling would probably be required, but even as a professional developer I think that wouldn't be the best use of student time. Students would probably benefit more from math, english, and history courses. (Particularly english and history, since there is a lot that is broken with how we currently teach children mathematics.)
I'm interested in more courses than I have time for. So, like others who've responded, I often prioritize sections of moocs. Sometimes I quickly go through lectures alone when I want to review something I'd learned but haven't used much recently. And sometimes I won't have time to even start a course during the designated date and deadlines, but I fully intend to take advantage of the content later.
I think the incentives you mentioned are very relevant. College students don't want to waste the high tuition they've paid, nor do they want to lose their academic status they've worked for. But you left out another huge factor. In the current hiring system, too many employers value where a skill was learned more than the level of proficiency.
I believe that, as more companies transition to audition-style interviews and make more accurate assessments of ability, the value placed on educational credentials will diminish. When this happens, there will be hope that educating oneself via moocs will provide a fair chance to be considered for skilled employment. When students believe that most companies genuinely value what you can do more than where you learned how to do it, I think there will be far more incentive to both enroll in and complete moocs.
