I think that the crux of the argument seems to be this idea that there is a "magic bullet" to fix the education system. As a former teacher I can tell you that if there is a magic bullet it's parent involvement in students lives. No textbook, online video, or even a fantastic teacher is an acceptable substitute for parent involvement as a foundation for a child's educational success.
With that said, I think that KA is an excellent addition to the pieces of the educational puzzle. I've used many of his videos to supplement teaching and textbooks, both good and bad.
I'm in a similar position to this, except that I really do want to get ton occupational level. My goal is to be employed in web development.
I can hack some things together, and I can get through tutorials reasonably easily at this point. Almost all of my code at this point is plagiarized from someone else, then modified to meet my goals. So when is the tipping point when I can start to look for employment? I liked this article, but I'd like to see my question answered as a follow up.
This seems like a situation where the one would have to be very careful to adhere to the spirit rather than the letter of the challenge. The possible positive outcomes are really great though. I've often been pleasantly surprised (even overwhelmed) at how far people are willing to go to help me, often at great trouble to themselves.
because people think that you really need what you're asking for. By asking without need, you're exploiting the human species community safety net. Only a jerk would reject a request for help, and only a jerk would exploit that situation.
Whether or not it works, this seems like the right approach for FB. I definitely have had the experience of not knowing how to contact people (friends, parents, younger siblings.) People often talk about building something that solves a common problem and this does that. I think it will catch on.
I'm torn between loving the brutal simplicity and wanting them to add more products. I'm guessing if it's successful there's no way they don't add more products/categories.
Maybe this is better addressed to his site than this one, but I'm curious what type of job he netted with his reverse job application. Many people postulated it would be something in marketing, I wonder if that's true.
I'm in a very similar position working with Ruby/Rails, and I struggled for a while trying to figure out what to do. The approach I settled on was to work through another tutorial, but try to add features and much better design. In other (more Halloween appropriate) words, to really flesh out the skeleton that the tutorial gives you.
I know this isn't a totally original idea (as he mentions in the blog entry) but there seem to be a lot of folks newer to the filed on HN, like me, and I thought this was helpful and interesting.
This is pretty cool, but it's hard to think of good parameters that generate a funny or interesting diagram. Maybe you could think of some more suggestions.
According to mine it's differentiated by being "better than PC" and being illegal.
More confusingly it enjoys relationships with Ryan and Kyle (a soap?), "ulay culkin dead" which I'm assuming was a rumour about the Home Alone star, and "ookout pregnant again", which really confused me when I assumed it was referring to Macbooks...
This is probably very politically incorrect, but if you put different enthnicities or nationalities (blacks, French people, whites) as parameters, it's pretty easy to see what people's stereotypes are.
It's shocking, but also shockingly funny. Caveat emptor, guys. Personally, I'm appalled but hardly surprised. On average, the internet remains a very stupid place.
This seems like a perfect chance to take advantage of the law of unintended consequences. What I mean is, even though you may not see the direct and immediate benefit from a speaking engagement, there may be indirect benefits that make it very worthwhile.
Possible examples of this:
1. A speaking engagement is most likely a networking event. You arrive at this event with a high level of credibility already established - you are a speaker.
2. Preparing to speak to a group often forces you to clarify your priorities in a way that you haven't been forced to before. It can force you to separate what's essential from what's inessential in your business by virtue of what you feel is most beneficial to your audience.
3. There is often free food.
The one big caveat I see is that you don't want to do a speaking engagement half-assed, especially if you haven't done it before. So you should probably pass unless you can devote an adequate amount of time and attention to it to feel well prepared.
With that said, I think that KA is an excellent addition to the pieces of the educational puzzle. I've used many of his videos to supplement teaching and textbooks, both good and bad.