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Can someone tell me what a Lambda school is? From the comments here it appears its a specific class of school. From their site it just looks like a regular onli

Can someone tell me what a Lambda school is? From the comments here it appears its a specific class of school. From their site it just looks like a regular online learning company.

shuckles 7y ago
Online learning company with a founder good at growth hacking attention on Twitter, as well as one of the more outspoken advocates for Income Share Agreements in media.
chx 7y ago
> From the comments here it appears its a specific class of school. From their site it just looks like a regular online learning company. It is not a class of school, it is indeed a company. A scam/cult masquerading as a startup. It's hyped, it's batshit insane. A thread from yesterday https://twitter.com/KeziyahL/status/1155154616281178114 https://twitter.com/KeziyahL/status/1155154616281178114 but of course there is more. To me, it was obvious there is something wrong because PaulG often raved about it and nothing good comes out of that. You can't growth hack education. Humans don't work like that. I started a (very small, very unprofitable) school in a far away country and also happen to have a teacher's degree and oh boy. As for scam, just look at their website. > "Pay $0 tuition until you land a high-paying job Lambda covers your tuition costs until you're making at least $50,000 a year. " How is $50 000 a high paying job? According to the SSA, the average wage in 2017 was $48,251.57. Also, the 17% is calculated from before tax but paid after tax. So if you earn 50K, take home 40K then Lambda doesn't take 6800, no they will take 8500. > "You can choose to pay $20k upfront for Lambda tuition ... You'll never pay more than $30k ..." Wait, you are charging 50% interest? Possibly over two years?
- austenallred 7y ago
  > To me, it was obvious there is something wrong because PaulG often raved about it and nothing good comes out of that. Just pointing out how funny it is for someone to say that nothing good comes from PG... on HackerNews
  - pgcj_poster 7y ago
    If we take "good" to mean, "the opposite of evil," it would most definitely not describe HackerNews.
- sigstoat 7y ago
  > > "You can choose to pay $20k upfront for Lambda tuition ... You'll never pay more than $30k ..." > Wait, you are charging 50% interest? Possibly over two years? that's not how interest works. on a variety of levels. for starters, "50% over two years" would be 22% annualized, which is the only way anyone talks about interest. admittedly, that would be a high interest rate. except it isn't interest. what you pay is a function of how much you earn. try borrowing money from the bank for 6%, and see if they'll let you just stop paying if you don't make any money. > I started a (very small, very unprofitable) school in a far away country and also happen to have a teacher's degree what were you teaching that didn't require simple arithmetic, or reading comprehension?
- CPLX 7y ago
  I am very open to the idea that Lambda school sucks, or is overhyped. Many SV things are. However, literally nothing in that linked twitter thread, or the one it in turn links to, do a single thing to demonstrate that at all. The people who posted both have no first hand experience at all and there's no data or details or facts to support their arguments. It’s just someone reading the website and posting reaction gifs.
tnorthcutt 7y ago
I think their main differentiator is that they offer the education free up front, with an income share agreement (ISA) if you get a job in the field they trained you for. More: https://lambdaschool.com/isa https://lambdaschool.com/isa
nabnob 7y ago
It's a scammy, for-profit, private school that charges $30k+ for online classes. Edit: 20k up front, versus 30k if taken out of your salary over 2 years. That's around 20% interest. They mention that payments are 17% of your income, but this is calculated pre-tax and paid after taxes.
- projectileboy 7y ago
  That seems exceptionally unfair. They’re very up front about what they charge, how they charge it, and whether or not you even pay anything at all. I got a lot out of my overall college experience and so I probably wouldn’t opt for it, but if one of my kids was only interested in software development, I would suggest they attend Lambda School with no reservations whatsoever.
  - austenallred 7y ago
    People who don't like the idea of capitalism in general tend to not be huge fans of Lambda School. But we only get paid $30k in the case where you get a software engineering job after Lambda School that pays $85k+. Everyone else pays less, and absolutely no one pays more than $30k. Our upfront tuition for the nine-month, full-time course is $20k if paid upfront.
    - pl0x 7y ago
      This is distasteful coming from the founder of this institution.
      - nabnob 7y ago
        I'm pretty sure he dug through my history before making that comment and is downvoting any comments that are negative.
        austenallred 7y ago
        > I'm pretty sure he dug through my history before making that comment yes > and is downvoting any comments that are negative. no
austenallred 7y ago
It's a 9-month (full-time) programming + computer science school where you only pay if you get hired making $50k+/yr in the field you studied. If you don't you pay $0. If you do, you pay 17% of income for 2 years, capped at $30k total.
- macinjosh 7y ago
  Wow, indentured servitude is back in fashion?
  - tomhoward 7y ago
    It's a vastly better and fairer deal than college fees/loans.

Can someone tell me what a Lambda school is? From the comments here it appears its a specific class of school. From their site it just looks like a regular online learning company.

shuckles 7y ago

Online learning company with a founder good at growth hacking attention on Twitter, as well as one of the more outspoken advocates for Income Share Agreements in media.

chx 7y ago

> From the comments here it appears its a specific class of school. From their site it just looks like a regular online learning company. It is not a class of school, it is indeed a company. A scam/cult masquerading as a startup. It's hyped, it's batshit insane. A thread from yesterday https://twitter.com/KeziyahL/status/1155154616281178114 https://twitter.com/KeziyahL/status/1155154616281178114 but of course there is more. To me, it was obvious there is something wrong because PaulG often raved about it and nothing good comes out of that. You can't growth hack education. Humans don't work like that. I started a (very small, very unprofitable) school in a far away country and also happen to have a teacher's degree and oh boy. As for scam, just look at their website. > "Pay $0 tuition until you land a high-paying job Lambda covers your tuition costs until you're making at least $50,000 a year. " How is $50 000 a high paying job? According to the SSA, the average wage in 2017 was $48,251.57. Also, the 17% is calculated from before tax but paid after tax. So if you earn 50K, take home 40K then Lambda doesn't take 6800, no they will take 8500. > "You can choose to pay $20k upfront for Lambda tuition ... You'll never pay more than $30k ..." Wait, you are charging 50% interest? Possibly over two years?

austenallred 7y ago
> To me, it was obvious there is something wrong because PaulG often raved about it and nothing good comes out of that. Just pointing out how funny it is for someone to say that nothing good comes from PG... on HackerNews
- pgcj_poster 7y ago
  If we take "good" to mean, "the opposite of evil," it would most definitely not describe HackerNews.
sigstoat 7y ago
> > "You can choose to pay $20k upfront for Lambda tuition ... You'll never pay more than $30k ..." > Wait, you are charging 50% interest? Possibly over two years? that's not how interest works. on a variety of levels. for starters, "50% over two years" would be 22% annualized, which is the only way anyone talks about interest. admittedly, that would be a high interest rate. except it isn't interest. what you pay is a function of how much you earn. try borrowing money from the bank for 6%, and see if they'll let you just stop paying if you don't make any money. > I started a (very small, very unprofitable) school in a far away country and also happen to have a teacher's degree what were you teaching that didn't require simple arithmetic, or reading comprehension?
CPLX 7y ago
I am very open to the idea that Lambda school sucks, or is overhyped. Many SV things are. However, literally nothing in that linked twitter thread, or the one it in turn links to, do a single thing to demonstrate that at all. The people who posted both have no first hand experience at all and there's no data or details or facts to support their arguments. It’s just someone reading the website and posting reaction gifs.

tnorthcutt 7y ago

I think their main differentiator is that they offer the education free up front, with an income share agreement (ISA) if you get a job in the field they trained you for. More: https://lambdaschool.com/isa https://lambdaschool.com/isa

nabnob 7y ago

It's a scammy, for-profit, private school that charges $30k+ for online classes. Edit: 20k up front, versus 30k if taken out of your salary over 2 years. That's around 20% interest. They mention that payments are 17% of your income, but this is calculated pre-tax and paid after taxes.

projectileboy 7y ago
That seems exceptionally unfair. They’re very up front about what they charge, how they charge it, and whether or not you even pay anything at all. I got a lot out of my overall college experience and so I probably wouldn’t opt for it, but if one of my kids was only interested in software development, I would suggest they attend Lambda School with no reservations whatsoever.
- austenallred 7y ago
  People who don't like the idea of capitalism in general tend to not be huge fans of Lambda School. But we only get paid $30k in the case where you get a software engineering job after Lambda School that pays $85k+. Everyone else pays less, and absolutely no one pays more than $30k. Our upfront tuition for the nine-month, full-time course is $20k if paid upfront.
  - pl0x 7y ago
    This is distasteful coming from the founder of this institution.
    - nabnob 7y ago
      I'm pretty sure he dug through my history before making that comment and is downvoting any comments that are negative.
      - austenallred 7y ago
        > I'm pretty sure he dug through my history before making that comment yes > and is downvoting any comments that are negative. no

austenallred 7y ago

It's a 9-month (full-time) programming + computer science school where you only pay if you get hired making $50k+/yr in the field you studied. If you don't you pay $0. If you do, you pay 17% of income for 2 years, capped at $30k total.

macinjosh 7y ago
Wow, indentured servitude is back in fashion?
- tomhoward 7y ago
  It's a vastly better and fairer deal than college fees/loans.