6 ms·

What if the reason haters are using the word "fraud" is not because of sour grape chewing about the random vagaries of chance, but because the company (at the b

What if the reason haters are using the word "fraud" is not because of sour grape chewing about the random vagaries of chance, but because the company (at the behest of their leadership) has been lying to their customers about such things as: 1. Their employee list (not updating it quickly after major staffing changes) 2. Legal status: misrepresenting to the public and to customers that the company is licensed to operate in that capacity or is proceeding illegally? 3. Pressuring it's subscription customers to publish positive stories about the product and reportedly even threatening their access to it. I ask because this article comes out days after a Business Insider article about a high profile YC company. Its author uses the words "fraud" on their twitter and "cult" in the article, and makes some of the accusations that I've listed above. It's difficult not to suspect the two events are linked.

orf 7y ago
Care to link to the story?
- KirinDave 7y ago
  https://amp.businessinsider.com/lambda-school-online-coding-bootcamp-y-combinator-cult-2019-10 https://amp.businessinsider.com/lambda-school-online-coding-... https://twitter.com/KeziyahL/status/1155154616281178114?s=19 https://twitter.com/KeziyahL/status/1155154616281178114?s=19 https://www.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/comments/8qopsz/if_youre_thinking_about_doing_lambda_school_dont/?utm_source=amp&utm_medium=&utm_content=post_body https://www.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/comments/8qopsz/if... I could find some more about their instructor roster change but forgive me, I'm traveling internationally today.
  - tompccs 7y ago
    These are old stories. Given pg's statements on Twitter it's likely Lambda School was at least at the back of his mind when he wrote the piece but I don't think it's the sole reason.
    - KirinDave 7y ago
      This all blew up on Twitter and Reddit a few nights ago. I actually ended up in chats (directly and indirectly) with a few different LS alumni who didn't know what to do, as they were unable to find work and afraid to speak out against LS for not doing a good job.
      - tompccs 7y ago
        Interesting. I think Austen is a brilliant self-promoter, which is the source of much of his and LS's success. Not knocking that at all, the product seems to work for a lot of people and the more he can scale it the more people he can help. Being a good self-promoter puts you prominently in the public eye which is I think attracts a lot of detractors/haters. There are also competitors with very similar offerings who can't match up to Austen's hype machine. They want to claim there is some fatal flaw at the heart of LS to make Austen look like some kind of fraudster. This seems despearate to me. There are always dissatisfied students. I remember when I was an undergraduate I got into arguments with people on a private facebook group who felt that the course should have been more "spoon-fed" to us and that the exam questions were unfair. People come to higher education with widely varying expectations. As the old adage goes, you can't please all of the people all of the time. That said, my antenna is up for any serious criticism of AA and LS. So far I've not seen anything beyond to-be-expected low-level grumbling, which is being pounced on his strange growing harem of haters. Which only adds weight to pg's article, in my opinion.
        KirinDave 7y ago
        It seems like maybe losing all their well-known teachers and jeopardizing every contract they have inked with students by lying publicly about their lack of licensing in California aren't sufficient complaints?
      - AlexCoventry 7y ago
        Do you have a link to the recent reddit thread?
- nicesnowoman 7y ago
  https://twitter.com/nwilliams030/status/1213475354314039298 https://twitter.com/nwilliams030/status/1213475354314039298
danso 7y ago
A more recent example would be this Dec. 30, 2019 twitter thread [0], in which someone asked for an update from the California state regulator on Lambda's approval status, and was told that they were not approved, (see edit for correction of following) and apparently, do not appear to have submitted an application. [0] https://twitter.com/sandofsky/status/1211717254712135680 https://twitter.com/sandofsky/status/1211717254712135680 edit: the thread author just replied that BPPE followed up and said Lambda has recently applied: https://twitter.com/sandofsky/status/1216075710818766848 https://twitter.com/sandofsky/status/1216075710818766848 > In a follow up BPPE said they recently applied. They also said it’s not possible for any school offering ISAs to meet the legal requirements.
- KirinDave 7y ago
  Thanks. I'm on a plane and the WiFi gets kinda bad over Greenland. I couldn't get Twitter's search function to work reliably.
- JumpCrisscross 7y ago
  > do not appear to have submitted an application This is nuts. Does Lambda School market itself, and/or have students in, New York State?

orf 7y ago

Care to link to the story?

KirinDave 7y ago
https://amp.businessinsider.com/lambda-school-online-coding-bootcamp-y-combinator-cult-2019-10 https://amp.businessinsider.com/lambda-school-online-coding-... https://twitter.com/KeziyahL/status/1155154616281178114?s=19 https://twitter.com/KeziyahL/status/1155154616281178114?s=19 https://www.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/comments/8qopsz/if_youre_thinking_about_doing_lambda_school_dont/?utm_source=amp&utm_medium=&utm_content=post_body https://www.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/comments/8qopsz/if... I could find some more about their instructor roster change but forgive me, I'm traveling internationally today.
- tompccs 7y ago
  These are old stories. Given pg's statements on Twitter it's likely Lambda School was at least at the back of his mind when he wrote the piece but I don't think it's the sole reason.
  - KirinDave 7y ago
    This all blew up on Twitter and Reddit a few nights ago. I actually ended up in chats (directly and indirectly) with a few different LS alumni who didn't know what to do, as they were unable to find work and afraid to speak out against LS for not doing a good job.
    - tompccs 7y ago
      Interesting. I think Austen is a brilliant self-promoter, which is the source of much of his and LS's success. Not knocking that at all, the product seems to work for a lot of people and the more he can scale it the more people he can help. Being a good self-promoter puts you prominently in the public eye which is I think attracts a lot of detractors/haters. There are also competitors with very similar offerings who can't match up to Austen's hype machine. They want to claim there is some fatal flaw at the heart of LS to make Austen look like some kind of fraudster. This seems despearate to me. There are always dissatisfied students. I remember when I was an undergraduate I got into arguments with people on a private facebook group who felt that the course should have been more "spoon-fed" to us and that the exam questions were unfair. People come to higher education with widely varying expectations. As the old adage goes, you can't please all of the people all of the time. That said, my antenna is up for any serious criticism of AA and LS. So far I've not seen anything beyond to-be-expected low-level grumbling, which is being pounced on his strange growing harem of haters. Which only adds weight to pg's article, in my opinion.
      - KirinDave 7y ago
        It seems like maybe losing all their well-known teachers and jeopardizing every contract they have inked with students by lying publicly about their lack of licensing in California aren't sufficient complaints?
    - AlexCoventry 7y ago
      Do you have a link to the recent reddit thread?
nicesnowoman 7y ago
https://twitter.com/nwilliams030/status/1213475354314039298 https://twitter.com/nwilliams030/status/1213475354314039298

danso 7y ago

A more recent example would be this Dec. 30, 2019 twitter thread [0], in which someone asked for an update from the California state regulator on Lambda's approval status, and was told that they were not approved, (see edit for correction of following) and apparently, do not appear to have submitted an application. [0] https://twitter.com/sandofsky/status/1211717254712135680 https://twitter.com/sandofsky/status/1211717254712135680 edit: the thread author just replied that BPPE followed up and said Lambda has recently applied: https://twitter.com/sandofsky/status/1216075710818766848 https://twitter.com/sandofsky/status/1216075710818766848 > In a follow up BPPE said they recently applied. They also said it’s not possible for any school offering ISAs to meet the legal requirements.

KirinDave 7y ago
Thanks. I'm on a plane and the WiFi gets kinda bad over Greenland. I couldn't get Twitter's search function to work reliably.
JumpCrisscross 7y ago
> do not appear to have submitted an application This is nuts. Does Lambda School market itself, and/or have students in, New York State?