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Fireship – Learn to Code Faster
- holtkam2 4y agoMy fav YouTube channel! I didn’t even know about fireship.io, so thanks for linking this here on HN!
- hr0m 4y agoI have nothing to do with web development but the YouTube channel fireship is great. Funny and informative.
- troebr 4y agoI read this as "Learn to <code faster>", instead of "<Learn to code> faster". Heck yeah I want to code faster!
- Sakos 4y agoReally? I was critical of it because the bottleneck is almost never coding speed for me. xD
- KMag 4y agoThere are broadly two aspects to my last couple of roles: infrastructure development and operational support. My infra development isn't speed-limited, but operational support involves a lot of quick back-of-the-envelope estimates of large datasets and/or one-off automation many invocations of commandline tools. My infrastructure work is in C++ and Python, whereas I most often reach for jq, awk, tr, sort, uniq, comm, etc. for operational support tasks.
- bitwize 4y agoOne word, my dude: Lisp.
- w-m 4y agoMe too, must be the advent of code leaderboard envy! I'm reading the puzzle text, implementing a nice little solution, debugging it a little bit, and after a few tries get the correct result. Entering the result, happy that it has worked, and realizing, that there were 4000 people faster than me again. It does not bother me too much, but it is humbling. And I guess speed puzzle solving is a skill that can be trained like any other, so given the context I too thought, that these a website to learn exactly that.
- steve76 4y ago
- agentwiggles 4y agoI'm nowhere near the leaderboards, but I have built some tools that do things like scaffold the files for a solution and automatically fetch the input file. I imagine the guys competing for the top spots are doing similar things, automating as much as possible. Another thing is having utilities and libraries that are well suited for solving puzzles, I have a whole module in my repo that implements a 2d-array style structure (in elixir), which I've been able to use on 6 or 7 puzzles. So there are ways to increase your speed other than "just be really fast at coding" (although you definitely need that too if you're trying to get up the rankings!)
- 147 4y agoMe too! I thought there was a ship that'll burn down if you don't code fast enough. The video thumbnail showing "100 seconds" made me think there was a timer.
- KMag 4y agoYea, I was thinking some kind of spaceship RPG where you'd need to quickly code up short programs to deal with various surprise situations. "Quick, generate a prioritized list of polar coordinate firing directions based on this CSV of enemy ships in cartesian coordinates and their offensive strengths" Edit: Chatting on AIM was how I finally learned to touch-type properly. It's funny how a small amount of urgency really improves the value of certain exercises.
- DylanSp 4y agoThis might go well with some theming based on A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky, given how Vinge describes programming and automation as critical to operating spacecraft in those books.
- chrisweekly 4y agoThose were fun reads!
- djmips 4y agoTyping of the Dead is another one that provides some urgency. haha
- omarhaneef 4y agoSame. 1. Ask chatgpt to write the code 2. Debug the obvious errors 3. Ask stack overflow to find the non-obvious errors 4. Repeat You accidentally become a better programmer like the old days when people would learn by typing in listings from compute.
- RobTonino 4y agoLearned a lot from him in my super early days. Sometimes can teach whole topics, others it can give you the right amount of knowledge to search it and study it your self. Keep going Jeff
- kecupochren 4y agoThe landing page says every course starts free but it's only intro "overview" videos I can watch. None of the actual content can be seen before paying.
- HiroProtagonist 4y agoI had the same experience. I was disappointed.
- digitallyfree 4y agoThey also talk about how their "project-based" learning is better than video learning, but it doesn't provide any examples of that. All I can see without registering are sample video lessons. Obviously they don't need to provide everything for free but they do need to prove to potential customers that their approach is better.
- djmips 4y agoExactly. I wanted to sample what they were 'selling' and they didn't offer that.
- djmips 4y agoIt's basically a lie. You don't actually get to sample the course at all!
- WillPostForFood 4y agoI see sample course content: https://fireship.io/courses/git/basics-init/ https://fireship.io/courses/git/basics-init/
- 63 4y ago$30 /month feels like a lot to me. It reminds me of leetcode where I would actually consider paying for the service but the price is just so high I can't justify it for how little time I would spend with it. Maybe the price makes sense if you're going through every course on the site, but I'm really only interested in one or two so it just doesn't make sense for me. I'll just learn from other sources.
- epolanski 4y agoThose prices are ridiculous but I guess they have optimized it and figured it's the best option.
- digianarchist 4y agoYou think $30 a month is ridiculous?
- mistercheph 4y ago-Digianarchist
- ChuckNorris89 4y agoThe worth and value of something is all relative to every each person.
- epolanski 4y agoYes.
- waprin 4y agoProgrammers: > "Why does BigTech keep tracking me!" > "If you're not the customer, you're the product!" > "Why is the internet getting monopolized by a few media empires owned by a few billionaires!" Small indie developer: "hey guys I put a massive amount of work into this project, how about you just act like a customer and pay me a small amount of money". > "Ahhh this is highway robbery! $30 is outrageously overpriced!" People are insanely cheap with software, even professional software developers. It's an attitude that's shifting but very slowly. The VC backed ad-economy has anchored everyone's expectation that anything above $0 is somehow a ripoff. The end result is we all get tracked, our data monetized, and the best job opportunities are mostly obeying the rules of a tiny number of elite overlords who can finance "free" products. Also, people won't bat an eye at paying $40k, $50k, or $60k for 1 year at a university even though you'd probably learn more programming from doing Fireship's classes then a lot of undergrad CS semesters. It has more to do with psychological anchoring than any sort of economic rationality.
- kleiba 4y agoSo, I click on "start here", get to three pages of promises of greatness and then - while I still don't have a clue what this thing really is - I get asked to sign up. Err, no, thank you.
- SapporoChris 4y agoI lost interest with: "You can't learn to code by watching videos", "Fireship is all about project-based learning. I create short highly-focused videos that make learning to code addicting." I can't take anyone seriously when they contradict themselves so quickly.
- pcthrowaway 4y agoIt might have been a self-deprecating joke, since they make lots of videos about coding
- cutemonster 4y agoI think with "project-based learning", they mean one will create one's own coding projects? Learning by doing, and videos. (Personally I prefer reading)
- cybrox 4y agoI haven't used the Fireship site or any of their courses but I do really enjoy their YouTube channel. Especially the XYZ in 100s is a nice bite-sized introduction to some things you might have never heard of. https://www.youtube.com/@Fireship https://www.youtube.com/@Fireship
- calny 4y ago100% agree about the YouTube Channel. It's especially useful for being a self-taught programmer trying to decide between frameworks, other development options, etc. Also I just watched their video from a couple days ago, "Things are gonna get weird in 2023" about how tech trends will play out next year, and it's both on point and hilarious. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v_TEnpqHXE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v_TEnpqHXE
- ElijahLynn 4y agoThanks, that video was so "to the point" and respected the viewers time. I found I didn't even have to speed it up with Video Speed Controller because it was already sped up!!! Subscribed!
- djmips 4y agoFor the first time I had to slow a video down! But then I put it back to normal after I got a hold of his flow.
- ConradKilroy 4y agoI concur, their yt channel of 100s video series is succinct.
- mrtksn 4y agoTheir videos are often the best introduction to frameworks, technologies or concepts. I'm consistently surprised how well that channel manages to pack quite technical topics.
- baron816 4y ago
- sosodev 4y ago"You can't learn to code by watching videos" -- this is 100% false "I create short highly-focused videos" -- a bit contradictory, no? Sure it's "project based" but so are many other free courses
- humanistbot 4y agoI think you can't learn to code *just* by watching videos. Videos can be a start, but you need practice. You can't learn to be a carpenter by watching videos either, but videos can be a great way to get started.
- ilrwbwrkhv 4y agoThe best hackers I know are all super fast. That is the one quality that is common. They can create huge amounts of business value in a very short time by using fewer but better abstractions.
- peter_d_sherman 4y agoThey are also super terse! They do the most amount of work -- with the least amount of code! (Compare to long-winded political speeches where a lot is said -- but very little is actually accomplished! <g>)
- ilrwbwrkhv 4y agoCorrect
- adolph 4y agomaintable = 1/trse;
- jasonjmcghee 4y agoOut of curiosity- you're stating that more terse means less maintainable? Code golf and "cleverness" are hard to maintain, but more verbose does not mean something is more maintainable. Unless it's entirely boilerplate, more verbose code seems to generally be more complex than necessary
- adolph 4y agoIt's hard to tell what I meant as much time has past. I think I was responding to [The best hackers I know] are also super terse! I've spent time in an aggressively terse 1980s/90s codebase (based on VA Fileman, example is [0]). Between single letter variable names and syntax abbreviations, and global scope assumed vars, it was like working in minified JQuery. Aside from NextStep/iOS methodDeclarationsThatTakeAllEightyCharactersBecauseTheyAreIdeDriven, I've never seen a codebase that was too verbose. I think they are few and far between because most people are too lazy to be really verbose. The best code maintains a close approximation to the mind of a reasonably educated programmer, a mental model of the intent and purpose of the code and what the compiler (or jit, or whatever) can understand. Too terse is too closely fitted to one specific person's mental model. 0. https://www.hardhats.org/fileman/pm/cla_frm.htm https://www.hardhats.org/fileman/pm/cla_frm.htm
- 999900000999 4y ago30$ a month is a ton to spend compared to something free like the Odin project. https://www.theodinproject.com/ https://www.theodinproject.com/ If you charged 10$ for it I would off already signed up. I actually want to learn front end React
- encryptluks2 4y agoI still wouldn't sign up because after clicking to get started it asked me to sign in before even letting me try it out. Just a bunch of meme graphics.
- desireco42 4y agoI subscribed to Fireship mostly because I am already gaining a lot from the videos they are posting (I believe it is work of a single guy). Courses are excellent and provide value even for experienced people like me.
- meatjuice 4y agoWill there be a course for Rust eventually?
- jacobsenscott 4y agoMaybe it is just because I learned to code back when people learned from books (sometimes even textbooks!), but I think the fastest way to learn to code is to get one good book on whatever language you want to use, and just start coding. Videos and tutorials are so low bandwidth, hours of videos and tutorials == the intro chapter to a book. If anything videos are eating the time you could spend reading and coding.
- Waterluvian 4y agoMy experience was “read the book and do exercises until I feel a false sense of confidence. Then just go do stuff and use the rest of the book as a reference.” What was most important to me was to make sure I didn’t burn out and get bored. It was important to get to a fun, captivating project asap.
- proprietario 4y agoah, interesting, what projects do you normally do? i really like this approach but struggle to find a good starting project... I always pivot bewteen too simple and too complex
- gompertz 4y agoI always gravitate towards projects that involve reading in tab delimited data, doing some sort of transformations (crud) or analytics, and writing the results back. You then quickly learn data IO, Data structures, looping, threading (big data) etc etc.
- roblh 4y agoAgree with this. Lately I've been watching more youtube videos about programming than usual, but I still find they take so long to get anywhere. The 5 to 10 minutes you spend watching one could almost always be spent reading an article or a chapter of a book on the same topic and getting much more information out of it. And it turns into practice for reading documentation about things that have no videos about them, which is its own skill.
- robswc 4y agoI really like Fireship. I don’t think I’m in the market for a sub-based learning product but his YouTube videos are always incredible
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- einpoklum 4y ago1. You should not learn to code "faster". You should learn to code well. 2. This site is about all sorts of JS frameworks like Node and Angular and React. No other languages nor even clean JS without any framework or web apps. So, limited value IMHO.
- toolslive 4y ago- 1. I think it means to say "Learn to code well faster". - 2. Yes. if you're starting out with javascript, you're doomed. I'm pretty sure Dijkstra would have adapted his famous quote[0] to JS too. [0] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/79997-it-is-practically-impossible-to-teach-good-programming-to-students https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/79997-it-is-practically-imp...
- larsonnn 4y ago1. why should I code faster 2. it’s not true you need to actual code to learn coding 3. I’m really disappointed in the direction they going Also GitHub is doing marketing with:“you’re code is not perfect use copilot.“ So code faster and then use copilot because we trust some data more which we didn’t even know the quality behind it.
- jacobsenscott 4y agoI think they mean a faster way to learn coding, not learn to code faster. As for copilot - I like it - you can evaluate the quality of the results by reading the results. I nearly always edit the results a bit, but I still think it helps.
- tomr75 4y agowould be cool if they add rust
- Lapsa 4y agowtf "You can't learn to code by watching videos" -> "Solution (..) I create short highly-focused videos that make learning to code addicting." hard pass
- Aeolun 4y ago> You can’t learn to write code by watching videos > Solution: I made a bunch of (better?) videos that teach you how to code. I’m not sure I understand this logic.
- short_throw 4y agoHN predictably tearing him apart for his pricing and marketing. If you haven't heard of fireship, do this instead of complaining about his prices: 1. Watch a few videos on his YouTube for free (https://m.youtube.com/c/fireship https://m.youtube.com/c/fireship) 2. If you enjoy it, subscribe/watch more. 3. If you really like it and want to take his courses then pay for a membership. This guy can get information on a new topic into my brain faster than anyone on YouTube, while keeping me entertained and enjoying every minute of it. His code report videos are so entertaining (but less technical) that my non programmer wife likes to watch them. I'm glad he can make a living at this. He's put thousands of hours of labor into producing fantastic content for free. I was happy to pay a fraction of a days pay to buy a lifetime membership to support his years of work, but if you don't like it don't buy it. High quality technical content is important to me, and I'm thankful whenever those creators find a way to eat without being totally subservient to google's algorithms.
- Uptrenda 4y agoLooks like he actually puts effort into his videos. I am so sick of YouTube normies who literally just steal others content and add their 'reactions' to it with a click bait title. It's not 'fair use' in my opinion. They are just stealing other's work because they're too mediocre to do anything original themselves. Yet these very same people end up making tons of money on YouTube. Going to guess none of that goes back to the people whose content they steal. It can also be complicated if they're doing stuff like streaming video games because ultimately they don't own any of the game's assets. So are they really entitled to make money from that or not? I think it's an interesting question.
- mackatap 4y agoMr beast has talked about this, and it almost always is beneficial for the person who's content is getting "stolen". You aren't losing views, you are gaining exposure. Your channel grows because of this, not shrinks.
- dartharva 4y agoI haven't seen that happening to tech/tutorial channels. Most of the categories where such kind of drama happens aren't worth watching on the first place.
- black_13 4y ago
- photochemsyn 4y agoLearning git is the cheapest way to get faster at coding. First get a good grasp of command-line git and of the git workflow (dirty working directory -> staged index -> commit code), and then use git diff to see how your code changes from one commit to the next (or between the staged index and the previous commit, or just looking at one file, etc.) If you get your git diffs from one commit to the next to start looking concise and clear, maybe one working function added per commit, one block, one small class etc,, then you can start coding pretty quickly, because you're adding in discrete chunks, testing as you go, and you don't get lost trying to do too much at once, you can quickly switch back to the latest working version, debuggging is much faster, etc.
- culi 4y agoVS Code makes visualizing diffs extremely easy. You can also select specific lines and commit them as you want. This enables a workflow I love to use for smaller PRs where I just do all the work without making any commits and then at the end of it all I walk through my changes and group/organize the changes however makes the most sense
- agentwiggles 4y agoI do this too, although I definitely make commits along the way. Then at the end I rebase and batch things up. My in progress commits are usually just things like "works here" or whatever. I truly love having git backing me up as I play with code - it's a superpower that basically no other field has access to. (imagine if you could drop a commit before you make that circular saw cut and revert when it went off, or revert the splotch of paint you got on the ceiling! ) The mindset has even become part of how I play Factorio, I have dozens of save files like "pre big train refactor" and similar.
- usrbinbash 4y ago> You can also select specific lines and commit them as you want. You can do that on the command line as well; git add -p
- opdahl 4y agoTo be honest I see this new trend of squishing down longform information (such as books, courses etc) into short tidbits with the promise of «infusing you with information» a detriment to learning. There is a huge difference between being told something by e.g reading a sentence summarizing a point, in comparison to reading the longer form. This is because a big part of what is learning, or grokking rather, is that you ponder and think about the information you just received in context with something else. You need to simulate and build a mental model using the information as a jumping off point. Thats where longer form of content such as a «slow» book is beneficial. It might be slow and repeating itself, but in doing so it gives you the chance to actually understand what is being presented to you. These short summaries are giving you non of that, unless you actually stop and ponder every single sentence, and at that point you might as well be consuming the longer form since it will help you in that aspect. I honestly believe we’re currently being too focused on productivity hacks, so we’re not seeing the forest for the trees. You reading and remembering a line from a book is not the same as you understanding that line, and in this example where they state they are giving you a 60 minute lesson in 5 minutes - how much understanding are you actually left with at the end?
- charlie0 4y agoShort attention spans seems problematic, but we live in an era where shrinking the things we don't know we know is better than better memorizing the things we know. Search has made this possible and I predict this trend will increase with AI like ChatGPT.
- pryelluw 4y agoSame could be said about books when they were invented. Books allow you to read whatever you need at any time instead of memorizing the information. You don’t get to store as much information if you read books. Remembering things will be a thing of the past. Those who memorize things are able to slowly over time form a better understanding. And so on …
- opdahl 4y agoI'm not sure if I agree. I think there is a fundamental difference in having an understanding (mental model) of a topic, and remembering a piece of information. The information is of course useful when building these mental models and when being used in context of a mental model. I do agree with you though that there is less need to recall specific information, but you still need to know _when_ you should look for some information that you don't currently have.
- matus_congrady 4y agoIn my oppinion, fireship videos are of the hihgest quality out there. I really enjoy every single one of them. Best of luck monetizing it in any way possible. Well deserved.
- eiiot 4y agoFireship is a great jumping off point for programming. For example, I recently started learning Rust, and their "in 100s" video on it really helped me to get the basics. However, the best way to learn to code is still just to do it. It's much easier to build something you think would be cool, and use the vast amount of free information available on the internet, as opposed to sitting through courses that cost >$300 yearly.
- nigamanth 4y agoI've been watching Fireship for years and it has enhanced my JavaScript and CSS skills. With his easy to understand concepts and skills, I have entered a new world of knowledge.
- jasfi 4y agoUse multi-modal learning. Videos, tutorials, projects, ChatGPT. I think it's worth watching a video before diving into a project if you are very new to what you're learning. ChatGPT is a great new way to learn as well.
- Jayakumark 4y agoI don’t know why hyperskill.org is not getting any love on HN, zero videos, byte sized lessons to the point - followed by questions and assignment. Also mini projects at every 10 or so lessons which eventually makes up final project and their learning map is really awesome which maps topics to know before proceeding , and integration with JetBrains IDE is nice so you can submit projects or questions directly.
- spaceman_2020 4y agoThis thread has strong HN boomer vibes.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- langsoul-com 4y agoI tried to make a Web course for a friend, like a super duper crash course. Turns out it's a ton of fucking effort and gets outdated fairly quickly. The best system would be having mini Web projects with automatic testing based. So they can program an actual website, whist being marked for actually doing it. However, that's way too much effort for a one time thing.
- somedude895 4y agoThat's what freecodecamp does. I've done a couple of their courses and really liked the user experience. Never see it mentioned on hn interestingly enough
- duckydude20 4y agoimo, these videos are not of much help. books, docs and articles. that's what teaches me. spikes, experiments i do to apply what i learnt. navigating between sites, docs, stackoverflow. videos like these are not that help, but which are and are free to watch have less than 1k views. i might be biased and wrong, but these waste time. i am learning rust by reading docs. and it's teaching me so much. i was very fascinated when it gave me a hint about monomorphization. i went a bit deep and it was such a fascinating subject. would a video like these give me a slight hint of something like this and even if they do, they won't cover it. the issue with these is lets say theres new framework now you have to wait for this guy to upload. the ability to navigate the docs by yourself. that skill is quite important and these take that away. now you are dependent on this guy, these videos. somebody should have already done it. idk that what i felt. navigating docs is such a vital skill. esp for me. i struggled, it felt daunting 2 years back. but now docs are my way to go. docs of any framework, technology. i do not feel uncomfortable. and still i try to write each letter by my hand. and only copy which i have already written, that too rarely, if so i already knew it needs to dry and i do it asap. learning the techniques is essential, how to use a tool you can always visit it's manual, but sadly these teaches tools and not techniques...
- HatchedLake721 4y ago> imo, these videos are not of much help If these videos were truly not helpful, their YouTube channel wouldn’t have 1.7mil subscribers.
- wiseowise 4y agoFirst time on YouTube? Do you also think GitHub stars matter, by any chance?
- hxugufjfjf 4y agoThey do, unfortunately. We got customers granting engagements to the company with the most consultants with the most stars. What has the world even come to...
- 4y ago
- nrabulinski 4y agoI haven’t checked it out but if the content on his website is anything like his videos on YouTube I’d never recommend it to anyone because of the sheer amount of misinformation he’s spreading, especially in his “X in 100 seconds” series
- design-of-homes 4y agoThe Fireship videos on YouTube are excellent, entertaining and informative. I presume the videos are scripted - one of the reasons the videos are concise and no filler. I haven't tried the Fireship courses, but I'm intrigued which teaching approaches preferred by developers: video, text, interactive exercises, book - a combination? For me, I have found video instruction is massively varied. Although instructors may be familiar with a subject, some are not good at teaching. The best instructors understand their subject but also explain their subject clearly. Also, overly long videos can make watching video a chore. But there are always exceptions (e.g. Harvard online CS50?).
- cutemonster 4y agoI currently believe that anyone who avoids books, avoids reading, and just wants videos, can't get good at software. A similar example?: Can you get good at writing by looking at videos, but not reading anything. Or, get good at running, by looking at videos but not actually running? -- Coding is mostly reading and if one doesn't liked that... But yes sure, some concepts maybe can be nicely explained in videos. It'd be a small % of all one needs to learn I think. Think about Code Complete, the book. How long would a video have to be, to cover the stuff in the book.
- alomaki 4y agoFireship is the IanHubert of web dev
- georgeplusplus 4y ago
- herval 4y agoLove the landing page! The mouse-over gifs are a very nice touch :)