I've had the pleasure of co-teaching Rails classes with Erik Trautman (OP) and he's a smart, dedicated guy. He's written a thoughtful article but underplays a k

I've had the pleasure of co-teaching Rails classes with Erik Trautman (OP) and he's a smart, dedicated guy. He's written a thoughtful article but underplays a key point. Learning to code would not be "so damn hard" if there were better learning resources. There's too much "learn to code" crap for beginners (as Erik points out), and not enough resources for advanced education (the "resource density" in the "Desert of Despair," as he points out). Learning to code would be easier if someone produced better advanced tutorials, books, and courses. I've been doing this for two years with the RailsApps tutorials [1]. And my "fluffy cat" book, "Learn Ruby on Rails," [2] provides guidance for writing apps from scratch without tutorials. Erik's article would be totally irrelevant if authors and teachers delivered better educational content. Erik's trying to do it with Viking Code School, and I've been trying to do it with my own writing, too. It's educators and authors that have to get smarter and work harder, not learners. [1] https://tutorials.railsapps.org/ https://tutorials.railsapps.org/ [2] "Learn Ruby on Rails" on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QK2T1SY http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QK2T1SY