Hacker School User's Manual

A lot of programmers I know could really learn from the "social rules" on this page. There's no need to try to prove oneself to be the smartest in the room on every topic. It takes a lot more balls to say "wow, I really can't even remember whether the syntax was X-&#62;Y() or X.Y()!"<p>The "well-actually" problem is particularly rampant on HN.

After reading, I really want to experience Hacker School sometime in the near future.<p>I checked out the application, though, and noticed something that's pretty odd, if not downright disrespectful. At the bottom of the application there's a lone checkbox labeled "I'm a Woman". Given the behavior of the following checkbox, it's clear that the point of this box is to indicate that financial aid is available for female applicants. Regardless, the presence of a field labeled as such, given that it seems to suggest that the default gender of a hacker is male, is pretty jarring.<p>I get it, but surely a couple of radio buttons labeled "Boy" and "Girl" could do the job just as well as the checkbox.

One of their rules seems odd. To "Feign" means to pretend. Do they mean that people actually pretend to be surprised about someone's lack of knowledge?<p>I would have thought the more common problem is when people are <i>honestly</i> surprised about someone's lack of knowledge, and then show it. That hurts more. I can usually tell if someone trying to show themselves off as a bigshot. That doesn't bother me as much as if someone genuinely thinks I'm ignorant about something that I ought to know.<p>Better to say, "Please feign unsurprise when you encounter ignorance." Or better yet, don't use the word "feign." Just tell participants that they may encounter people from a variety of backgrounds, and they should not assume that every understands what everyone else is talking about.

I really like the civility rules. One thing I've learned about programming is that, like creative writing, the insecurity only gets <i>worse</i> as you get better. (I'm sure that once you have fuck-you money or the consulting pipeline that's essentially the same thing, that changes, but it takes time to get there.) It's paradoxical.<p>For one thing, there's hard-core dimensionality in what we do. There are things I consider to be huge areas of computer science that I know nothing about, and many of those didn't even exist when I was in school.<p>It's really admirable that they're paying attention to the behaviors ("well, actually" and unsolicited advice) that make this worse and cause communication breakdowns. Of course, tone is more important than what is actually said, but that can't be legislated.

I wish it wasn't such a hassle getting a VISA to the US..

I'd love to do something like this in London. Inspired by the manual, I've created a signup page at hackerschoollondon.launchrock.com Perhaps we can get one going here if there's some interest.<p>n.b. Hacker School have asked me to stop using their name - I don't mean to mislead or imply any affiliation with them. I'll change it shortly. But I do want to copy the idea :)

This manual makes me even more glad that I applied.

<a href="http://i.imgur.com/m0en5Vj.png" rel="nofollow">http://i.imgur.com/m0en5Vj.png</a><p>I could have used better fonts.

codeacadamy and hackerschool should get together.

For github junkies, fork here: <a href="https://github.com/shaohua/Hacker-School-Users-Manual" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/shaohua/Hacker-School-Users-Manual</a>

"So how exactly do we make money? Right now, we have recruiting agreements with a small set of companies, and for each Hacker School alum they hire, <i>they pay us 25% of that person's first year salary, excluding bonus</i>, as long as that person stays at the company at least 90 days."<p>rofl

lol 'social rules'.<p>Sounds more like a cult, like they're grooming you for corporate serfdom. Having the most bitter basement dwelling neckbeard with a self taught PHD ream you out thoroughly and colorfully on a public mailing list for a less than perfect commit is a true hacker tradition. It's usually pretty hilarious, and prepares you for when you show up to defcon or the chaos congress and meet real actual hackers who shockingly will not have any social rules.<p>This school will groom good employees, not hackers. It's a bootcamp that uses 'hacker' for marketing. It's great this exists for people who want to work doing code, but 1980s MIT AI lab Stallman would prob be kicked out the first day, same with every other hacker throughout history.