I remember reading his quite useful blog post on learning rails quickly which included what was involved in creating a website and how to attain a simple understanding of web-specific database design, REST and front-end design.

It was pretty good. Two things sort of dismay me though when I see something like this:

1. There are lots of free resources available online, like the above mentioned blogpost. We need to make a better case for open and free learning.

2. All start-ups are forms and the display of the information entered into those forms according to nearly all of the start-ups I run into in NYC.

Good points willbill, my responses:

1. Learning has always been free! (Okay, almost always.) You can walk into any library and pick up a book on any subject. But most people don't do it because there are too many resources out there and they're not synthesized in a way that is catered towards a particular audience. People still pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to go to universities to learn topics that they could theoretically learn on their own. Why? Because text is really energy-intensive to consume. I don't feel like having a ton of low quality resources online is not the solution. That being said, I'm all about reducing the cost of learning and making it more accessible, which is why I hope that this class can provide a similar quality of education as $10-$18k intensive (like Hack Reactor or General Assembly) for people who can't afford that.

2. 95% of products are forms and the display of that information - that's correct. That's why I don't think it's so hard for beginners to learn, and that's what makes Ruby on Rails particularly powerful. It's just tools for building forms, pulling data out of databases, and displaying that data in a pretty way.

They go to college because that's what society told them to do. They pay for that stupid diploma. I hope things change in the future? I still believe all Learning should be free. If your Learning is really worth $49.99; don't you think word of mouth would bring in the masses?

Sorry you felt that the first class went too fast. I know other people felt that way too which is why I rerecorded the videos and restructured how I delivered the content. Were yo part of the Skillshare class in November?

Anyway the intention is to make a good first encounter with Ruby on Rails, so if you have any feedback about what concepts were too advanced or confusing, let me know at [email protected]