#117 Learning How to Learn with 100Devs Founder Leon Noel

19 snips

Mar 28, 2024

Quincy interviews Leon Noel, Founder of 100Devs and head of engineering at Resilient Coders, discussing his journey from startup success to helping people learn to code through 100Devs charity. Topics include dropping out of Yale, involvement with Resilient Coders, building a Discord server for coders, and the importance of community support in tech education.

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INSIGHT

Cohorts Beat Solo MOOCs For Completion

Live cohorts raise completion rates far above self-paced MOOCs by reducing isolation.
Community presence replaces attrition with peer accountability and shared troubleshooting.

ADVICE

Use Spaced Repetition And Active Recall

Use spaced repetition (Anki) to fight the forgetting curve and retain cumulative CS knowledge.
Combine it with active recall by summarizing and testing yourself after short sections.

ADVICE

Structure Job Hunt Like A Curriculum

Treat job-seeking as a program: do weekly networking, three new connections and two coffee chats.
Focus on job-readiness activities (projects, negotiation, outreach) alongside coding.

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On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp Founder Quincy Larson interviews Leon Noel, founder of 100Devs and head of engineering at Resilient Coders. Growing up, Leon had it drilled into him that he had to become a doctor, lawyer, or dentist. But his ambitions grew and he went on to have an exciting career in tech. After a successful exit from a startup, Leon wanted to help folks who were struggling during the pandemic. He started 100Devs, a charity which has helped 10,000s of people learn to code. We talk about:

dropping out of Yale
getting into the selective Tech Stars startup accelerator
Getting involved with Resilient Coders, a charity that helps court-involved youth learn coding
Starting 100Devs and building a Discord server with 60,000 people learning to code together

Quincy recorded this podcast live and hasn't edited it at all. We want to capture the feel of a real live conversation, with all the human quirks that entails. Can you guess what song he's playing on my bass during the intro? It's his arrangement of the intro to a 1990s cartoon. Be sure to follow The freeCodeCamp podcast in your favorite podcast app. And share this podcast with a friend. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech. Also, we want to thank the 8,427 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate Links we talk about during the interview:

The video that changed Leon's life on Spaced Repetition, by Ali Abdaal: https://youtu.be/Z-zNHHpXoMM

The official Anki app, which is free on web / desktop and doesn't lock you into a subscription. Leon's advice: "Only create cards on one device, but review on any to save you from weird syncing issues." https://apps.ankiweb.net

Dr. Barbara Oakley's Learn How to Learn course, which Leon calls "a masterpiece": https://coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn

The 100Devs website (new cohort starting in early May): https://100devs.org/about

Trailer for X-men '97: https://youtu.be/pv3Ss8o9gGQ

Thelonious Monk [pianist Quincy mentions] "Straight No Chaser" documentary trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx0E9-ThvKc

Leon on YouTube: http://leonnoel.com/youtube

Leon on Discord: http://leonnoel.com/discord

Leon's Twitch for his live streams: http://leonnoel.com/twitch

Leon's website: https://leonnoel.com/