16:08

The thing about luring low income career jumpers into coding bootcamps is that, contrary to what market and politicians belief, you can’t simply re-train anyone to be a programmer in the same way you can’t just turn anyone into an Olympic athlete. Learning a programming language is not the same as learning how to program in the same sense as knowing how to hold a paintbrush doesn’t make you an artist. Creativity is not something that can be taught.

Writing software requires abstract thinking and problem solving skills. Coding bootcamps cater to a clientele that prefers to follow step-by-step instructions and is mainly motivated by the prospect of a higher income. So, what could possibly go wrong when we use money to bait people, with a mechanical way of thinking and a willingness to take shortcuts, into that career path, then switch by telling them that they don’t quite cut the mustard, to actually earn an engineer’s wage, were mainly hired to do grunt work and are utterly replaceable, but should probably stick around to pay off their tuition fees?