This is helpful, thank you. We're not a small startup by any means--we are a company that predates the Internet by about 100 years, literally--but we are a small team (seven devs).
Do you have a formalized pair programming process, or is it just "Hey, who can help me with this?" We're the latter, and while people often try their best, it usually devolves into "Let me do this for you".
Sadly, while question-asking is encouraged, question-answering is not. I can't count how many times I've asked something--to the group as a whole or to an individual--and it's just been ignored.
Do you find the "sink or swim" the best technique, or just the way it's done?
I wish you the best of luck. I would donate gladly except healthy gay men can still not donate blood or marrow, despite there being no medical reasoning behind that. I'm sorry for your situation.
First off, $5000/week?!? I clearly need to get better at this fast. Thanks so much for your detailed response; posting this was a shot in the dark that I'd get anything at all.
So, I'd be working on this part-time at best. I have a day job and a life, so my time is limited. I use the Seinfeld method of productivity so I can guarantee that I will work for at least 15 minutes a day, but for many days that will be it.
I'm still learning a lot--here's the most complicated app I've made to date: https://github.com/pnichols104/guess_who/commits?author=pnic.... It's a guessing game app; you get a picture and four multiple-choices to identify it. I started in March and am just about done. This one is much more complex and I have a lot to learn about it. Although I've been developing for 3-4 years, I started iOS development about a year ago.
I couldn't possibly charge him $2000/week. Honestly, I was going to charge him a flat rate for the project (which if I could finish in three months, I'd be very proud of myself) and was wondering if $1000 total was too high! Given the specs I listed, which is pretty much all I know so far, what would you think is a fair price for the whole thing?
Will there be a recording of this somewhere? Would love to watch it but not available at this time.
In other news, I'm desperately trying to find some part-time freelance work. I'm a Python/Django dev with 4 years experience that leans a little more heavily on front-end. Ideally would like a mentor-type relationship where I can work with someone more experienced. If anyone has any leads or would like to chat, I'd be much obliged! https://www.linkedin.com/in/pnichols104https://github.com/pnichols104
Yeah, must suck to have your life ruined and be denied opportunities based on your actions rather than your gender, race, or orientation like all us non-white non-straight non-males have to deal with. "Why can't I just be allowed to be terrible to other people without fear of criticism?!?"
Ugh... I'm 36 and--according to Timehop on Facebook--just hit my 3 year anniversary of "Hmm, I wonder what it would be like to learn to code"? I have a good web developer job, but I hear everything you're saying. I feel the same way, and for people who say "age is just a number," yeah, sure, but it really can be grating to have to constantly be asking kids 10-15 years younger than me for help. I could have written your post--I'm literally procrastinating right now by writing this (despite having a million things to do and accomplishing NOTHING today) and I had to convince myself not to just walk out of my job in frustration an hour ago.
So yeah, no advice to give you other than to tell you that I understand, you're not alone, and let's hang in there together.
Hacker School has people of all ability levels. I was a total novice, and I got a paid internship with a startup after I finished. Now two years later, I'm still not making 100K, but I'm pretty happy as a full-time developer! (side note: Hacker School would probably object to being called a Dev Bootcamp--their model is very different than the examples you cited and maybe not the best choice for an answer to the OP's question)
Also says "item's". We may be pedantic, but I tend to not trust services that don't have proper grammar and spelling. To me, it makes me wonder what else is sloppy and may come back to bite me.
I'm going to say one last thing and then move on with my life. It seems that most of the dissent revolves around asking that debates about when these things are pointed out be kept private.
So, I got almost no work done today, and I'm all sorts of grouchy and irritable because of this discussion. I probably didn't convince anyone, and no one convinced me. So what did this debate accomplish? Who feels better now? All HS wants to do is keep this sort of nonsense from happening. Person A says something, Person B objects, Person A either apologizes or doesn't, and they move on. If they really need to discuss, they don't bring in People C through Z and ruin their days and productivity as well. Whichever side you're on, that seems like a pretty good idea to me.
Furthermore, we all make innocuous comments that are ignorant of another group's situation. When someone asks me about my wife, I don't flip out and call them a homophobe for assuming I'm straight. But if they fight me when I point it out and refuse to acknowledge the fact that maybe they could stand to broaden their experience, I start to wonder why they're fighting me so much and what prejudices they're hiding.
These rules work in Hacker School. They work because they're lightweight and no one feels like a terrible person for breaking them. If other communities are organically adopting them because the structure has been successful, I don't understand why you'd fight it so much.
Can everyone see what just happened here? This is all it has to be. It was a cis-sexist remark. Now, I tend to make similar remarks and I also try to be aware of them, and there's indeed a limit to what you can do. But this is _all we're talking about_. OP was being facetious, but a subtle '-ism' was pointed out, and the commenter just said, "Oops, yeah, working on that." And we all happily move on with our lives.