anthonycerra

I'm a software dabbler so I can do basic stuff with frameworks like Django, but I'm definitely not a developer by any stretch. My use case is to build mvps cheap and quickly to test out ideas.

Claude spit out a Django project that integrated Twilio for SMS functionality. What's _really_ amazing is that it also walked me through how to set up ngrok and Twilio so that I could use my computer as a temporary server. Again, I'm a dabbler so devops is completely over my head.

In maybe 2 hours I had a functioning prototype that I could interact with via SMS. I can't comment on the quality of the code or how viable this approach is for building in production, but to bring an idea to life so quickly with limited skills is really exciting.

For the same reason that your area likely has more than 1 pizza restaurant. Other people want to take a stab at their own vision of a thing and that's awesome. Personally, I find Anki to be pretty uninviting to the general public.

Fluent-Forever.com is an example of an application of spaced time learning applied specifically to languages and their app is pretty great.

We may disagree philosophically, and that's ok, but I tend not to buy into the perspective that if X already exists and Y is like X then Y should not exist.

Do you have any scholarships? What percentage of the degree are you paying for and how much of that is being financed?

Might you be able to walk into the president's office and negotiate your tuition? Not the bursar. Speak to a decision maker with vision. If you're as good as you say you are and can prove, with pay stubs, that companies also find you that valuable as a sophomore, you're an asset to your university.

You're the success story they're dying to tell prospects. And you might be willing to make introductions to those companies just in time for the campus career fair. And what about when you become an alumnus? If you're this promising as a sophomore, where will you be in 10 years that they can continue to reap the benefits from? College is a business, too. Sell them on you.

You're concerned that you could better spend the time in university improving your skill in iOS development. How can you leverage those gigs in your curriculum to count toward credits?

As for the courses you're not interested in, don't make the assumption that you are aware of all the things you will ever need to know to be successful in life. But again, there's a price at which that exposure makes sense, and a price at which it doesn't.

All that being said, just do a split test :) Maybe people like me are in the minority and you get more upvotes for having it displayed that way.

PS - Are you Louis? We had a quick email convo last year. If you need help implementing some of the marketing aspects of EatThisMuch, let me know.

Don't count yourself out just yet. Some people will always prefer to eat real food.

I've noticed you promoting this site in multiple threads and have continued to bite my tongue because I admired the hustle, but I think this crosses the line.

OP asked about learning to design websites, which suggests s/he is in the very early stages of discovery. The last thing OP needs is people telling him/her to spend money on something loosely tangential to the request.

You could have mentioned a couple great resources that would actually be of value to OP and then gently mentioned "but if your end goal is just to run a web business, you can skip ahead and check out my site".

Love the hustle, but please be more mindful of spam.

So should you do it? If you have 100k in the bank and you want to start a business, then go for it. You can afford to pay your living expenses, learn at an accelerated rate from a highly qualified group of teachers, and build a business with awesome mentors. Your teachers will be people like Jason Fried (37Signals) and Troy Henikoff (TechStars Chicago). This is not for someone looking to become just a developer. They have cheaper programs for design and development.

Don't have extra money lying around? Buy a list of business phone numbers from a reputable company (Dunn and Bradstreet come to mind) in an industry you're interested in and start making cold calls. The list will cost a couple hundred bucks. Pay for a LinkedIn premium account and prospect there as well. If you can't reach out to potential customers, you're going to have a hard time starting a business.

Read about sales and marketing and subscribe to every info marketer out there to learn what they do. How do they write copy, how do they market, what's their funnel like? You don't have to buy from any of them - just observe what they do. Add them to a label in gmail called "marketing", autoarchive every message that comes in, and review the emails once a week. Here's a list to get you started: Pat Flynn from SmartPassiveIncome, Derek Halpern from Social Triggers, Joanna from CopyHackers, Ramit Sethi from IWTYTBR, Dane Maxwell at the Foundation, Trent from BrightIdeas. Of course, don't forget Pat McKenzie and Rob Walling. Sign up to Mixergy for incredible master classes and interviews.

If you have the money and want guidance from an amazing group of talented individuals, that program is excellent. If not, there are other ways to do it.

Gamers didn't see the XB1 as a move towards disc-less consoles. They saw it as additional rules to their current disc-based paradigm.

Removing HDDs and optical drives from laptops was a bold and risky move by Apple, but it worked. MS had the chance to show leadership in consoles, but chose to play both sides instead.