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Beginner Boost FAQ#

Where can I watch and participate?#

Weekly video sessions are simultaneously live-streamed to Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, and Kick. Twitch is the primary platform and required for anyone who wants to play the games during the breaks. Chat from any of these platforms is visible but not necessarily relayed to the other platforms. In addition, Discord #live-chat channel contains all the chat from each session in a searchable format.

Warning

Everything you write in the chat is saved forever with the livestream video session. It is up to you to remain professional and civil. If not, you'll be banned. It is also up to you to maintain your own level of privacy.

What if I cannot make the live sessions?#

Twitch is where the learning party is. We encourage you—above all—to join us for any of the live Twitch sessions for all the fun, learning, music, and hype. Who knows? You just might be gifted a free subscription by another kind community member, or win the Stream Avatars battle royal! What will your avatar be?

However, since 2024 you can do the entire Boost without ever even attending a live session because everything is recorded and available from YouTube videos. If you have questions you can always ask in Discord. This new recorded video approach is likely to be the new normal going forward, forever, since all we need to update are the videos with content that has changed year to year. Then, instead of redoing the same work every year, we add more content, and better, clearer content, revising every year as we go like a good code base.

Why every year?#

We do the Boost every year mostly because technology is advancing at an exponential pace. There is something substantially new every single year. A key skill as a technologist is being able to distinguish the trends from the long-term changes and invest our previous learning time on what matters. Working in tech is not unlike betting on stocks, you pick the right tech to master at the right time and you can win big, or you can quickly become irrelevant and get "down sized." Therefore, having a Boost every year allows the community to contribute their observations about what is current and—most importantly—relevant.

The Surfer Analogy

Surfing requires a well-developed ability to see the ocean's minor undulations in the distance and predicting which will crest at the optimal time. As the wave takes more form, a skilled surfer will know when to start paddling in order to match the speed of the wave. If they take too long they won't be moving fast enough to catch it, too fast and they might overshoot it. When the wave crests the surfer can then stand on the board and ride it to glory before hopping off and paddling back out to sea to watch for the next one.

Such is the life of a good technologist. Paddling equates to learning the technology as it forms and producing proof you have mastered it. Standing up on the board is like landing a lucritive tech job having prepared in advance and being one of only a few who can demonstrate mastery. Surfers wipe out, miss waves, or, on occasion, have sharks take bites out of them. Surfing is inherently risky and demands constant focus and fitness. Those who opt for tech careers commit to a similar lifestyle with its constant learning demands and very real risks. Tech jobs are not for everyone, but for many the continual challenge is exactly what they crave.

What is needed to participate?#

Boosts are always free (although donations, subs, and tips are appreciated and motivating). You will need a secure Internet connection, a capable computer with minimal admin permissions and skills for installing stuff into that computer. (Windows and Mac administration is not covered by the Boost.) Here are the specs for your main computer:

  • Win/Mac/Linux
  • 4 Core (CPU)
  • 8 GB Memory (RAM)
  • 100 GB Free HD

This computer will be a reliable place from which to participate and onto which you will install a minimal Linux virtual machine.

What if I already have a tech job?#

People regularly comment that they have filled some gap or another by going through the content along with the rest of us. Plus, having veterans available to confirm and add to what Rob has to say is always valuable. In other words, we welcome as many experienced professionals as possible.

By all means, please flex! But please seek to understand what the person with the question wants to accomplish before pushing your personal preference (aka "I use Arch, by the way.") Also, disagreement is generally okay but Rob asks that you first at least present his position (in his forum) before directly contracting it. This helps beginners avoid initial confusion that (eventually) comes from the normal, expected disagreements and opinions that occur in tech. We don't want to scare beginners away with a bunch of fights over operating system preferences, Linux distros, editors, coding languages, note-taking systems, business models, politics, and—god forbid—tabs versus spaces.