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/
The freeCodeCamp Podcast