Why Choose a Bootcamp?
A bootcamp is what I would call an accelerated learning experience. The currency of learning is time and when you are selecting among many potential offerings, your main consideration should be how much learning material you will be covering over what period of time. With this in mind, a bootcamp ranks high on the parameter of intensity, where you will be interacting with a lot of material about a focused subject in as short a period of time as possible.
The only way I can best describe this is through the notion of concentration. A traditional semestered schooling experience is leisurely sipping on several glasses of juice; a bootcamp is opening a can of juice concentrate, and eating it with a spoon, without adding water. It is the sheer compression of the learning experience that defines a bootcamp.
If I were to limit my analysis to just concentration or intensity, a bootcamp would not be the only solution: there also exists self-directed learning through online platforms. This is why it is important to make a key distinction here: intensity of learning can either be an individual journey or a social experience. There is no right or wrong here — intensity is a road that forks into either Solo Street or Group Avenue and the choice as to which one to pursue is completely dependent upon your individual learning style as related to the subject in question. It is entirely possible to be a group learner for a boxing class but an independent learner for chemistry; it is possible to be an independent learner for weight lifting while being a group learner for computer science. Know thyself.
Given the divergent roads — an apt scenario for Robert Frost — it is best to select the bootcamp path when social learning is a goal. This is an often-misunderstood dynamic of learning, such that people think merely of group discussions and the like. That is not completely it. The social learning dynamic is best described as the gym effect. When you go to a gym and see many people working towards their fitness goals, it becomes motivation to execute on your own fitness goals. One can say that this is the very reason why coworking spaces exist — to see various freelancers and entrepreneurs working on their businesses is inspiring and helps any up-and-coming or veteran entrepreneur get into their flow. Likewise, to see people acquiring skills in the intensity of a bootcamp is a self-reinforcing process that makes you want to bring your all to the table.
At this point, there is one further distinction to make along how the learning material is consumed. As hinted at earlier the self-directed path has two embedded defining qualities — individualistic and self-guided. In the self-directed way, you are both on your own and simultaneously defining your learning modules on the fly. This is where a bootcamp comes in as the alternative path where the learning modules are laid out for you and you have a qualified instructor as the guide through the course. It is very important to see how the presence or absence of a guide can influence the speed at which you progress through a body of knowledge. Through experience I can say that when you are on your own, you will spend a frequent portion of your learning time hitting dead-ends — it is very experimental. Having a guide and a defined curriculum allows you speed through the material in a streamlined fashion. Why would this even matter?
The speed with which you progress through learning modules should be defined primarily by your goals. If you’re picking up something as a hobby, it doesn’t matter how long it takes — you could have months or even years to learn the basics and that would be perfectly fine. However, if the skills you are considering to acquire are related to your career, speed is a paramount consideration. Skills are assets that deteriorate over time, especially when related to technology. If you take two years to learn a technical skill, you might find that by the time you reach a level of mastery, that skill is becoming obsolete. I for one will go on record as saying that Ruby on Rails (RoR) will have a limited future life as functional programming languages and frameworks start taking over. If you had spent several years mastering RoR, achieving professional capacity in 2017, it will have been a depreciating investment. If you understand this, you understand the importance of bootcamps when it comes to acquiring technical skills.
I could end this on a relativistic note — there is a something for everyone! — but that would be false. Indeed, there are many learning styles and subject preferences but when it comes to heuristics for learning formats, you should consider the broad categories outlined above. First, consider the level of intensity you want to engage in; second, consider whether you want to learn individually or socially; finally, consider whether you thrive best as self-directed or as instructor-guided. Ultimately, in the context of career-advancing skills in technological domains, I broadly support bootcamp learning as the ideal format.
Originally Posted at LevelTO.com
