Introduction
Hey, Mario here, and I just want to tell you about this fun game 🎲 that teaches programming. It's called Boot.Dev, and it's not some childish thing 🫤 where you move blocks around the screen nor fall asleep 😴 watching videos, but rather interactive exercises with both practical basics and some advanced courses. Now, they're not paying me to say this, nor do I have a discount code. I just love their mission and want to help them grow. Though I can already code in a few languages, I tried them out in November and quickly bought a membership. Because it's fun! And here are eight reasons why they rock.
Complete Trade School
It's a complete trade school with a roadmap for any skill level. It covers both theory and applied computer science using practical in-demand languages. People can dive into learning the basics with Python 🐍, or jump ahead to over 30 courses covering things like Go, SQL, Docker, and Kubernetes 🤩. Creating well-rounded developers is their goal. Like a woodworking class, they keep students challenged with interactive exercises and projects that apply learning by doing. With a helpful community and a cute AI wizard bear that'll give you advice if you feed him salmon 🐟.
Great Deal
It truly is. Especially when compared to a university or bootcamp. Or scattered books and video courses without any interactivity and no accountability. All their courses are free to read and watch, with reasonably-priced memberships for the full experience. They got a YouTube channel and podcast that isn't shitty teaser marketing. But rather full courses, short explainers, and interviews 🎤 with diverse engineers.
It's Fun
If learning isn't fun, people will zone out 😴 or lose motivation. Their game-like experience is not a gimmicky add-on, but rather purposely woven in 🧵. The mechanics and achievements keep people active, and the fantasy aspect with Boots the bear 🐻 and game items like potions 🧪, armor 🛡️, and frozen flames 🧊🔥 make it memorable. Importantly, this does not hold people back who just want to learn. As the founder once pointed out:
The game system has been a constant, ship a feature that sounds reasonable. Watch how people actually use it, and then adjust it to encourage good learning habits as opposed to bad ones.
They sprinkle humor 😆 here and there to lighten things up, like pop-culture Easter eggs 🥚 in code examples. Or making fun at popular developer opinions while giving practical advice.
Great Teachers
Not only are they experienced developers who teach with clarity and a steady pace, they apply the beginner's mindset 🌿 and guide you through a course combining first principles and clear direction. You can tell their love ❤️ for the topics are genuine because when they happen to be on camera, it never feels like a pretentious script. They naturally adjust their tone to be excited or serious, and make the material come alive 🐣. We can all remember a handful of school teachers that made class entertaining or interesting. This is paramount for online education where distraction is just a click or tap away 💯.
Rich Media
Tech is inherently abstract 🌀. You gotta admit it! There's no easy way to describe the call stack or algorithmic complexity. To this end, their courses and explainer videos 🎥 have many helpful animations and diagrams, which most other learning resources don't. They also use plenty of metaphors, memes, and pop culture references that help make concepts stick 🧲. When visuals are combined with jokes and analogies, they explain concepts so much better than words can alone 😄.
Educational Engineering
They strive to help students make steady progress through course design ✏️, achievements 🏆, and challenges 🚧. With a periodic boss fight where every player gets bonus XP. And to keep the learning blades sharp, they use Kaizen. Which for anyone watching who isn't a quality operations nerd 🤓 like me, just means they constantly make little updates to their courses. Matching what great teachers do in real life.
While their tactics are inspired from gaming 🎲, ultimately, it's about keeping players in what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi called flow states, or in academic circles, the Zone of Proximal Development. All this means is that courses and lessons are just the right length, and assignments are just difficult enough so people don't get bored or anxious. Any gamer can agree on why this matters! I wouldn't want my lessons to be as easy as Animal Crossing, as long as Final Fantasy, nor sadistically punishing like Dark Souls.
Second, they don't give away the answers 🤐. You gotta earn those points and items, buddy. If someone's having trouble, they encourage you to look up documentation, feed Boots a salmon 🐟, or post a community question. It's about leaning into the uncomfortable, because that's what real-world development is so often like.
Community
They have diverse, well-organized conversation channels 💬 and a cool player profile integration with the Boot platform. Onboarding is straightforward. The rules are clear. And members are rewarded for being helpful 🎁. Trust me, I see this often where people go out of their way to answer questions or be encouraging when someone is confused or nervous. When you see for yourself how members come from all walks of life, with various skill levels from around the world 🌎, you quickly realize the goal is not teaching newbies to code, but helping every member to level up together 🚀.
Strong Customer Focus
With constant updates and announcements on upcoming features 📣, along with community interaction like comments and polls. What I particularly love ❤️ is the human voice that casually talks about why changes were made and how they help students stay active and continue learning 🏹.
Second, their podcast puts audience needs first 🥇 and isn't an overbearing talk radio show. After guests have spoken for a bit, the host repeats what was understood so far and asks if it's correct. All this is about active listening and looking out for students' best interests 👍.
Summary
From what I've experienced in the last three months in the platform, emails, community, and podcast episodes, hell, I wish their program existed years ago. These eight ways show me, at least, that Boot is one of the best educational gaming brands out there. I'm a proud member who believes learning valuable tech and career skills should be fun and accessible. If you haven't already, go check them out at the web address boot.dev. And you can find me, Mario Vellandi, online or in their Discord under username TriforceKid7. Cheers 😀.