Thread by @MurtazaBambot

I failed out of Georgia Tech's coding classes.

Now I run a tech company.

Over 5 years, I taught myself to code. I found the right community & learned enough to even build my own products.

This is how I did it & how you can too 👇

I started where everyone does: CodeAcademy

I whizzed through their beginner courses — Python, JS, Ruby, and others. But I didn't learn much.

Yeah, now I knew what a print statement was, but how tf do you use them?

I needed something practical. A project.

I started the famous Ruby Tutorial from Michael Hartl.

The goal: build a Twitter-clone in a week.

The next 5 days, every waking hour was this. I was ready to be the next @jack

But I couldn't even set up my environment.

This was taking way f*cking longer than a week 😫

I powered through the rest of the tutorial — all in all, my week-long project took 3 months.

I got stuck over and over. Even when things worked I didn't understand why. By the time I finished I wasn't even proud — just glad it was over.

I was done. Coding was too damn hard.

2 months later, a friend told me about a hackathon. Some weird competition where people make teams & code for 36 hrs.

Me: Sounds dumb. I don't even code.
Daryl: Don't worry, the sponsors give a bunch of free stuff
Me: I'm in.

Cue a 14-hour bus ride to Michigan for @mhacks

I spent most of @MHacks running to sponsor tables & grabbing free t-shirts.

Daryl & I joined a team. We made an app when you could pop in ingredients & get recipes.

I only wrote 5 lines of code.

But Daryl explained each one to me — for the first time I understood them.

For the first time, code was making sense.

The hackathon community was incredibly kind, helpful, & folks were willing to mentor a noob like me.

Over the next year, I went to every hackathon I could. I skipped quizzes, homework, & got on every bus.

I even won a few.

Slowly I picked up new languages & frameworks. Python & Flask were my favorite.

My next goal: build a tech startup.

My roomie & I started InternBlitz — a 1-click apply job board. I promised to code with him 50-50.

But he was fast. I had to put in twice the hours to keep up.

The speed forced me to learn faster.

When I ran into walls I had someone to ask for help.

We coded & built & refined tech that no one had ever created before.

When we finally launched & it felt incredible. Others took notice.

Even NPR reached out.
n.pr/2ZrmimE

Over time, I've been lucky enough to learn from amazing engineers and build products that have helped thousands.

The secret is to find a community to support you. Mine was @MLHacks

The right community can build your whole career. It built mine.

If you enjoyed this — drop a follow!

I'm working to write more about my path into tech, community, and all the behind-the-scenes stories as we build @HeartbeatChat

Would love to have you along for the journey ❤️