All Episodes

April 15, 2025 β€’ 7 mins

Rant about how black-pilled aspiring developers who choose to be victims are poisonous to all other aspiring developers.

---------------------------------------------------

πŸ‘Ύ Join Discord - https://discord.gg/TpQe2k8Ab3
πŸ’» Learn Frontend (20% off): https://scrimba.com/the-frontend-developer-career-path-c0j?via=donthedeveloper
βš™οΈ Learn Backend (25% off): https://boot.dev/?promo=DONTHEDEVELOPER
🐱 Learn NestJS (free) - https://scrimba.com/nestjs-c0n7djgjma?via=donthedeveloper
🧠 Advanced Coding (40% off) - https://app.codecrafters.io/join?via=donthedeveloper
πŸ‘₯ 1 on 1 Mentorship - https://cal.com/donthedeveloper/mentorship
🐦 Follow on X - https://x.com/thedonofcode

Disclaimer: Some product links are affiliate links which means if you buy something I'll receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Don Hansen (00:00):
Coding bootcamps had too much surface level
knowledge.
Cs programs have too muchtheory.
Right, there's a perfect middleground that you could truly
achieve with the freedom toachieve it as a self-taught
developer.
The problem is it's really hardto solidify that path for
yourself.
It's really, really difficultbecause there is no templated

(00:21):
path.
I don't envy being aself-taught dev.
It's really difficult.
I failed being a self-taughtdev.
It's really difficult.
I failed as a self-taught dev.
I almost quit a year and ninemonths into it until I went to a
coding boot camp and then I gota job six weeks afterwards.
Right, and that was a while ago, by the way, but I almost
failed at it.
The self-taught path is really,really difficult and most people

(00:44):
will fail it.
It's not because you can't behireable as a self-taught dev.
It's because the same bullshitMernstack tutorials keep getting
pushed in front of the faces ofaspiring developers over and
over and over, and so most ofthe people that you're competing

(01:05):
with suck as software engineersat a beginner level and they
just memorize how to piecetogether libraries in the
JavaScript world and they justare shitty software engineers
and they don't focus on gettingbetter.
This is what the JavaScriptecosystem does does to you.
It teaches you to just piecelibraries together.

(01:26):
It teaches you to depend onabstractions like how many tens
of thousands of aspiringdevelopers are going to continue
just becoming really shittysoftware engineers, spending a
ton of money doing this and notdiving deeper like they should?
This is the really tricky thingwith the JavaScript path.
Like it can be very like it's agreat path if you keep this in

(01:50):
mind and you force yourself todig deeper and figure out how
things work.
The problem is so many peoplecan just build stuff with
abstractions I mean at a surfacelevel.
So can AI at this point, at asurface level.
So can no-code solutions.
What good are you?
What's up, dewey?
Good to see you back.

(02:11):
How are you?
Sounds true for other degrees.
I think like having a four-yeardegree in general just shows
commitment, because you got torealize there are a lot of us.
It just is about how you comeacross and man, we can.
I'm not going to.
I'm not going to rant a tontoday.
I want to answer questions, but, um, a lot of people do have

(02:34):
commitment issues.
Like a lot of people don't havefollow-through.
A lot of people aren't meantfor to be software engineers.
A lot of people are not goingto make it in this field.
They're just not.
Um.
And one thing you do have isfollow through.
None.
You know, you have good weeks,you have bad weeks, but you have
follow through.
That is like, if you don't havethat, you're not going to make
it, you just aren't.
And you would be surprised thatthe number of people trying to

(02:54):
get into software engineeringbecause they just want more
money that holy shit.
They are tested severely ontheir attention, their habits,
everything about them to be ableto commit to this for years and
they fail.
And so what do you hear aboutthese stories about people
complaining on reddit andtwitter usually reddit, because

(03:15):
reddit is garbage.
But you just hear peoplecomplaining and complaining and
they're just blackpilledconstantly.
And I did this for years.
I dug into these people'ssituation for years, especially
when I was, when it was good,when, like, it was easier to get
a job, and I dove into thosesituations of people complaining
and I'm like you know what?
Let's have a conversation,let's hop on a Zoom call, let's

(03:36):
look at your portfolio.
Okay, so you're not getting ajob because you're a woman.
No, it's because your portfoliois complete shit and you don't
know what you're doingwhatsoever.
Oh, you're not getting a jobbecause you don't have a CS
degree.
Okay, let's take a look at yourportfolio.
What have you, like, taken uponyourself to build up these
skills and showcase that likeyou can compete with these CS
degrees?
Oh, wow, okay, you can't do afor loop.

(03:58):
Okay, let's, let's move on.
And okay, so you can't get ajob because you can't get a job
because of this, you can't get ajob because of that.
It's always fucking excuses andyou hear this replicated
throughout a ton of losers onthe internet who want to just be

(04:18):
a victim instead of beinghypercritical about what they're
fucking up.
Do you know how many people Ipissed off on linkedin, on
youtube, whatever, by saying,okay, so you say that it's
impossible.
You say that you can't do this.
I want you to like.
If you want me to have a realconversation, if you want me to
hop on a call with you, even ifyou're paying, I don't even

(04:39):
accept people that pay, that arevictims.
I just don't.
If you want me to hop on a callwith you, I want a list of 10
things you are royally fuckingup in the job search, because I
could list 10 things of minethat I royally fucked up.
Why do you have such a big egothat is keeping you from
becoming a software engineer?
Do you actually want this?
You need to drop your fuckingego and be critical about all

(05:01):
the ways you are fucking up,because you are doing it royally
.
Almost everyone does, and ifyou can't acknowledge that,
eventually you're probably justgoing to contribute to the same
black-pilled bullshit you see onReddit.
You're going to become one ofthose people and just give up.
The market's too hard.
Good, get the fuck out of theway.
Let people that actually wantit go for it.
Get the fuck out of the way.

(05:22):
But a lot of people I think alot of people really need to be
hypercritical about what they'rescrewing up.
And I'm not just going to ripon people that don't like that,
are trying I don't do that thatare like really trying, they're
struggling and they know thatthey're fucking up Like I'm not.
I have no interest in rippingon people like that.
But the people that say, likethis is impossible, you
absolutely need to see us agree.

(05:43):
Self-taught devs aren't gettinghired.
Couldn't boot camp?
They're not getting hired.
All of that is bullshit.
You just see, like you know,I've seen tens of thousands of
results of, like, differentpaths and different journeys.
It's like you just see so muchof it.
You just know a lot of this isbullshit.
But you have to talk to people.
You can't just like takepeople's word for it.

(06:04):
You can't just go on Reddit andtake their word for it.
You have to dig into theirsituation.
You have to dig into their dayto day.
You have to like like ifsomeone's saying they are just
trying, they're putting all thistime and they just don't have
enough time to learn Like,literally having people break
down hour by hour what they'redoing and track it down, write
it down.
People are not doing half ofwhat they say they're doing.

(06:25):
This is like if you're stuck,if you are really stuck in
trying to become a web developer, this is what you need to do to
yourself, to be hypercriticalof these things, and I think it
gives you a little bit offreedom and a weight off your
shoulder, because what isn'tmotivating is having this

(06:46):
abstract, arbitrary idea thatthe market doesn't want you in
it, idea that the market doesn'twant you in it.
That has a weight that willkeep you from lifting yourself
up and building yourself upthese false expectations and
this false analysis of yourself.
These are the things that tendto get people to give up on the

(07:09):
journey.
Not the harsh reality or notthe harsh Self analysis Of what
they're screwing up.
It's always the falseexpectations and false analysis
that gets people to give up onbecoming a developer.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know
Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

The Burden

The Burden

The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; β€œHe paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a β€œlive” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, β€œbroke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run β€œTrying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as β€œThe Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. β€œThe Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. β€œThe guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

Β© 2026 iHeartMedia, Inc.