7 ms·

In case one does not want to spend $29, the free HTML book [1] (currently in beta) is good enough. I have been following along the book, and can vouch for it. I

In case one does not want to spend $29, the free HTML book [1] (currently in beta) is good enough. I have been following along the book, and can vouch for it. It is a great way to learn to code in C. [1] http://c.learncodethehardway.org/book/ http://c.learncodethehardway.org/book/ EDIT: By posting the link to the book, I by no means meant that the videos are redundant. I would love it if more people en-roll for Zed's Udemy course and support him.

johnohara 14y ago
How much $$ have you spent on lattes reading his free book? Books, videos and course materials don't just happen because we say so. Real people create this stuff.
- benmanns 14y ago
  It amazes me that people invest 20 hours in reading a book and complain about the price. If we assume roughly $40/hr for a $80k programmer, this is about $800 worth of time you're investing. Does a "hard" investment of $29 (4%) really make that big of a difference?
  - johnchristopher 14y ago
    Maybe it's more about the absolute value of something than its relative value. These days, 29$ is a lot for me. That is not a statement that the book is too expensive or that I don't give it the value it deserves. For what it's worth I plan to read the online beta then print out a bought PDF for easier reading.
  - shadowfiend 14y ago
    I always use “let's assume roughly X/hour” as a joke. You don't get paid for your spare time, except in opportunity cost. If someone applies 20 hours of their time at work, then yes, that's pocket change. If they apply 20 hours of their time at home, that's not time that they'd get paid for anyway, so the analogy is as foolish as the claim that every pirated copy of a movie would have been bought were it not for pirates. Instead, I'm choosing between 20 hours of reading a book and maybe 20 hours of watching television (for example), which costs the electricity that the television consumes (since the cable or internet is paid for already). I suspect you'll find 20 hours of TV will cost less than $29. Or maybe it's 20 hours of running over the course of a couple of weeks. That's free, except maybe for the cost of the water to rehydrate. That's probably cheaper than $29, too. If you want to do the analysis in terms of how much it will earn you in the future, that's also valid I guess. But it complicates things, since it's hard to quantify how much the relaxation you get from watching TV or destressing from running is worth. Let me just say, I don't think people should complain about the price of a good book when it's <$50-100 (depending on material). But the X/hour analogy only works if you're taking work time, and then many companies will often be willing to refund you that money anyway. Last note: this isn't $29 for a book. It's $29 for a video course (though admittedly a non-HTML version of the book is thrown in at the end). The book itself is available for free, which is all that the OP was pointing out.
    - benmanns 14y ago
      True, but by working for "roughly X/hour" you've established that the typical exchange rate for your time is roughly X/hour. If I were to ask you to do some work for my during your off time, I would have to pay about X ± X/2 depending on how you guarded your time. So what if someone only values their time at X/4? That's still $200 worth of spare time.
      - shadowfiend 14y ago
        That's fair, if we're continuing a monetary analogy (which I did do). My spare time is worth happiness/distraction to me. Not money. I will confess that in that particular regard, I may differ from some, or perhaps even most, others.
      - tjoff 14y ago
        Doesn't make much sense anyway. So you make $40/hr, 40 hours a week. Well there is 168 hours in a week, subtract 40 from that and you have 128 hours those 40 hours must pay for. As if that wasn't enough you have a lot of expenses that are flat-rate that you must pay regardless of how you spend your time (such as your rent). All this is further assuming that your goal is to spend everything you make every month. Most probably put away some money to be able to buy a new car, travel etc. (or even just to be able to repair the car when it breaks)
      - __abc 14y ago
        Damn. I've totally been ignoring the cost of sleeping. Son of a ....... I better update my personal finance models ... stat!
      - argv_empty 14y ago
        by working for "roughly X/hour" you've established that the typical exchange rate for your time is roughly X/hour Well, I've established that I'm willing to work that many hours for that rate. That doesn't mean I'm willing to work more hours at the same hourly rate. Most people I know value their spare time enough to expect a higher rate for working more time.
    - flyinRyan 14y ago
  - TylerE 14y ago
    That saying annoys me to no end. Sure, time has value, but just because something took $x hours does NOT mean it had an opportunity cost of $x*$rate.
- shadowfiend 14y ago
  Zed Shaw has made the book available for free. It's perfectly acceptable to point that out (indeed, it's linked from the udemy summary anyway). If you need more than the book, you can pay for the course. This is why it is labelled a "companion". There is nothing morally bankrupt about using the resource that has been graciously given away for free: it seems evident that Zed Shaw intended the book to be free, so use that fact. If you need more, he believes it's worth $29 of your money to access the additional materials. There's a really good argument to be made if the OP were linking to a bootlegged free version of a book that costs money, but it's really silly to criticize him for pointing out the free version of the free book on the thread about its companion course.
  - johnohara 14y ago
    If the video course were free, what would you be willing to pay for additional course materials? (i.e. the book, exercise solutions, exclusive live sessions, etc.) I'm not trying to be confrontational here. Online education/coursework/learning needs a pricing structure that makes sense. One that enables thousands of qualified instructors to participate without going broke in the process. I think I understand Zed's "freemium" model in that context. But I disagree with his approach. Our local high school district pays some teachers over a $100,000 a year. That's 3,448 students at $29 each -- per year. That's roughly equivalent to the entire student population! Look for yourself: http://www.familytaxpayers.org/salary.php http://www.familytaxpayers.org/salary.php Find a district: type in '230' Select 'Cons HSD 230' from the list presented. There is no disruption in education until there is parity between what Zed is able to make and what these people make.
    - mkr-hn 14y ago
      Disruption happens when someone demonstrates that the existing system is flawed by creating a better system. It will cost what it costs. You sound like a traditional publisher complaining that they can't charge $20 for schlock and abuse authors anymore.
    - jonknee 14y ago
      > There is no disruption in education until there is parity between what Zed is able to make and what these people make. I don't think Zed has trouble making $100,000 a year.
DannoHung 14y ago
You can also compile the book into a PDF if you'd like. Zed made the code available so all it takes is the effort involved to install the right LaTeX modules. Took part of an afternoon to figure out how to build it.

johnohara 14y ago

How much $$ have you spent on lattes reading his free book? Books, videos and course materials don't just happen because we say so. Real people create this stuff.

benmanns 14y ago
It amazes me that people invest 20 hours in reading a book and complain about the price. If we assume roughly $40/hr for a $80k programmer, this is about $800 worth of time you're investing. Does a "hard" investment of $29 (4%) really make that big of a difference?
- johnchristopher 14y ago
  Maybe it's more about the absolute value of something than its relative value. These days, 29$ is a lot for me. That is not a statement that the book is too expensive or that I don't give it the value it deserves. For what it's worth I plan to read the online beta then print out a bought PDF for easier reading.
- shadowfiend 14y ago
  I always use “let's assume roughly X/hour” as a joke. You don't get paid for your spare time, except in opportunity cost. If someone applies 20 hours of their time at work, then yes, that's pocket change. If they apply 20 hours of their time at home, that's not time that they'd get paid for anyway, so the analogy is as foolish as the claim that every pirated copy of a movie would have been bought were it not for pirates. Instead, I'm choosing between 20 hours of reading a book and maybe 20 hours of watching television (for example), which costs the electricity that the television consumes (since the cable or internet is paid for already). I suspect you'll find 20 hours of TV will cost less than $29. Or maybe it's 20 hours of running over the course of a couple of weeks. That's free, except maybe for the cost of the water to rehydrate. That's probably cheaper than $29, too. If you want to do the analysis in terms of how much it will earn you in the future, that's also valid I guess. But it complicates things, since it's hard to quantify how much the relaxation you get from watching TV or destressing from running is worth. Let me just say, I don't think people should complain about the price of a good book when it's <$50-100 (depending on material). But the X/hour analogy only works if you're taking work time, and then many companies will often be willing to refund you that money anyway. Last note: this isn't $29 for a book. It's $29 for a video course (though admittedly a non-HTML version of the book is thrown in at the end). The book itself is available for free, which is all that the OP was pointing out.
  - benmanns 14y ago
    True, but by working for "roughly X/hour" you've established that the typical exchange rate for your time is roughly X/hour. If I were to ask you to do some work for my during your off time, I would have to pay about X ± X/2 depending on how you guarded your time. So what if someone only values their time at X/4? That's still $200 worth of spare time.
    - shadowfiend 14y ago
      That's fair, if we're continuing a monetary analogy (which I did do). My spare time is worth happiness/distraction to me. Not money. I will confess that in that particular regard, I may differ from some, or perhaps even most, others.
    - tjoff 14y ago
      Doesn't make much sense anyway. So you make $40/hr, 40 hours a week. Well there is 168 hours in a week, subtract 40 from that and you have 128 hours those 40 hours must pay for. As if that wasn't enough you have a lot of expenses that are flat-rate that you must pay regardless of how you spend your time (such as your rent). All this is further assuming that your goal is to spend everything you make every month. Most probably put away some money to be able to buy a new car, travel etc. (or even just to be able to repair the car when it breaks)
    - __abc 14y ago
      Damn. I've totally been ignoring the cost of sleeping. Son of a ....... I better update my personal finance models ... stat!
    - argv_empty 14y ago
      by working for "roughly X/hour" you've established that the typical exchange rate for your time is roughly X/hour Well, I've established that I'm willing to work that many hours for that rate. That doesn't mean I'm willing to work more hours at the same hourly rate. Most people I know value their spare time enough to expect a higher rate for working more time.
  - flyinRyan 14y ago
- TylerE 14y ago
  That saying annoys me to no end. Sure, time has value, but just because something took $x hours does NOT mean it had an opportunity cost of $x*$rate.
shadowfiend 14y ago
Zed Shaw has made the book available for free. It's perfectly acceptable to point that out (indeed, it's linked from the udemy summary anyway). If you need more than the book, you can pay for the course. This is why it is labelled a "companion". There is nothing morally bankrupt about using the resource that has been graciously given away for free: it seems evident that Zed Shaw intended the book to be free, so use that fact. If you need more, he believes it's worth $29 of your money to access the additional materials. There's a really good argument to be made if the OP were linking to a bootlegged free version of a book that costs money, but it's really silly to criticize him for pointing out the free version of the free book on the thread about its companion course.
- johnohara 14y ago
  If the video course were free, what would you be willing to pay for additional course materials? (i.e. the book, exercise solutions, exclusive live sessions, etc.) I'm not trying to be confrontational here. Online education/coursework/learning needs a pricing structure that makes sense. One that enables thousands of qualified instructors to participate without going broke in the process. I think I understand Zed's "freemium" model in that context. But I disagree with his approach. Our local high school district pays some teachers over a $100,000 a year. That's 3,448 students at $29 each -- per year. That's roughly equivalent to the entire student population! Look for yourself: http://www.familytaxpayers.org/salary.php http://www.familytaxpayers.org/salary.php Find a district: type in '230' Select 'Cons HSD 230' from the list presented. There is no disruption in education until there is parity between what Zed is able to make and what these people make.
  - mkr-hn 14y ago
    Disruption happens when someone demonstrates that the existing system is flawed by creating a better system. It will cost what it costs. You sound like a traditional publisher complaining that they can't charge $20 for schlock and abuse authors anymore.
  - jonknee 14y ago
    > There is no disruption in education until there is parity between what Zed is able to make and what these people make. I don't think Zed has trouble making $100,000 a year.

DannoHung 14y ago

You can also compile the book into a PDF if you'd like. Zed made the code available so all it takes is the effort involved to install the right LaTeX modules. Took part of an afternoon to figure out how to build it.