Principles for teaching

So far, 100% of the Boosted Code training curriculum is created by one person: myself.

But I am thinking ahead, to when I have others helping me expand it. And so I wrote down some principles of my training methodology, that makes it unique and I believe more effective.

Some of these principles:

• Doing and building are where real learning takes place. When creating a new training module, start by asking what students should be able to do and build after completing the training. Then create hands-on exercises to give them the experience of doing and building that. And finally, create lectures that teach the information needed to do those exercises.

• Never use AI to generate content intended for humans - either public content, or private Boosted Code training material. It destroys trust like nothing else.

• For common error situations, design the exercise so the student will trigger that error; understand what it means; and then learn how to fix it. That way when they encounter the error in practice, they will recognize the situation, and know what to do.

• When doing research, don't ever believe something just because an AI says it.

• Do not consider information to be verified, until one of us [meaning: one of the teaching staff] has personally reproduced it.

• Source your information from primary sources (such as official reference manuals) whenever possible. It's okay to use chat AI to find those primary sources, or to find the needle in some primary-source haystack. But once that's identified, prefer the primary source.

• You can use AI to help yourself understand what's in a primary source. But it should be a temporary crutch. If not, then something is wrong.

• When there are no primary sources available, or none that are authoritative enough, we must validate it ourselves. We do this by inspecting source code, building projects, running clear experiments, and applying the scientific method, with 'reproducability' being the highest standard.

• Always prefer opensource solutions, whenever viable. Do everything possible to avoid proprietary lock-in.

• Always attempt to identify the underlying first principles that allow people to create solutions, rather than memorizing steps. Emphasize these in the teaching.

• Prefer solutions that are likely to be future-proof and adaptable to future changes in technology, even if they are a bit harder to learn now. A skill with longevity is more worth learning than a skill without.

• The intention of Boosted Code is health, wealth, happiness and fulfillment for every technology professional. Keep this in mind for everything we do.

There are others principles too. But this email is long enough.

If you like these principles, you will probably like Boosted Code. Learn about it here: