Hi, I'm Craig, and welcome to the Treehouse Show.

The Treehouse Show is our conversation with the Treehouse community.

[SOUND] In this episode, we'll be getting to know

one of our newest Treehouse teachers, Ken Alger.

[SOUND] >> Thanks so much for

being on the show Ken.

>> Glad to be here.

>> I was wondering, could you tell me how you got started in technology?

>> Sure, so I was about, I don't know, 10 or 11, we got in school,

we had a pet computer, an old Commodore pet computer.

Tape drive >> Okay.

>> And really, by today's standards, it was archaic, almost.

>> Right.

>> But we would play around with that in school and then we got computers at

home and I would send it home and program- >> What would you program in?

>> Programmed in BASIC.

>> Nice. >> 10 go to 20, that sort of stuff.

>> Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday.

>> Yeah, and

I wrote my own word processing programs >> Wow.

>> And database stuff back then.

>> In BASIC?

>> In BASIC.

>> Wow.

>> Vic 20 and Commodore 64.

>> Vic 20 needs plugged into the TV?

>> Yeah, >> Yeah.

>> It's crazy, and then we got an IBM compatible PC,

which was supposed to be 100% compatible and was more like 70% compatible.

But played around with that for a long time through high school, and

then kind of changed careers and lost interest at that point.

>> Okay, where'd you head?

>> I went into politics of all places.

>> Politics?

>> Yep. >> Wow.

>> So I was an economics major in college,

and politics was kind of my thing at that point.

>> Okay.

>> And then all my jobs that I had, I was kind of the computer guy.

>> Okay. >> So computers have always been kind of

party of my- >> Couldn't shake it.

>> Yeah, and then, so you fast forward, more years than I'd like to admit.

>> [LAUGH] >> I was looking for a career change, and

I found Treehouse.

>> Cool, yeah, that's right, that's right.

I remember actually, one of my first courses, you were, you helped.

>> Yeah.

>> You helped QA, one of my first courses.

>> That's probably true.

>> And it was impressive.

>> Thank you.

>> And we talked about it, we talked about it around the office and you QA'd,

>> 30 some courses.

>> Yeah, cuz we send those tweets out and you responded to one of them.

And then you became a moderator after that, right?

>> I was a moderator for awhile, and

then the job opened up right around the time that the tech degrees started.

And got hired on to be a tech degree success coordinator.

>> Awesome.

>> And then did that for awhile, and

just back in the beginning of this year, got hired on as a teacher.

>> Awesome, we are so glad to have you and you are all over the place though, right?

You are like a polyglot.

What's a polyglot?

>> Kind of one that knows a lot of different languages.

>> Right, so I know, for students watching at home, learning another language might

seem like that's kind of daunting, cuz they're just starting now.

So do you have advice for that?

Is there anything about being a polyglot there that you have?

>> Google's your friend?

>> Okay. [LAUGH]

>> It's challenging to keep everything

straight, right?

I mean, you jump from, say, Java, right, and into Python,

and you don't need semicolons in Python.

>> Right. And

Java isn't particular about indentation, for example.

>> Right. >> So those types of things you pick up

relatively quickly, and then you remember them.

But other than that, what method you use for date time in Python versus date

time in Java, Google's your friend, if you don't remember it.

>> Okay, that's cool.

Do you have, is that hard to do, to learn two, kind of simultaneously?

>> Probably, but it's doable and I find there's so

many similarities between languages that learning multiple languages,

once you've kind of picked up a lot of the basics,

it's not that big of a challenge, and big of a stretch.

Move on to your other ones.

>> Yeah, cuz they're all kind of the same, under the hood.

>> More or less, it's mostly syntax.

Right. >> Once you get kind of the fundamentals

down, of what the method is, what the function is, what the difference between

methods and functions are, classes and that sort of thing.

>> So that's interesting, what's driving you to learn all those different

languages, cuz that's quite a bit?

>> Yeah, it is, I think the big driving force for

me personally was just kind of rounding up my knowledge of stuff.

Two, and I mean, honestly it would be going through JavaScript and

I would see, hey, this job looks really interesting but

it requires some Java knowledge on top of that.

So let's take a little detour and learn some Java and then-.

>> That's right.

>> There was some Python type stuff and what not that came about.

And a lot of it, it's all, I mostly concentrated on back

end technologies, so not so much the design and what not.

>> Right.

>> And they're all, like I said before, they're all kinda intermixed and

very similar.

So just kinda what features of each language

driving the different things that we can do with them.

>> Great, what are you teaching now here rest of the Treehouse?

>> So I've taught a couple of courses on data visualization, and

kinda data science stuff, and those were in Python.

And now I'm on Android, and some Android stuff, probably go back to Python,

maybe touch some Java.

>> Nice.

>> Bouncing around.

>> You are all over, that's great.

>> I am.

>> Great, super success story too, that's awesome.

So what is something that the students who watch your courses won't

know about you just by watching your courses?

>> Well, not maybe by watching my courses, but

I have had my fingers in one of Meliana's PHP courses.

>> Really.

>> Early on when I was first hired she needed some help doing some recipes,

I used to be a chef.

>> You used to be a chef.

>> A chef, yep, I went to culinary school, back in that long, long time ago period.

>> Okay. >> Went to culinary school,

and was a chef for several years and yeah.

>> How long did you do the chef thing for?

>> Three or four years.

So I went to culinary school, then had kids.

It's not really conducive to a family lifestyle, but, yeah, it was a lot of fun.

>> Are you a good cook?

>> You could ask my wife.

>> [LAUGH] Can you make me something?

>> Well, we can go take a look and see.

>> Sure, let's go.

>> All right.

>> So it's a kitchen, we got stuff.

>> Okay. >> We should have,

there's some Goldfish crackers, and peanut butter pretzels.

There's salt, we got salt and there's.

>> Salt, honey.

>> Honey and tea, there's some, I don't know.

>> Okay. >> Maybe there, let's look in the fridge.

>> Fridge, yeah.

Tortillas.

>> There's some tortillas.

Hey, there's a beer.

You made this.

Didn't you make this?

>> Yeah, I did, I made that but- >> It's a Treehouse beer.

>> Yeah, I have an idea for something we can make here.

>> Yeah?

>> Yeah. >> All right.

[MUSIC]

>> Wow, this looks great Ken.

What is this?

>> Fish tacos.

Wanna try them?

>> Yeah, let's get a bite here.

>> Too cheesy?

>> Thanks for watching the Treehouse Show.

To get in touch with the show, reach out to me on Twitter, or

shoot an email to show@teamtreehouse.com.

We'd love to hear from you.

There was something pretty fishy about those tacos.

[MUSIC]