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Meet one of our newest teachers Ken Alger! Come see what he's cooking up for y'all.
More about Ken
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Hi, I'm Craig, and
welcome to the Treehouse Show.
0:00
The Treehouse Show is our conversation
with the Treehouse community.
0:02
[SOUND] In this episode,
we'll be getting to know
0:05
one of our newest Treehouse teachers,
Ken Alger.
0:10
[SOUND]
>> Thanks so much for
0:15
being on the show Ken.
0:16
>> Glad to be here.
0:17
>> I was wondering, could you tell me
how you got started in technology?
0:19
>> Sure, so I was about, I don't know,
10 or 11, we got in school,
0:22
we had a pet computer,
an old Commodore pet computer.
0:28
Tape drive
>> Okay.
0:32
>> And really, by today's standards,
it was archaic, almost.
0:33
>> Right.
0:37
>> But we would play around with that
in school and then we got computers at
0:38
home and I would send it home and program-
>> What would you program in?
0:43
>> Programmed in BASIC.
0:47
>> Nice.
>> 10 go to 20, that sort of stuff.
0:49
>> Happy birthday,
happy birthday, happy birthday.
0:52
>> Yeah, and
0:53
I wrote my own word processing programs
>> Wow.
0:54
>> And database stuff back then.
0:58
>> In BASIC?
1:01
>> In BASIC.
1:02
>> Wow.
1:03
>> Vic 20 and Commodore 64.
1:03
>> Vic 20 needs plugged into the TV?
1:05
>> Yeah,
>> Yeah.
1:07
>> It's crazy, and
then we got an IBM compatible PC,
1:08
which was supposed to be 100% compatible
and was more like 70% compatible.
1:12
But played around with that for
a long time through high school, and
1:19
then kind of changed careers and
lost interest at that point.
1:24
>> Okay, where'd you head?
1:28
>> I went into politics of all places.
1:30
>> Politics?
1:33
>> Yep.
>> Wow.
1:34
>> So I was an economics major in college,
1:35
and politics was kind of
my thing at that point.
1:38
>> Okay.
1:41
>> And then all my jobs that I had,
I was kind of the computer guy.
1:42
>> Okay.
>> So computers have always been kind of
1:46
party of my-
>> Couldn't shake it.
1:48
>> Yeah, and then, so you fast forward,
more years than I'd like to admit.
1:49
>> [LAUGH]
>> I was looking for a career change, and
1:55
I found Treehouse.
1:58
>> Cool, yeah, that's right, that's right.
1:59
I remember actually, one of my first
courses, you were, you helped.
2:01
>> Yeah.
2:03
>> You helped QA, one of my first courses.
2:04
>> That's probably true.
2:06
>> And it was impressive.
2:07
>> Thank you.
2:09
>> And we talked about it, we talked
about it around the office and you QA'd,
2:10
>> 30 some courses.
2:12
>> Yeah, cuz we send those tweets out and
you responded to one of them.
2:14
And then you became
a moderator after that, right?
2:17
>> I was a moderator for awhile, and
2:21
then the job opened up right around
the time that the tech degrees started.
2:23
And got hired on to be a tech
degree success coordinator.
2:29
>> Awesome.
2:33
>> And then did that for awhile, and
2:34
just back in the beginning of this year,
got hired on as a teacher.
2:36
>> Awesome, we are so glad to have you and
you are all over the place though, right?
2:41
You are like a polyglot.
2:45
What's a polyglot?
2:48
>> Kind of one that knows
a lot of different languages.
2:50
>> Right, so I know, for students watching
at home, learning another language might
2:53
seem like that's kind of daunting,
cuz they're just starting now.
2:57
So do you have advice for that?
3:00
Is there anything about being
a polyglot there that you have?
3:02
>> Google's your friend?
3:06
>> Okay.
[LAUGH]
3:07
>> It's challenging to keep everything
3:08
straight, right?
3:11
I mean, you jump from, say,
Java, right, and into Python,
3:13
and you don't need semicolons in Python.
3:17
>> Right.
And
3:20
Java isn't particular about indentation,
for example.
3:21
>> Right.
>> So those types of things you pick up
3:26
relatively quickly, and
then you remember them.
3:28
But other than that, what method you
use for date time in Python versus date
3:32
time in Java, Google's your friend,
if you don't remember it.
3:37
>> Okay, that's cool.
3:40
Do you have, is that hard to do,
to learn two, kind of simultaneously?
3:41
>> Probably, but it's doable and
I find there's so
3:47
many similarities between languages
that learning multiple languages,
3:51
once you've kind of picked
up a lot of the basics,
3:57
it's not that big of a challenge,
and big of a stretch.
4:00
Move on to your other ones.
4:06
>> Yeah, cuz they're all kind of the same,
under the hood.
4:07
>> More or less, it's mostly syntax.
4:08
Right.
>> Once you get kind of the fundamentals
4:10
down, of what the method is, what the
function is, what the difference between
4:12
methods and functions are,
classes and that sort of thing.
4:16
>> So that's interesting, what's driving
you to learn all those different
4:20
languages, cuz that's quite a bit?
4:23
>> Yeah, it is,
I think the big driving force for
4:25
me personally was just kind of
rounding up my knowledge of stuff.
4:28
Two, and I mean, honestly it would
be going through JavaScript and
4:33
I would see, hey,
this job looks really interesting but
4:38
it requires some Java
knowledge on top of that.
4:42
So let's take a little detour and
learn some Java and then-.
4:45
>> That's right.
4:49
>> There was some Python type stuff and
what not that came about.
4:50
And a lot of it, it's all,
I mostly concentrated on back
4:54
end technologies, so not so
much the design and what not.
4:59
>> Right.
5:03
>> And they're all, like I said before,
they're all kinda intermixed and
5:04
very similar.
5:08
So just kinda what
features of each language
5:09
driving the different things
that we can do with them.
5:12
>> Great, what are you teaching
now here rest of the Treehouse?
5:17
>> So I've taught a couple of
courses on data visualization, and
5:20
kinda data science stuff,
and those were in Python.
5:25
And now I'm on Android, and some Android
stuff, probably go back to Python,
5:28
maybe touch some Java.
5:32
>> Nice.
5:34
>> Bouncing around.
5:35
>> You are all over, that's great.
5:35
>> I am.
5:36
>> Great, super success story too,
that's awesome.
5:37
So what is something that the students
who watch your courses won't
5:41
know about you just by
watching your courses?
5:45
>> Well,
not maybe by watching my courses, but
5:48
I have had my fingers in one
of Meliana's PHP courses.
5:52
>> Really.
5:56
>> Early on when I was first hired she
needed some help doing some recipes,
5:57
I used to be a chef.
6:02
>> You used to be a chef.
6:04
>> A chef, yep, I went to culinary school,
back in that long, long time ago period.
6:05
>> Okay.
>> Went to culinary school,
6:11
and was a chef for several years and yeah.
6:13
>> How long did you do the chef thing for?
6:18
>> Three or four years.
6:19
So I went to culinary school,
then had kids.
6:20
It's not really conducive to a family
lifestyle, but, yeah, it was a lot of fun.
6:23
>> Are you a good cook?
6:28
>> You could ask my wife.
6:29
>> [LAUGH] Can you make me something?
6:31
>> Well, we can go take a look and see.
6:36
>> Sure, let's go.
6:37
>> All right.
6:38
>> So it's a kitchen, we got stuff.
6:40
>> Okay.
>> We should have,
6:42
there's some Goldfish crackers,
and peanut butter pretzels.
6:43
There's salt, we got salt and there's.
6:48
>> Salt, honey.
6:49
>> Honey and tea,
there's some, I don't know.
6:50
>> Okay.
>> Maybe there, let's look in the fridge.
6:53
>> Fridge, yeah.
6:55
Tortillas.
6:58
>> There's some tortillas.
6:59
Hey, there's a beer.
7:00
You made this.
7:01
Didn't you make this?
7:02
>> Yeah, I did, I made that but-
>> It's a Treehouse beer.
7:03
>> Yeah, I have an idea for
something we can make here.
7:07
>> Yeah?
7:12
>> Yeah.
>> All right.
7:13
[MUSIC]
7:14
>> Wow, this looks great Ken.
7:32
What is this?
7:35
>> Fish tacos.
7:36
Wanna try them?
7:39
>> Yeah, let's get a bite here.
7:40
>> Too cheesy?
7:49
>> Thanks for watching the Treehouse Show.
7:55
To get in touch with the show,
reach out to me on Twitter, or
7:56
shoot an email to show@teamtreehouse.com.
7:59
We'd love to hear from you.
8:01
There was something pretty
fishy about those tacos.
8:02
[MUSIC]
8:05
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