What's Cooking with Ken Alger

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