1 00:00:00,760 --> 00:00:02,950 Hi, I'm Craig, and welcome to the Treehouse Show. 2 00:00:02,950 --> 00:00:05,420 The Treehouse Show is our conversation with the Treehouse community. 3 00:00:05,420 --> 00:00:10,154 [SOUND] In this episode, we'll be getting to know 4 00:00:10,154 --> 00:00:15,122 one of our newest Treehouse teachers, Ken Alger. 5 00:00:15,122 --> 00:00:16,556 [SOUND] >> Thanks so much for 6 00:00:16,556 --> 00:00:17,750 being on the show Ken. 7 00:00:17,750 --> 00:00:19,050 >> Glad to be here. 8 00:00:19,050 --> 00:00:22,644 >> I was wondering, could you tell me how you got started in technology? 9 00:00:22,644 --> 00:00:28,049 >> Sure, so I was about, I don't know, 10 or 11, we got in school, 10 00:00:28,049 --> 00:00:32,280 we had a pet computer, an old Commodore pet computer. 11 00:00:32,280 --> 00:00:33,226 Tape drive >> Okay. 12 00:00:33,226 --> 00:00:37,505 >> And really, by today's standards, it was archaic, almost. 13 00:00:37,505 --> 00:00:38,395 >> Right. 14 00:00:38,395 --> 00:00:43,085 >> But we would play around with that in school and then we got computers at 15 00:00:43,085 --> 00:00:47,870 home and I would send it home and program- >> What would you program in? 16 00:00:47,870 --> 00:00:49,080 >> Programmed in BASIC. 17 00:00:49,080 --> 00:00:52,604 >> Nice. >> 10 go to 20, that sort of stuff. 18 00:00:52,604 --> 00:00:53,863 >> Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday. 19 00:00:53,863 --> 00:00:54,938 >> Yeah, and 20 00:00:54,938 --> 00:00:58,937 I wrote my own word processing programs >> Wow. 21 00:00:58,937 --> 00:01:01,598 >> And database stuff back then. 22 00:01:01,598 --> 00:01:02,264 >> In BASIC? 23 00:01:02,264 --> 00:01:03,000 >> In BASIC. 24 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:03,780 >> Wow. 25 00:01:03,780 --> 00:01:05,730 >> Vic 20 and Commodore 64. 26 00:01:05,730 --> 00:01:07,430 >> Vic 20 needs plugged into the TV? 27 00:01:07,430 --> 00:01:08,466 >> Yeah, >> Yeah. 28 00:01:08,466 --> 00:01:12,727 >> It's crazy, and then we got an IBM compatible PC, 29 00:01:12,727 --> 00:01:19,696 which was supposed to be 100% compatible and was more like 70% compatible. 30 00:01:19,696 --> 00:01:24,242 But played around with that for a long time through high school, and 31 00:01:24,242 --> 00:01:28,408 then kind of changed careers and lost interest at that point. 32 00:01:28,408 --> 00:01:30,990 >> Okay, where'd you head? 33 00:01:30,990 --> 00:01:33,660 >> I went into politics of all places. 34 00:01:33,660 --> 00:01:34,350 >> Politics? 35 00:01:34,350 --> 00:01:35,560 >> Yep. >> Wow. 36 00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:38,350 >> So I was an economics major in college, 37 00:01:38,350 --> 00:01:41,660 and politics was kind of my thing at that point. 38 00:01:41,660 --> 00:01:42,730 >> Okay. 39 00:01:42,730 --> 00:01:46,590 >> And then all my jobs that I had, I was kind of the computer guy. 40 00:01:46,590 --> 00:01:48,640 >> Okay. >> So computers have always been kind of 41 00:01:48,640 --> 00:01:49,681 party of my- >> Couldn't shake it. 42 00:01:49,681 --> 00:01:55,245 >> Yeah, and then, so you fast forward, more years than I'd like to admit. 43 00:01:55,245 --> 00:01:58,302 >> [LAUGH] >> I was looking for a career change, and 44 00:01:58,302 --> 00:01:59,560 I found Treehouse. 45 00:01:59,560 --> 00:02:01,125 >> Cool, yeah, that's right, that's right. 46 00:02:01,125 --> 00:02:03,931 I remember actually, one of my first courses, you were, you helped. 47 00:02:03,931 --> 00:02:04,830 >> Yeah. 48 00:02:04,830 --> 00:02:06,800 >> You helped QA, one of my first courses. 49 00:02:06,800 --> 00:02:07,569 >> That's probably true. 50 00:02:07,569 --> 00:02:09,407 >> And it was impressive. 51 00:02:09,407 --> 00:02:10,007 >> Thank you. 52 00:02:10,007 --> 00:02:12,654 >> And we talked about it, we talked about it around the office and you QA'd, 53 00:02:12,654 --> 00:02:14,516 >> 30 some courses. 54 00:02:14,516 --> 00:02:17,861 >> Yeah, cuz we send those tweets out and you responded to one of them. 55 00:02:17,861 --> 00:02:21,000 And then you became a moderator after that, right? 56 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:23,520 >> I was a moderator for awhile, and 57 00:02:23,520 --> 00:02:29,215 then the job opened up right around the time that the tech degrees started. 58 00:02:29,215 --> 00:02:33,445 And got hired on to be a tech degree success coordinator. 59 00:02:33,445 --> 00:02:34,385 >> Awesome. 60 00:02:34,385 --> 00:02:36,861 >> And then did that for awhile, and 61 00:02:36,861 --> 00:02:41,990 just back in the beginning of this year, got hired on as a teacher. 62 00:02:41,990 --> 00:02:45,599 >> Awesome, we are so glad to have you and you are all over the place though, right? 63 00:02:45,599 --> 00:02:48,660 You are like a polyglot. 64 00:02:48,660 --> 00:02:49,330 What's a polyglot? 65 00:02:50,405 --> 00:02:53,835 >> Kind of one that knows a lot of different languages. 66 00:02:53,835 --> 00:02:57,227 >> Right, so I know, for students watching at home, learning another language might 67 00:02:57,227 --> 00:03:00,060 seem like that's kind of daunting, cuz they're just starting now. 68 00:03:00,060 --> 00:03:02,425 So do you have advice for that? 69 00:03:02,425 --> 00:03:06,560 Is there anything about being a polyglot there that you have? 70 00:03:06,560 --> 00:03:07,330 >> Google's your friend? 71 00:03:07,330 --> 00:03:08,936 >> Okay. [LAUGH] 72 00:03:08,936 --> 00:03:11,784 >> It's challenging to keep everything 73 00:03:11,784 --> 00:03:13,300 straight, right? 74 00:03:13,300 --> 00:03:17,280 I mean, you jump from, say, Java, right, and into Python, 75 00:03:17,280 --> 00:03:20,555 and you don't need semicolons in Python. 76 00:03:20,555 --> 00:03:21,500 >> Right. And 77 00:03:21,500 --> 00:03:26,080 Java isn't particular about indentation, for example. 78 00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:28,763 >> Right. >> So those types of things you pick up 79 00:03:28,763 --> 00:03:32,800 relatively quickly, and then you remember them. 80 00:03:32,800 --> 00:03:37,390 But other than that, what method you use for date time in Python versus date 81 00:03:37,390 --> 00:03:40,340 time in Java, Google's your friend, if you don't remember it. 82 00:03:40,340 --> 00:03:41,050 >> Okay, that's cool. 83 00:03:41,050 --> 00:03:47,409 Do you have, is that hard to do, to learn two, kind of simultaneously? 84 00:03:47,409 --> 00:03:51,273 >> Probably, but it's doable and I find there's so 85 00:03:51,273 --> 00:03:57,069 many similarities between languages that learning multiple languages, 86 00:03:57,069 --> 00:04:00,933 once you've kind of picked up a lot of the basics, 87 00:04:00,933 --> 00:04:06,200 it's not that big of a challenge, and big of a stretch. 88 00:04:06,200 --> 00:04:07,142 Move on to your other ones. 89 00:04:07,142 --> 00:04:08,807 >> Yeah, cuz they're all kind of the same, under the hood. 90 00:04:08,807 --> 00:04:10,735 >> More or less, it's mostly syntax. 91 00:04:10,735 --> 00:04:12,679 Right. >> Once you get kind of the fundamentals 92 00:04:12,679 --> 00:04:16,868 down, of what the method is, what the function is, what the difference between 93 00:04:16,868 --> 00:04:20,028 methods and functions are, classes and that sort of thing. 94 00:04:20,028 --> 00:04:23,539 >> So that's interesting, what's driving you to learn all those different 95 00:04:23,539 --> 00:04:25,332 languages, cuz that's quite a bit? 96 00:04:25,332 --> 00:04:28,694 >> Yeah, it is, I think the big driving force for 97 00:04:28,694 --> 00:04:33,475 me personally was just kind of rounding up my knowledge of stuff. 98 00:04:33,475 --> 00:04:38,159 Two, and I mean, honestly it would be going through JavaScript and 99 00:04:38,159 --> 00:04:42,430 I would see, hey, this job looks really interesting but 100 00:04:42,430 --> 00:04:45,738 it requires some Java knowledge on top of that. 101 00:04:45,738 --> 00:04:49,073 So let's take a little detour and learn some Java and then-. 102 00:04:49,073 --> 00:04:50,040 >> That's right. 103 00:04:50,040 --> 00:04:54,410 >> There was some Python type stuff and what not that came about. 104 00:04:54,410 --> 00:04:59,147 And a lot of it, it's all, I mostly concentrated on back 105 00:04:59,147 --> 00:05:03,998 end technologies, so not so much the design and what not. 106 00:05:03,998 --> 00:05:04,795 >> Right. 107 00:05:04,795 --> 00:05:08,577 >> And they're all, like I said before, they're all kinda intermixed and 108 00:05:08,577 --> 00:05:09,370 very similar. 109 00:05:09,370 --> 00:05:12,933 So just kinda what features of each language 110 00:05:12,933 --> 00:05:17,373 driving the different things that we can do with them. 111 00:05:17,373 --> 00:05:20,950 >> Great, what are you teaching now here rest of the Treehouse? 112 00:05:20,950 --> 00:05:25,140 >> So I've taught a couple of courses on data visualization, and 113 00:05:25,140 --> 00:05:28,960 kinda data science stuff, and those were in Python. 114 00:05:28,960 --> 00:05:32,980 And now I'm on Android, and some Android stuff, probably go back to Python, 115 00:05:32,980 --> 00:05:34,300 maybe touch some Java. 116 00:05:34,300 --> 00:05:35,050 >> Nice. 117 00:05:35,050 --> 00:05:35,830 >> Bouncing around. 118 00:05:35,830 --> 00:05:36,955 >> You are all over, that's great. 119 00:05:36,955 --> 00:05:37,960 >> I am. 120 00:05:37,960 --> 00:05:41,210 >> Great, super success story too, that's awesome. 121 00:05:41,210 --> 00:05:45,757 So what is something that the students who watch your courses won't 122 00:05:45,757 --> 00:05:48,879 know about you just by watching your courses? 123 00:05:48,879 --> 00:05:52,337 >> Well, not maybe by watching my courses, but 124 00:05:52,337 --> 00:05:56,530 I have had my fingers in one of Meliana's PHP courses. 125 00:05:56,530 --> 00:05:57,930 >> Really. 126 00:05:57,930 --> 00:06:02,295 >> Early on when I was first hired she needed some help doing some recipes, 127 00:06:02,295 --> 00:06:04,360 I used to be a chef. 128 00:06:04,360 --> 00:06:05,400 >> You used to be a chef. 129 00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:11,860 >> A chef, yep, I went to culinary school, back in that long, long time ago period. 130 00:06:11,860 --> 00:06:13,270 >> Okay. >> Went to culinary school, 131 00:06:13,270 --> 00:06:18,000 and was a chef for several years and yeah. 132 00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:19,710 >> How long did you do the chef thing for? 133 00:06:19,710 --> 00:06:20,690 >> Three or four years. 134 00:06:20,690 --> 00:06:23,280 So I went to culinary school, then had kids. 135 00:06:23,280 --> 00:06:28,070 It's not really conducive to a family lifestyle, but, yeah, it was a lot of fun. 136 00:06:28,070 --> 00:06:28,870 >> Are you a good cook? 137 00:06:29,920 --> 00:06:31,058 >> You could ask my wife. 138 00:06:31,058 --> 00:06:36,160 >> [LAUGH] Can you make me something? 139 00:06:36,160 --> 00:06:37,870 >> Well, we can go take a look and see. 140 00:06:37,870 --> 00:06:38,440 >> Sure, let's go. 141 00:06:38,440 --> 00:06:38,940 >> All right. 142 00:06:40,080 --> 00:06:42,120 >> So it's a kitchen, we got stuff. 143 00:06:42,120 --> 00:06:43,272 >> Okay. >> We should have, 144 00:06:43,272 --> 00:06:48,030 there's some Goldfish crackers, and peanut butter pretzels. 145 00:06:48,030 --> 00:06:49,652 There's salt, we got salt and there's. 146 00:06:49,652 --> 00:06:50,760 >> Salt, honey. 147 00:06:50,760 --> 00:06:53,700 >> Honey and tea, there's some, I don't know. 148 00:06:53,700 --> 00:06:55,026 >> Okay. >> Maybe there, let's look in the fridge. 149 00:06:55,026 --> 00:06:55,850 >> Fridge, yeah. 150 00:06:58,440 --> 00:06:59,050 Tortillas. 151 00:06:59,050 --> 00:07:00,560 >> There's some tortillas. 152 00:07:00,560 --> 00:07:01,850 Hey, there's a beer. 153 00:07:01,850 --> 00:07:02,350 You made this. 154 00:07:02,350 --> 00:07:03,190 Didn't you make this? 155 00:07:03,190 --> 00:07:07,230 >> Yeah, I did, I made that but- >> It's a Treehouse beer. 156 00:07:07,230 --> 00:07:12,800 >> Yeah, I have an idea for something we can make here. 157 00:07:12,800 --> 00:07:13,330 >> Yeah? 158 00:07:13,330 --> 00:07:14,071 >> Yeah. >> All right. 159 00:07:14,071 --> 00:07:24,071 [MUSIC] 160 00:07:32,313 --> 00:07:35,770 >> Wow, this looks great Ken. 161 00:07:35,770 --> 00:07:36,712 What is this? 162 00:07:36,712 --> 00:07:39,163 >> Fish tacos. 163 00:07:39,163 --> 00:07:40,179 Wanna try them? 164 00:07:40,179 --> 00:07:43,885 >> Yeah, let's get a bite here. 165 00:07:49,128 --> 00:07:55,490 >> Too cheesy? 166 00:07:55,490 --> 00:07:56,820 >> Thanks for watching the Treehouse Show. 167 00:07:56,820 --> 00:07:59,030 To get in touch with the show, reach out to me on Twitter, or 168 00:07:59,030 --> 00:08:01,510 shoot an email to show@teamtreehouse.com. 169 00:08:01,510 --> 00:08:02,787 We'd love to hear from you. 170 00:08:02,787 --> 00:08:05,774 There was something pretty fishy about those tacos. 171 00:08:05,774 --> 00:08:12,543 [MUSIC]