The Coding Apprentice
March 29th, 2006Ok, maybe I watch too much reality TV, but I’d like to see a show called “The Coding Apprentice.”
Starting with 18 candidates, each week, they are randomly divided into teams of 2, 3, or 4 (perhaps solo on odd weeks). Then a charity is selected with a need for an application. Each team is given a week to create a solution. The charity reviews the solutions and picks the application they like best. Then, the teams that weren’t picked go back to “the conference room” and make a presentation to Steve Jobs about the merits of their solution and the problems with the other teams solutions. Then Steve fires one candidate. At the end, the winner is given funding to start a software company and can hire some of the candidates that weren’t chosen.
What reality TV show would you like to see “Geekified?”
All Posts
March 30th, 2006 at 12:08 am
well my first thought is that, you should be fired for not thinking of a better name and a more original idea
What would be next.. American Coder? ( I would guess Bill gates would host that)
Honestly though I think anything would be better than the ‘Beauty and the Geek’ show.
March 30th, 2006 at 1:21 am
Survivor!
You write an application which has to survive numerous crazy tests, and at the end of the day the one that was left standing after a crazy load test wins the day.
March 30th, 2006 at 2:13 am
Heh. But wouldn’t the charity review be biased towards the UI aspects (”Oooh it looks pretty”) rather than how well its actually written underneath. Having a fairly radical change of requirements mid-week would be good too.
March 30th, 2006 at 3:33 am
I’d prefer to have my work evaluated by Bill Gates, at least we know that he’s written code himself. But then I guess Steve would probably be more demanding, him or Larry Ellison.
March 30th, 2006 at 4:03 am
You’re firing is insanely great!!!
March 30th, 2006 at 4:14 am
In a way, that’s what Paul Graham does at http://www.ycombinator.com.
March 30th, 2006 at 6:47 am
Supercoder: An experienced software engineer from a more demanding area such as aircraft navigation systems is brought on site for a week to mentor hopeless software development teams:
Episode 1: Supercoder is sent to help out a hopelessly amateur group of web developers whose website was recently erased by the Googlebot.
March 30th, 2006 at 8:55 am
I think another interesting twist would be to bring back an application to add features to it. However, candidates don’t get to add features to their own program, they have to add them to somebody else’s.
March 30th, 2006 at 9:16 am
Who would really want to watch Bill Gates do anything?
April 2nd, 2006 at 2:52 pm
Hi.
My pitches go something like this…
“RSI Miami”. A Florida software house that has been programming by cut and paste has to unravel it’s legacy code. Very high body count.
“The ActiveX Factor”. Bunch of teenage coders complete to invent a cool web technology with the promise of an MSDN article at the end. Their friends vote for them on the internet, but they are never heard of again.
“Hex in the City”. A dangerously malnourished coder, with a blog no one’s ever heard of, talks about trouble with the same pair programming partner week after week.
“The Makefiles”. Linus Sculley and Cox Mulder have to code as fast as they can before an all powerful conspiracy takes over the world.
yours, Marcus
April 3rd, 2006 at 11:29 pm
I like the idea of a coding apprentice. It might influence people into thinking they need a killer app or website too, and call up their local webdesigner or programmer!
Since were coming up with alternate ideas, I want to see a celebrity death match with Gates, Jobs, and Torvalds. They have various special skills and fatalities. Like Torvalds has an animality with a giant penguin, chirp, waggle, flop, splat! Gates calls upon his team of suits, the ones that lure schools and business into buying huge contracts, Matrix Mr. Smith style. Then Jobs, I dunno, maybe something with hippies, fashion models with guns, or a free mini diePod (Simpsons: Million Dollar Abie) under everyone’s seat, Daytime Talkshow style. Now that I’m thinking about it, maybe I’ll make a Flash game or movie myself! I should get a job, heh.
April 18th, 2006 at 5:03 am
I was going to say “The $x Factor” but I think I like “The ActiveX Factor” better :p
May 24th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
coding apprentice, what a kool idea
July 20th, 2008 at 6:13 am
Grand concept i think.Especially if the said coding tasks will address current needs and show innovation.Maybe the likes of Google would like to sponsor such seeing that they are having app dev challenges at local universities.