Second Brain

Economics Student Who Taught Himself to Code

The Story

Harry studied Economics at Durham University in northern England. During his first year he “watched the entirety of Breaking Bad, played a lot of video games and ate a lot of ice cream” instead of engaging with coursework (Source 1).

Midway through his second year, he decided to focus on creating a book with an accompanying video animation. He needed a website. He initially used Dreamweaver and spent approximately one year with it before discovering better alternatives (Source 1).

He paid someone to handle JavaScript work before gradually learning it himself (Source 1). He eventually attended the Founders and Coders bootcamp in Nazareth but left after six weeks due to personal circumstances (Source 1).

His conclusion on bootcamps: “bootcamps aren’t necessary” and “the best teachers are on the internet” (Source 1).

His recommended learning path, representing approximately six months of work (Source 1):

  1. Net Ninja YouTube tutorials (free HTML, CSS, JavaScript)
  2. JavaScript 30 day course by Wes Bos (free)
  3. ES6, Learn Node, and React for Beginners courses by Wes Bos (paid)

“I can do a bit of development, a bit of design, and I really like writing, specifically marketing stuff I find really interesting. I don’t think many people necessarily have all three of those skills.” (Source 2).

He left university in summer 2017 without a clear direction (from the IH AMA, corroborated by Source 1’s timeline). His first coding project was “Consumers Book,” the website for his originality book (Source 1).

Lesson for Creators

Harry’s competitive advantage isn’t mastery in any one skill. It’s the rare intersection of three: basic coding, basic design, and strong marketing writing. None of those required a degree. Each took about six months of focused self-teaching. The combination is what makes Marketing Examples possible as a one-person operation. Most people who can write can’t code. Most who can code can’t design. The overlap is thin, and that’s where the opportunity lives.

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