How to teach yourself programming with GitHub's Andrea Griffiths [Podcast #199]

Today Quincy Larson interviews Andrea Griffiths, who taught herself programming using freeCodeCamp while working in construction. She moved to the US from Colombia when she was 17, and within 6 months she joined the US Army. She ran a chain of gyms before landing a support role at a tech company, then ascending to Product Manager and ultimately Developer Advocate at GitHub. Chapters: - 0:00:00 Introduction & Community News - 0:00:21 New Courses and Tutorials - 0:02:49 Song of the Week & Shirt Info - 0:04:55 Andrea's Journey Learning to Code using freeCodeCamp - 0:19:57 Andrea's Decision to Join the Army - 0:25:29 Running a Chain of Gyms - 0:29:15 Moving on to Learn Programming - 0:33:54 Andrea's Role in Support - 0:40:54 Transitioning to Other Roles in GitHub - 0:53:00 Advantages of Being Bilingual - 0:58:03 Approaching AI as a Parent - 1:06:32 Advice for Yourself Knowing What You Know Now Support for this podcast is provided by a grant from AlgoMonster. AlgoMonster is a platform that teaches data structure and algorithm patterns in a structured sequence, so you can approach technical interview questions more systematically. Their curriculum covers patterns like sliding window, two-pointers, graph search, and dynamic programming, helping you learn each pattern once and apply it to solve many problems. Start a structured interview prep routine at https://algo.monster/freecodecamp Support also comes from the 10,338 kind folks who donate to our charity each month. Join them and support our mission at https://donate.freecodecamp.org Get a freeCodeCamp t-shirt for $20 with free shipping anywhere in the US: https://shop.freecodecamp.org We talk about: - Tips for busy parents who want to learn new skills. - How AI tools are no substitute for your own critical thinking - and problem solving skills. - How even though it's getting easier every day to learn programming for free, people are so distracted, and for many it feels harder and harder to sit down and do it. Link