Ask HN: I will quit my job as a PM to join a coding bootcamp. Am I crazy?
Yes you are crazy and Please Don&#x27;t Do it. I&#x27;ll try to make the story short so bear with me. Almost 3 years ago I took a Bootcamp Online at Bloc.io, quite recommendable and I was supremely obsessed with learning. I needed to make a fast change in my life knowing that I was going to be unemployed in about 6 months, my wife was pregnant and I had to make a quick jump not to drown. I do not regret it at all, in fact, I greatly appreciate having learned so much with my mentor. 
You can not imagine how many things I did after investing +90 hours a week for 6 months. I still had to learn on my own for another year testing ideas before I was able to launch a startup that has allowed me to keep a decent income higher than the one I had before. But this scenario is not what I wished for when I started 3 years ago. I did not conceive that learning to code was a permanent and continuous process where you needed  concentration and long hours of focus instead of playing with my daughter who is almost 3 years old now. I love writing code, words can&#x27;t describe what you feel when tests pass and you see it live in production (only to realize a few days later that you were reinventing the wheel and there was a better gem that did it faster and better).  I thought this new world was my dreamed land where I could build things without asking anyone for help but that&#x27;s really the problem. That window I opened 3 years ago showed me that if I continue to develop the way that I did I would spend my life without actually living it as I wanted  to. I confess my lines are not that sofisticated, I even consider them quite amateurish, my tests are light, and I guess If I would really want to be a pro developer I would have to invest much more and that sucks because you can&#x27;t think how many nights I&#x27;ve spent  being away from my family because it truly is very absorbing. I do not say that it is bad idea to spend a life in front of a computer but man that is not suited for me.<p>I can see through your words that your interests are to participate in those great new ideas and to achieve greater things but you can make it happen without that Bootcamp especially without quitting your job. If you decided to attend to a good university it was because you really wanted to leave a dent on the universe. There are cases such as the orchestra director where although he does not play any instrument he must at least learn to play one to understand the essence of music before being able to lead. But in our ecosystem what is rewarded beyond our vision is our ability to execute.I believe that you as a PM have one the most valuable assets because you can take any talented team and give them a vision towards execution, that they will appreciate because people do not know how to execute complex Things step by step the way that you do. Besides that if you give them that strong desire to accomplish excellence that breaks the molds. And that stamina to persevere even in the darkest hours you are set.<p>If I could go back 3 years in time, I would ask for the refund even if I had to pay something. Instead I would use that money to spend more time observing regular people, maybe participate inside university activities, labs, study groups and invite complete strangers to take espressos or beers with students or teachers and bond with them. Instead of being a solo learner I would encourage myself to be a part of  a group. My job would have been to create any initiative with them on the topics I sought were worth it and even if I knew it wouldn&#x27;t work I would put all my experience to support the implementation of these ideas. I might not knew how to type a line of code but I would have felt more alive to be able to see those ideas become a reality, even if it wasn&#x27;t 1% my vision, even if if wasn&#x27;t my code, even if I only was able to sit on a table with just one talented person and be able to keep him motivated and enthusiastic after the first prototype was made and help him with the first sale to come, that would have been enough.   Instead of investing in Bootcamps you could interact more with humans, learn more about human behaviors, spend more time with your family or children, travel more to meet with more people and take advantage of the work you have right now to find mentors or talk with your  peers about your expectations  in those topics that you like to execute instead of being in front of your laptop fighting with your lines of code that someone you work with can do much better in less time.<p>Finally I have to say it surely was a blessing to become a developer, right no  I&#x27;m working as CTO&#x2F;CEO but I &#x27;m about to let go, and I know it&#x27;s going to be hard, anyways in your current situation where you have much more knowledge and experience, only quit to carry out your ideas but if you definitely want to play don&#x27;t forget that sooner or later you&#x27;ll need to delegate and learn to orchestrate and for that you don&#x27;t need that Bootcamp.<p>P.S.: Forgive my bad English.