They spend the first part of the episode discussing Daniel's winding journey to Launch School in which he left a successful career behind. Daniel quit his job to pursue Launch School full-time, driven by a long-held vision to create an application that would later become Hack Chinese. Unlike many students who pursue Capstone, Daniel was focused on the mastery-based core curriculum to build a solid foundation, equipping himself with the skills necessary to bring his idea to life.

During the rest of the episode, Daniel shares the process of developing Hack Chinese, a language-learning platform designed to help users master Chinese characters through spaced repetition. Daniel was determined to be the sole developer, choosing to forgo venture backing and take on the project independently, even though it meant several years of work before success. He explains his desire to maintain complete sole proprietary and the satisfaction he finds in personally crafting every aspect of Hack Chinese.

We hope you enjoy the episode!

They spend the first part of the episode discussing Missy's transition into software. She comes from a background in fine arts and went through several difficult, low paying, and, as she described, dead-end jobs. Even so, the decision to leave fine arts and transition into software development was challenging. She gives a very candid and level-headed perspective on the ups and downs of the core curriculum, Capstone, and the job hunt.

During the rest of the episode, Missy shares what it's like to work for New Relic, a massive company with over 500 engineers. She's part of a small team of 6 working on internal tools for the company, where she spends a lot of time debugging and relying on the fundamentals that she built at Launch School. She also gives insight into how she fits into the company as a Launch School grad and what her day to day is like.

We hope you enjoy the episode!