Learn in the open
Ask the question out loud. Somebody else in the room was wondering the same thing.
Palawan, 2013.
A handful of interns.
One stubborn idea:
the talent is already here.
Act I · The Spark
Curiosity was never the problem. Maps were.
In 2013, a handful of us were interns in Palawan, learning to build software on an island where few people did. We met classmates who were sharp, curious and hungry to make things, and who kept running into the same wall.
Our mentors gave us everything they had. But we were learning in a silo: nobody had shown us what lay beyond the island, how big the industry really was, or how far a curious student could go. So we walked into the storm anyway, holding that spark as our only guide.
So we started drawing the map ourselves.
Interlude · The Island
Every town has a geek. Most haven't met yet.
Palawan is 450 kilometres of island, end to end. The kid teaching herself Python in Coron has never met the one building games in Bataraza. Palaweño Geeks is how they find each other: online every week, in person whenever the boat schedule allows.
Act II · The Code
One rule. What you learn, you teach.
Teach what you just learned
You don't need to be an expert, only one step ahead. Explaining it is how you truly learn it.
Build for home
Practise on problems from Palawan: a school, a co-op, a barangay office. Real users teach faster than any course.
Scene · A study night
From hello, world to teaching it back.
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Hello, world
Everyone ships a first line before anything else. Nobody sits out.
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Pair up
Every learner sits with someone one step ahead of them.
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Build something for home
A small, real thing for someone you know.
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Show and tell
Push it, put it on the big screen, take questions.
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Teach one thing back
Write down what you learned. Next week, you teach it.
Act III · The Path
Five scenes from first line to first launch.
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Scene 01
Hello, World
Your first page, live on the internet, shown to your family before dinner.
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Scene 02
The 2 AM bug
Nothing works, then one missing semicolon. The first time you don't give up.
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Scene 03
The team
Git, code reviews and the humility of reading someone else's code.
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Scene 04
The first client
A real person with a real problem, from right here in Palawan.
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Scene 05
The launch
It ships. People use it. Now you teach the next one how.
Act IV · The Return
The fire was always there. It never went out.
2013now
The interns grew up. Some became engineers, some founded companies, and one of those companies, Vivito IT Solutions, now builds software for Palawan and beyond from Rizal.
Palaweño Geeks is coming back with that behind it: study nights, mentors who learned here, and real projects for students to cut their teeth on.
Those who learned here now teach here.
Now showing
Study nights, this season.
07Nov · Sat
Hello, World
Your first web page, live by the end of the night. Puerto Princesa · 7:00 PM · 2 hrs
14Nov · Sat
Git Together
Branches, pull requests and reading other people's code. Online · 7:00 PM · 90 min
21Nov · Sat
Debugging Out Loud
Bring your worst bug. We fix it together, on the big screen. Rizal · 3:00 PM · 2 hrs
28Nov · Sat
Build for Your Barangay
A real problem from a local office, solved in teams by morning. Puerto Princesa · 6:00 PM · overnight
Illustrative schedule for this concept.
Act V · You
Every story needs its next lead.
A Palawan story
Palaweño Geeks
Written by
The students of Palawan
Directed by
Curiosity
Starring
Everyone who ever asked
“how does this work?”
Mentors
Whoever learned it last week
Filmed on location in
Puerto Princesa · Rizal · everywhere with a signal
Produced by
Vivito IT Solutions
In memory of
Every bug we fixed at 2 AM
The fire is still burning.