From behind the scenes at Codesmith: Leadership changes and what’s next

That's why integrity is so important. I have an email chain with Codesmith leaders about literally the math having problems on their California reports on their website and they never responded or acknowledged those concerns and answered other things. Like if you publish things that were made up for marketing purposes, rushed in a panic because you realized how terrible the numbers were and did a massive LinkedIn profile sprint not so diligently that's fine but don't tell the public that. If you keep telling everyone your data is audited but you and CIRR don't answer me about where the audited version is (historically CIRR publishes the audit paperwork after they are audited) it's sloppiness. People make mistakes here and there but almost everything here is a mistake and when I talk to former employees that proactively tell me how clowntown everything is run there... everyone "in over the head" (was used a number of times). I get it. Startups are shit shows. But admit that and seek help. Instead Codesmith just keeps trying to make up justifications without accepting that they are doing a million things completely wrong. And I think they tripped over themselves now a few times and can't get up. If you have strong integrity when the team says omg placements are down we need to fix this, quick change the.goal posts, quick scour LinkedIn, etc... Then the facts will line up. They have to line up. If you push integrity on your team, then when prospective customers reach out to different people with anonymous accounts sneakily - the stories from everyone add up because everyone has integrity. Like I said, no one is perfect and people make mistakes, but the mistakes are less often and rather if you have integrity. Even in Will's goodbye message he's lying about the student base and how people get jobs. A tiny fraction have previous SWE experience and most people lie to get those jobs. It's a proven fact that I have clear, indisputable evidence from the end of 2023. Codesmith doesn't tell them to lie about for some reason almost everyone does and it's a major part of getting a job for the majority. Which is fine but be fucking honest about it. When he says something like that and then someone goes to the Codesmith LinkedIn page and sees videos from actors teaching Fetch and Array operations with content for high schoolers nothing adds up. No integrity is what I call that. If he accepts that the embellishments have a large part to do with placement, he has to accept that his program doesn't really teach as well as he thinks they do and has to reflect on how he can teach better and that means he has to question the past 10 years. That's what therapists are for because product market fit doesn't give a shit about your feelings and Will's inability to accept critique contributed to their downfall. I accept critique and I defend what I feel is right but I make mistakes will admit it and try to improve. I have a whole podcast with someone coming out in two weeks about this topic of feedback cycles and how it's the easiest way to grow quickly and not taking feedback is the easiest way to flatline or decline.