During the weekend, I had a chat with Teacher Wei. Our conversation summarized several questions, hoping that students learning embedded systems can gain some understanding of the embedded training industry through these questions. There are many ways to make money; first, be a good person, then do good things, and keep moving forward. When I was chatting with Teacher Wei, we also mentioned that even if we only receive a salary every month, we are indeed very satisfied with a good life.——————▎Since this year, I have seen that you have made many changes. I would like to know what difficulties you have faced in training since this year? Are there fewer people learning? Or is it because of the industry’s downturn that people are unwilling to spend money on self-improvement?——————We have indeed encountered difficulties:Piracy, which is becoming increasingly severe. In the past, we dealt with video piracy by offering free videos and selling development boards; now we find that even the boards are being replicated. Moreover, the barrier to making boards is getting lower, and many students will buy a core board and modify it according to your schematic: this not only exercises their skills but also meets their project needs.One of my colleagues sent me a directory of “Supreme Members,” which contains videos of teachers from the entire industry who have been pirated, and we are ranked first:▎Seeing your transition from online to offline must have brought significant changes. I would like to ask Teacher Wei how you feel about this part?——————We have been doing training for 15 years. From 2011 to 2019, we were making encrypted videos. Because video piracy was too severe, we started offering free videos in 2019, and now even the development boards have been pirated. We are also very helpless, so at the beginning of 2024, we will return to making encrypted videos. The courses that took us half a year to research and record are released today and pirated tomorrow.What to do? We can only go offline. Starting from September 22, we have conducted four offline courses on microcontroller RTOS debugging. This is not a very good model: high costs (we have to go to various cities, rent venues, and students have to travel), and a small audience (for online courses, I can cover hundreds or thousands of people at once, but offline courses only attract about 20 people at a time). We are also exploring new models.Feelings are: anger, helplessness, and habit. I deeply feel that these people lack ethics and bottom lines. Let me show you a funny chat record:▎The training industry guides everyone in learning. I see some people saying that this technology is simple, but I also see some people saying, wow, I didn’t know technology could be like this. I believe teachers also encounter such doubts or praises. How does Teacher Wei view this?——————Being praised for a course feels very good. Being criticized or pointed out for flaws is also appreciated. However, sometimes being attacked with harsh language can greatly affect one’s mood. After all, I have been in training for 15 years and have developed immunity. However, my colleagues are sometimes greatly affected and suddenly lose the motivation to record courses. For the same course, there will be different evaluations:What may not suit you now, you may find its value later:▎For the fourth question, I want to help those who love technology ask, if they encounter a difficult problem, something they do not understand, and face project cycle pressure, they will definitely feel anxious and panic. Teacher Wei, how do you analyze and solve it?——————There is no good way; just stay up late. When I encounter debugging issues while recording courses, I handle them by staying up late. If I were to talk about the analysis method, it would be to “debug according to the data flow,” ensuring that the input and output data of each step are correct, and when something is wrong, go debug it.▎Many students want to know your future plans for offline and online courses. Can you share some information with everyone?——————Online courses: Courses that are already being sold will continue to be recorded and completed. Other new courses will probably not be made available for online viewing.Offline courses: From a business perspective, perhaps doing offline classes for beginners is a good business? Every year, someone comes to us to do offline classes, even asking us to just lend our name. We have always refrained from doing beginner offline classes out of some idealism: I want to create a good course and put it online so that many people can learn and help many people; they can learn practical technologies at a low cost, and we can earn money to research new courses. The harsh reality has made us sober; countless pirates have ruined the entire market. It’s not just a few mouse droppings that spoil a pot of soup, but many mouse droppings.▎For the last question, after decades in technology, can Teacher Wei give some advice or opinions to students and technical developers?——————Technology is bound to become increasingly competitive, raising our requirements. In the past, knowing C51 or STM32 could help you find a job, but now you need to know RTOS, drivers, components, and apps. As development tools become more convenient, the actual requirements for people are getting higher. For example, STM32CubeMX allows you to move away from register-level programming, which requires you to enhance your app development capabilities. When rt-thread studio allows you to configure a project template with just a few clicks, it demands that you improve your system-level integration and development capabilities. When AI allows us to write programs just by speaking, it essentially requires you to become a project manager.The end of the technical path is a full-stack engineer.As for the non-technical path, how to monetize technology, I am also exploring and cannot provide suggestions.
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● Column “Embedded Tools”
● Column “Embedded Development”
● Column “Keil Tutorial”
● Selected Tutorials from the Embedded Column
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