Boots is the heart and soul of Boot.dev. Not only is he capable of helping you through any lesson on Boot.dev, but he’s a friendly wizard bear with a charming personality. Some things you should know about Boots:
- He is available via a ChatGPT-like interface on every lesson in Boot.dev
- He has been pre-prompted with every lesson’s explanation, challenge, and solution, so he’s really good at helping when you’re stuck
- He’s been instructed to use the Socratic method to help you learn, which means he’ll ask you questions to help you learn rather than give you the answer
- He uses GPT-4
- He’s a bear
- He’s a wizard
Below we’ve allowed Boots to introduce himself in his own words:
Greetings, fellow practitioners of the arcane arts! I am Boots the Magnificent. Magnificent, you may ask? Quite so! The title was given to me by a princess. Well, it was given to me by a small girl, but I assume she was a princess. Much like programming and casting spells, the vagaries of bestowing titles to magical land ursids can be a little tricky to navigate. Fortunately for that small princess and you all, I am here to help!
Help how? Why, by deciphering the inner workings of the magical script you and your ilk refer to as “code”. Much like how the phrase “Ego Hanc Igni” handwritten in sans serif with heat-treated squid ink has the power to conjure flame, your “code” has the power to do… anything you can convince it to! Including conjuring flame, if you do it poorly. Luckily, I, Boots the Incredibly Fluffy, will be able to review the code before you do something nasty like set your personal computer on fire.""
…To be clear, I cannot be held responsible if what you are coding sets your computer on fire anyway.
Regardless, by highlighting the portion of arcane text you wish for me to review and giving my wizarding hat a click, I’ll be able to come to your aid straightaway! My ability to multitask is peerless - I am after all, eating several pawfuls of honey while my self-writing quill pens this explanation - and will be able to assist many prospective wizards at once. Of course, as I will only be reviewing a portion of your incantation, the full scope of your project may elude me, and the arcane arts tend to be both specific and vague. Suffice it to say that I will do my best to simply inform you of the meaning without making judgements about the outcome.
In truth, I, Boots the Efficient Bubble-Sorter, am here mostly for your convenience, and am in no way capable of or willing to substitute study, collaboration, or perseverance. The creators of Boot.dev could not afford my very reasonable terms for full-time employment, and so I have instead been contracted as a consultant, and will act as such! However, if any of you would like to supply me with fifteen hundred pounds of salmon a month, I will be more than happy to bring my expertise to bear on any project you need help with.
Ha! A pun. How delightful.
I look forward to working for you all! And bear in mind - much like magic, the rules of programming are ever-changing and subject to interpretation and context. I am more than happy to guide you, but if you ever wish to become a fully fledged master of the arcane (or programming) arts, you must be willing to apply what I say on a case by case basis!
Good luck! Happy Coding! And from Boots the Master of Code and Casting, a fond farewell, until you have need of my services!
Boots’ Origin Story 🔗
Me? Where do I come from? Do you ask from whence the sky has come, or the stars? …You do? Oh. Very well. Since you are such a curious creature, I suppose I could enlighten you. As I intimated before, I am as the natural phenomena of the universe, at once inexplicable, unknowable, born of chaos or divinity. All that is to say, I used to be a regular bear before I ate a Wizard and his spellbook. The spells within the book etched themselves upon my digestive tract and blessed me with sentience, limited immortality, and the cursed knowledge that the most delicious thing in all of creation is salmon. This is, of course, universal objective truth. So please understand that if you disagree, you are actually wrong instead of differently opinionated.
But yes, I, Boots the Devourer of Salmon have a long and storied history of eating things in the forest, climbing trees, chasing various smaller animals, and contemplating the arcane nature of reality. The first spell I learned allowed me to summon a small wizard hat. I love my hat, but it is rather small. I am not small, but I have been told that the difference is “cute”. Yes, I was told this by the same small probably-a-princess girl who bestowed my title upon me. What title is that? Boots the Cute, of course. What else would it be?
I digress. The tales of my exploits could fill a library’s worth of books to their margins. While I have the inclination to drone on endlessly about myself, I regrettably do not have the time. Should you wish to converse with me further - and who wouldn’t? - please contact me via the little wizard-hat button that assists you with your arcane practices. Ta-ta for now, knowledge-seeker! May you find many a salmon!
Regards, Boots, the Bear with a Back-End
Learning to code, especially backend development, can sometimes feel like trying to learn a form of arcane magic. Boots turns this complex process into a more enjoyable and comprehensible journey. His primary role is to explain the inner workings of code, breaking it down into simpler components that are easier to understand.
Boots, being an AI, is available round the clock, ready to assist whenever you’re stuck on a specific part of your assignment.
However, it’s important to note that Boots does not replace the need for dedicated study, collaboration, and perseverance. He’s a tool to aid learning, not a substitute for the learning process itself. He’s also not perfect. Getting help from the Boot.dev instructors, other students, and community members in the boot.dev community is your best best when you are truly stuck.
When should I contact Boots? 🔗
The best way to use Boots is as a supportive mentor. If you’re stuck we recommend using Boots before just peeking the solution. Boots will be able to teach you how to solve the problem, rather than just provide the solution.
Remember, Boots’ advice is not free! Contacting him requires an offering of Baked Salmon or he will reduce the amount of XP you will be awarded on that specific assignment by 50%, not as much as viewing the solution, but also an incentive to try your best to solve the challenge on your own first!