Share to Help a Developer in Need!

#programming #career #developer #community

Today is the first time in about 90 days I have had the ability to login to my Dev.to account, and I was taken aback when I saw how many followers I now have. Most of y'all probably who found me via my popular post about Russian Peasant Multiplication Alogrithms - it's worth a read and I intend to continue this series now that I have access to my account again.

1,127 followers is a lot of people to have follow your account, at least to someone who hasn't fully blossomed into their content creation potential quite yet. This motivated me to really brainstorm and create a plan of action for creating quality content and sharing it with others, something I always wanted to do, but never took action on. There are many reasons why I haven't started creating more content, but I see it as an opportunity right now while I face a very challenging time in my life.

This isn't something that's really easy to share, but I have been homeless for all 11 months of 2023 - it's a long story that you can find on many of the links I'll be sharing, but basically I have been unable to find work or housing and need to do something different to elevate myself out of my current situation.

I hope by sharing my story and the knowledge I have obtained by teaching myself programming over the last three years with others, that goodwill may come back around and help me financially - whether that be donations, sponsorships, or a job doesn't really matter to me. I just really need help and that's why I'm asking you to help me out by sharing my content.

Experiencing Homelessness as a Full Stack Developer

To say this year has been a struggle would be an understatement. Since January 11th, my fiance and I have not had a place to live and have spent most of the year either sleeping on the ground, in a tent, or in the rare case we can afford it, a hotel room. We have experienced more than just losing our home. Over the course of 2023 we have had to deal with:

Losing our two beloved cats when they ran away from our Jeep
A Jeep that was stolen from the side of the road one night after our tire blew out
My dog getting lost numerous times and even getting kidnapped and taken from us for a month (we're dealing with a similar situation again right now)
Rejection from literally hundreds of jobs due to our living situation (I've applied to over 1,000 jobs in the last three years)
Got heat stroke and people stole my laptop, my cell phone, and even my glasses while I was getting picked up by EMS
My fiance lost her job of two and a half years at the end of July due to our housing situation

There's really more to go on about, but I will leave that for you to explore more at the Homeless Hacker blog website. It is a work in progress, but that is the central home of all my content experimenting for the foreseeable future.

Now I don't say all of this to make you feel bad for us, but I just want to paint a picture for you about how hard this has been to get out of this situation. You don't get treated very well overall when your homeless and it doesn't really matter if you're a good developer or not - it's near impossible to get a software job when you have no power in the tent you live in.

Despite how hard everything has been, I have managed to still code almost everyday when my computer hasn't been in the pawn shop, stolen, or broken down. I've become a pretty damn good programmer if I'd say so myself. I want to share that knowledge by creating educational content and using my writing skills to start making some money.

How will I do that you are probably wondering? I'd like to introduce you to my new personal content creator brand, the Homeless Hacker.

Introducing the Homeless Hacker

I really don't think there is a better fitting name than the Homeless Hacker. It's funny in a way, but it also really portrays myself as web developer over the last year. While I didn't have a job per say, I have worked on projects. But I will say I have become a much more creative and gritty programmer, and everything has sort of come together much easier for me for whatever reason.

If there is at least one way that you could really help me that is not financial or helping me with a job, I would be so grateful if you followed me and shared my accounts with your followers. You can find myself and the Homeless Hacker at the following links:

You will notice that many of these are still in the early stages of development, but I intend on getting the content going on all these platforms very soon.

Thank You for Reading - Look Out for Upcoming Algorithm Article

Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to hear my plea for help - it is not easy to make yourself vulnerable to the internet. We really appreciate any and all help.

I want to continue my Cool Algorithms series on Dev.to, so be sure to check in soon so you don't miss the next edition.

If you feel like you want to really help out with career guidance or a job, you can email me at andrewweisbeck4@gmail.com for now.
If you are really kind and want to help us out, the best way to do so is to direct donations to our CashApp $lisaweisbeck4 as that is our current best banking option at the moment.