I recently came across a question on Quora that got me nervous, mainly because of the underlying assumptions. I figured I would cross post it here ...
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THIS TIMES A MILLION. Many people look to coding as a way out of poverty, and upward mobility. I think you really captured a lot of peoples situations (including my own) and how difficult it is to learn any new skill set when life simply doesn't allow it. It was very fortunate that you were able to have those fall backs and safety nets to allow you to get an education.
This was a very well thought out article - can't wait to read more like it.
Wow! One of the best things I've read this month.
Wonderful story. There is a lot of survivorship bias in play when people talk about this issue. Sure it's easy to say you know what made you successful, but you are completely blind to what was on the other side if a few things didn't work out.
When I needed to learn to code for real I bought a $20 computer and pirated Lynda.com videos. I was in this category in a sense, but I was also in a delicately perfect time to take a few massive risks and was lucky enough to know a few people who were very encouraging at the time. I look back at that time and the outcome was extremely nebulous. I had almost everything going me for besides the money and it was still a massive crapshoot.
If I could highlight a paragraph it would be this one:
"Implying that someone is poor because of their laziness or lack of will to improve their situation means that you fundamentally misunderstand what it means to be poor."
So many of us really don't understand this and thanks for putting things into perspective. To be honest I often ask or think to myself why don't we all just learn to code and everything would be better, without realizing how complicated other people's lives can be.
Thank you for writing this.
We all have this bias where we feel like our success is deserved mainly due to our own hard work. We don't necessarily realize how much of it is due to pure luck (I seem to recall a certain politician bragging that his success was due to his own hard work, plus a 'moderate' loan of a few million from his dad).
Of course hard work is necessary; without it you'd be nowhere. But many people work harder than you or I ever will, and are still stuck simply because they were not as lucky in the lottery of life.
This realization is necessary if we will be creating a word built on empathy for those less fortunate than us.
A very nice personal story which really touched me, we may have many things in common :) Nice job! I have met with many people that, sadly, are not awareness what poor means and I always try to "teach" them how they should be respectful without discriminations (as diplomatically as I can), as you pointed out: << Implying that someone is poor because of their laziness or lack of will to improve their situation means that you fundamentally misunderstand what it means to be poor >>. I couldn't express myself completely before that post, you gave me a good argument to explain the matter better, thank you very very much! Hope you the bests to your family and your career!
Yechiel, this is an awesome post! I really admire your thoughtfulness and gratitude. You and I both went through the Flatiron online program while still working full-time and having a spouse and child(ren), and you do a great job of describing how much hard work it's been, but also how lucky we are to have the opportunity and support. Thank you!
Thanks for that Adam.
While hard work can't be discounted (you and I know that first hand, and actually, anyone in tech), we must still be conscious of how much of it is plain old luck and the lottery of fate, and keep that in mind while dealing with those less fortunate than we are.
I've been pondering similar questions to this myself, and this post does a great job of shedding light on the answers. Some of my own biases and priviledges in how I've come to be a programmer have definitely made me not see a lot of the difficulties that many would face when trying to break into this field.
It goes to show that just because someone has lots of online resources to learn in no way just makes it easy to learn. Maybe easier in a few ways, but not just plain "easy." That was one of the biggest parts I didn't understand myself.
True, it's definitely easier today than the days when computers were not in every house, and the only resource you could find was a used FORTRAN copy in the public library. But as you said,
easier != easy.I Belive that every one who learned to code, for whatever reason has to feal privileged. No matter if ones learn by the being at "Best" University or Pirating what he/she wish to learn, just that you ended up learning, and being capable of making a living of it, is more than you need to give thanks to life.
Implying that someone is poor because of their laziness or lack of will to improve their situation means that you fundamentally misunderstand what it means to be poor.
A lot of people miss this point. I think you have put it well!!
Fantastic post Yechiel! I would love to read more of what you have learned.
Thank you!
blog.yechiel.me :)
Instead of teaching poor people with jobs to code. Teach poor people's children to code so they can pull themselves out of poverty and help their parents too.
That is true, we should make education more accessible to ALL children. But keep in mind that not all poor children have the circumstances that will allow them to benefit from such a program.
My dream is to one day have a fund that accomplishes just that.