21 ms·

How I Ended Up in Tech by Chance

73 points by runesoerensen 10y ago

rjeli 10y ago
Yes, you, too, can end up in tech by chance, without any "privilege or luck"! You merely need to skip Econ recitations and Chinese club at Princeton so you can learn to code and join a startup.
- madelinecameron 10y ago
  The issue isn't that he was at Princeton. The issue is that he is discounting what he did, chalking his mom's perseverance (and foresight), his intelligence and work ethic, up to "luck" and "chance". Stop being coy and pretending like you just "stumbled" into being successful. Own it. It is okay to be successful.
  - simonw 10y ago
    The interesting thing about luck is that you can make it yourself. In this case both Randy Brown and his mother worked extremely hard and smart to bring around circumstances where something that seemed "lucky" (being accepted to Princeton, meeting someone who introduced him to Paul Graham's writing) was more likely to happen. It's a very inspiring story.
    - mxuribe 10y ago
      Someone might over-simplistically state: "fortune favors the prepared". Sure opportunity presented itself - and one might even call it luck - but in order to capitalize on it, it took Randy Brown's and his family's perseverance and intelligence to do so. Kudos to him and his family! Some of the things mentioned struck a close chord with me. My parents are immigrants and - though they would have liked to help - they had no higher education nor any advice to provide me when I was doing things like choosing the college to apply/attend, filling out/submitting financial aid forms, figuring out how to pay for college myself, even choosing my major, let alone helping me with suggestions on my future professional career! I was born here in the U.S., so i was "lucky" to not have language as an additional barrier. And as other posters stated, being in certain geographic regions of U.S. is helpful...But still, navigating your way through some aspects of life without having sage advice from experienced people, and people who can help with things like careers, college, etc. is freaking really hard! Again, congrats to Randy Brown - and all the Randy Browns of the world - for this kind of accomplishment. To echo @simonw's perfect statement: very inspiring story!
  - gumby 10y ago
    > Stop being coy and pretending like you just "stumbled" into being successful. Own it. It is okay to be successful. It's OK to acknowledge the tremendous set of fortuitous coincidences that _allowed you to make yourself successful_ -- doing so does not diminish you. This guy understands this. I count my own luck starting with being born in a wealthy country at peace. I moved to other wealthy countries not at war (including, right now, the USA which by any real measure faces no existential threat and is follows a rule of law). Yes I also won the sperm-ovum lottery and by changing countries am now considered part of the "accepted" race. There are roads not taken, and opportunities missed and its worth losing at them to see how more people can have the opportunity to succeed.
    - imjustsaying 10y ago
      > I moved to other wealthy countries not at war (including, right now, the USA which by any real measure faces no existential threat and is follows a rule of law). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_United_States#21st_century_wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_Uni... The United States is at war all over the entire damn world. A couple days ago its ramifications were clearly displayed when 100 people were shot in Orlando.
      - gumby 10y ago
        The US is waging war all over the damned world but its paying little attention to it. I think it's fair to say that at least 300 million Americans' lives would be the same whether that was happening rt not, except their taxes could be about 10% lower (defense budget is about 16% of the federal budget -- it couldn't be completely eliminated). You're more likely to be killed by someone behind the wheel but looking at their phone than you are by some loony trying to tie the US's external activities to something he or she was going to do anyway. The country faces no existential threat, which is why people have time to argue about picayune crap like ISIL. You want existential threat? People in Syria are facing existential threats (and yet the US has its oar in there too). My parents grew up in towns bombed by invading forces while they were kids (on different continents); my mum's family had to flee into the jungle. My in laws' town (in yet another continent) was bombed flat while they were kids too. Even the attacks of September 2001 did not threaten the existence of the republic or the country, despite the massive and expensive thrashing of the subsequent "immune response."
- codemac 10y ago
  A young black man with a single mother from East Orange, NJ getting into Princeton itself is the achievement. The avg houshold income is ~50k, and over 20% of their residents are under the poverty line. Yes, he skipped Econ recitations, but I think you're being almost absurdly reductionist for a fairly decent reflection on how someone ended up in a job they never expected. Not to mention the last sentence where he even states he feels "ridiculously privileged".
  - parennoob 10y ago
    I don't think this is absurdly reductionist. As someone born in a poor country, my family's income was barely $2000 per year. Even allowing for a conversion factor of 10 while going to the USA, that is less than half of 50k. So it might be worth mentioning that this young man has a lot of advantages merely by being born in an average household in a first world country, and being located close enough to Princeton so he could talk to professors there, etc. That should not detract from his achievements, but maybe it can help put them in some kind of perspective.
    - wueiued 10y ago
      Dont waste your time. We have our white/male privilege, and that is golden ticket on its own. Btw my father paid whopping $60/month child support for 5 children.
      - dang 10y ago
        It sounds like you've faced some major challenges. That's something we can all respect. But please don't channel that experience into resentment-filled comments on Hacker News. You make the discussion and the community worse when you do so. Instead, find a way to share your experience that does it justice in its own right. That would be more constructive, more interesting, and more dignified.
  - RamshackleJ 10y ago
    Not to diminish the accomplishment but... There are entire states with lower avg household incomes. 20% below the poverty line is also substantially lower than many rust belt cities (detroit metro: ~39%, flint: ~55%, gary: 48.5%). Pieces like this are dangerous because they distract us from the often insurmountable challenges many children in america are born into
- dang 10y ago
  What a dismayingly nasty thing to say. I read such comments nearly every day on this site, unfortunately, yet I still wince at how nasty and personal people get when demeaning the experience of others. Please don't comment like this here. Whatever substantive point you might have is lost amid the snark and bile, and those are two acids we need less of.
  - untilHellbanned 10y ago
    You do realize that Princeton increases one's chance at success massively? The sarcasm is justified because you can blog about whatever you want but as soon as you name-drop "Princeton", everything else is a rounding error. Just my opinion, but your policing of HN is getting more proselytizing and distorting of what's actually being written.
    - dang 10y ago
      Well, yes, and other things diminish one's chance at success massively, and no one knows how these factors objectively sum up—but that doesn't stop them from believing they do and angrily making judgments about others.
      - untilHellbanned 10y ago
        Tell me what diminishes ones chances like Princeton increases ones chances. Also there is no judging happening. This is disconnected from any one person.
        dang 10y ago
        Trauma in personal or family history can hold one back in a way no number of Princetons can match.
        Mz 10y ago
        So can incurable medical conditions.
asimuvPR 10y ago
OT - The jopwell page seems to not be rendering properly on Mac / Firefox. Here is a screenshot: http://imgur.com/8m01gRN http://imgur.com/8m01gRN
- aphextron 10y ago
  My money is on a javascript error from one of a thousand ad network or user tracking scripts they're loading. Try using an ad blocker.
  - asimuvPR 10y ago
    Could probably be Ublock origin blocking it. Either way, it should work. :)
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
jimmywanger 10y ago
How is founding an openly racist startup ok? If they switch the words "Black, Latino, Native American" with "White, Chinese and Indian" we'd all think this is racist as all get out.
- utternerd 10y ago
  "Reverse racism", or whatever term you prefer has widely been accepted as a means to level the playing field. I think your comment is dead on; if this were a firm dedicated to hiring Whites and Asians, it would be lamented and thoroughly castigated, as it and this start-up should be. It's a dangerous path, and sadly somehow you're seen as a racist if you speak out against it - I'm willing to accept down votes to speak the truth, as we all should. Singling out specific ethnic groups to hire is wrong, it's that simple.
  - antisthenes 10y ago
    Not to mention that class privilege trumps all other privileges combined by an order of magnitude. If he wanted to actually elicit some change and inequality, that should always be the first place to look.
    - jshevek 10y ago
      "Not to mention that class privilege trumps all other privileges combined by an order of magnitude." Absolutely. I mean, there are numerous disadvantages that are race specific independent of class (rich black people were still disproportionately harassed by the police the last time I looked at the data), but on the whole, with regard to your overall empowerment, access to education, access to jobs, medical care, everything - class trumps race by far.
- elliotec 10y ago
  Lots of things seem to be starting to become ok under the guise of diversity initiatives. Reminiscent of how giant corporations funding PACs and lobbying are exercising their rights to free speech.
yummyfajitas 10y ago
He was privileged to be a black man since this drastically improved his odds of getting into Princeton. It's not anywhere near as much of an achievement as you are making it out to be. As of 2006, between 2/3 and 5/6 of black students in the top 25 schools are there only due to race. http://www.jbhe.com/features/53_SAT.html http://www.jbhe.com/features/53_SAT.html So with high probability, it wasn't that much of an achievement to get into Princeton. It's certainly far less of an achievement than it would have been if he were Asian. (If anyone has more current numbers I'd love to see them. I've seen more recent numbers on state schools, which suggest 23% of blacks are only there due to race. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/heres-what-happens-when-you-ban-affirmative-action-in-college-admissions/ https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/heres-what-happens-when... But nothing at the ivy level.)
- rmxt 10y ago
  Is your implication that he was at Princeton only due to his race? Can you prove that? Otherwise, this seems gratuitously negative and irrelevant.
  - yummyfajitas 10y ago
    Obviously if I'm claiming a 66-83% chance of something, I'm not claiming to have "proof". I'm simply claiming that it's more likely than not.
- nemothekid 10y ago
  >As of 2006, between 2/3 and 5/6 of black students in the top 25 schools are there only due to race. Thats a pretty bold claim that assumes 1. Any minority at Princeton falls neatly into that trend, and isn't simply an outlier. 2. Princeton & Ivies weigh SAT scores significantly as part of the admissions process. 3. Princeton & Ivies use raw objective performance as the primary basis for acceptance. If 2 & 3 were true, you wouldn't see as much pressure for students to play 3 sports, 9 instruments, and have 300 other extra-currics to remain competitive for those spots. Anyone who believes that they just rank applicants by SAT scores and take the top N is a little bit delusional.
intrasight 10y ago
Everybody ended up in tech by chance. Everyone ended up alive by chance.
- occam65 10y ago
  That's a great negative viewpoint. Thanks for sharing it. I think you missed the larger point - that we can be doing a better job as evangelists of the industry, and broadening it's reach.
  - aianus 10y ago
    > I think you missed the larger point - that we can be doing a better job as evangelists of the industry, and broadening it's reach. Humour me, why do we care to do this? The more people that think programming is magic and stay away, the more money we make.
    - solitus 10y ago
      AMEN.
    - dionidium 10y ago
      Because a lot of outreach is really about saying, "you know, people who are just like me are pretty great."
    - uola 10y ago
      Because "we" want to raise the standard of programming so "our" experience is actually valued? Depending how driven you are, you can "max out" a programmer career in 5-15 years today.
  - jshevek 10y ago
    How is that a "negative" viewpoint? I see absolutely no negativity in that person's post. Is it possible you might be projecting something?
  - intrasight 10y ago
    No, I got that point and indeed I do agree with it. In truth, I was just commenting on the title with the point that most everything is by chance - most importantly our very existence as individuals. No negativity was intended.
giltleaf 10y ago
Frustrated by the people who are claiming that this piece or the company is racist/unexceptional, or that this man's success is due to exclusively hard work. They are missing a greater point that hard work and circumstance are both needed and one is significantly less useful without the other, and that there are structural social challenges that should be addressed. It's also very possible to praise this, and everyone else's, achievement without: comparing starting circumstance in an attempt to one-up each other on the tragedy train, discounting luck, or discounting other struggles. Discussions like this remind me of this poignant comic on income inequality that is pretty much impossible to argue around: http://thewireless.co.nz/articles/the-pencilsword-on-a-plate http://thewireless.co.nz/articles/the-pencilsword-on-a-plate
- Meegul 10y ago
  That's a really good comic. I grew up very privileged and it's easy to give in to some of the thoughts that are displayed. I know far too many of my peers who probably wouldn't see the irony in it if you chopped off the right half.
- yummyfajitas 10y ago
  It's pretty easy to argue against that comic. Most of it is made-up anecdote. 2 of the 3 testable claims it makes are completely and nonsensically wrong, almost to the point of complete fabrication. The third testable claim I don't know how to google. Poor Americans don't live in overcrowded homes. Only 3.3% of those homes have "severe physical problems" (what I'm interpreting the comic to mean), and they typically have 2 rooms/person. http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/h150-07.pdf http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/h150-07.pdf 60% of poor children have parents who didn't work at all during the year. In contrast, 51% of Americans 18-64 whole did work full time year round. http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2015/demo/p60-252.pdf http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publication... I don't have stats on classes sizes - do you? I suspect the author of that comic didn't bother to google before writing it. I'm not even going to try and refute the made-up anecdotes, e.g. dying father, parents who don't care about academics, and a boss who looks like a dog.
  - 10y ago
Meegul 10y ago
What's stopping someone from signing up for Jopwell when you don't fit their racial criteria? Surely once they find out that you're not the race they're looking for, they can't deny you services because of your race. Regardless, diversity is an issue that the tech industry certainly does needs to tackle, and things like this are one way of going about it; I just feel like it's the wrong way. Denying opportunities to people based on race might achieve the goal, but it does it in a way that's only going to breed contempt. It also ignores that poverty, while vastly more common among the specified races, still does exist for some whites and asians. I believe the metric we should be using for programs like these should be total family income, not the color of your parents skin. Is systematic racism a problem? Probably in some industries. But these days, recruiters at tech companies are not turning people down due to their opinions about their race.
- jshevek 10y ago
  "But these days, recruiters at tech companies are not turning people down due to their opinions about their race." Not even github? They seemed to want to aggressively reduce the percentage of white males at their company, and bragged about their success in doing so.
  - messick 10y ago
    Yes, github sticking it to the most oppressed of minority groups: straight white dudes.
    - jshevek 10y ago
      "Yes, github sticking it to the most oppressed of minority groups: straight white dudes." Are they trying to reduce the percentage of straight people there as well? I thought that gay white males might be an unintended casualty of the racism and sexism at github. There is an argument to be made that poor white males may indeed be one of the most disadvantaged groups, at least in the US. It depends on how you weight various criteria.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
qq66 10y ago
The title is wrong. The title should be "How I ended up successful in tech through the hard work and perseverance of my mother and myself, with a side dish of good fortune."

73 points by runesoerensen 10y ago

rjeli 10y ago

Yes, you, too, can end up in tech by chance, without any "privilege or luck"! You merely need to skip Econ recitations and Chinese club at Princeton so you can learn to code and join a startup.

madelinecameron 10y ago
The issue isn't that he was at Princeton. The issue is that he is discounting what he did, chalking his mom's perseverance (and foresight), his intelligence and work ethic, up to "luck" and "chance". Stop being coy and pretending like you just "stumbled" into being successful. Own it. It is okay to be successful.
- simonw 10y ago
  The interesting thing about luck is that you can make it yourself. In this case both Randy Brown and his mother worked extremely hard and smart to bring around circumstances where something that seemed "lucky" (being accepted to Princeton, meeting someone who introduced him to Paul Graham's writing) was more likely to happen. It's a very inspiring story.
  - mxuribe 10y ago
    Someone might over-simplistically state: "fortune favors the prepared". Sure opportunity presented itself - and one might even call it luck - but in order to capitalize on it, it took Randy Brown's and his family's perseverance and intelligence to do so. Kudos to him and his family! Some of the things mentioned struck a close chord with me. My parents are immigrants and - though they would have liked to help - they had no higher education nor any advice to provide me when I was doing things like choosing the college to apply/attend, filling out/submitting financial aid forms, figuring out how to pay for college myself, even choosing my major, let alone helping me with suggestions on my future professional career! I was born here in the U.S., so i was "lucky" to not have language as an additional barrier. And as other posters stated, being in certain geographic regions of U.S. is helpful...But still, navigating your way through some aspects of life without having sage advice from experienced people, and people who can help with things like careers, college, etc. is freaking really hard! Again, congrats to Randy Brown - and all the Randy Browns of the world - for this kind of accomplishment. To echo @simonw's perfect statement: very inspiring story!
- gumby 10y ago
  > Stop being coy and pretending like you just "stumbled" into being successful. Own it. It is okay to be successful. It's OK to acknowledge the tremendous set of fortuitous coincidences that _allowed you to make yourself successful_ -- doing so does not diminish you. This guy understands this. I count my own luck starting with being born in a wealthy country at peace. I moved to other wealthy countries not at war (including, right now, the USA which by any real measure faces no existential threat and is follows a rule of law). Yes I also won the sperm-ovum lottery and by changing countries am now considered part of the "accepted" race. There are roads not taken, and opportunities missed and its worth losing at them to see how more people can have the opportunity to succeed.
  - imjustsaying 10y ago
    > I moved to other wealthy countries not at war (including, right now, the USA which by any real measure faces no existential threat and is follows a rule of law). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_United_States#21st_century_wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_Uni... The United States is at war all over the entire damn world. A couple days ago its ramifications were clearly displayed when 100 people were shot in Orlando.
    - gumby 10y ago
      The US is waging war all over the damned world but its paying little attention to it. I think it's fair to say that at least 300 million Americans' lives would be the same whether that was happening rt not, except their taxes could be about 10% lower (defense budget is about 16% of the federal budget -- it couldn't be completely eliminated). You're more likely to be killed by someone behind the wheel but looking at their phone than you are by some loony trying to tie the US's external activities to something he or she was going to do anyway. The country faces no existential threat, which is why people have time to argue about picayune crap like ISIL. You want existential threat? People in Syria are facing existential threats (and yet the US has its oar in there too). My parents grew up in towns bombed by invading forces while they were kids (on different continents); my mum's family had to flee into the jungle. My in laws' town (in yet another continent) was bombed flat while they were kids too. Even the attacks of September 2001 did not threaten the existence of the republic or the country, despite the massive and expensive thrashing of the subsequent "immune response."
codemac 10y ago
A young black man with a single mother from East Orange, NJ getting into Princeton itself is the achievement. The avg houshold income is ~50k, and over 20% of their residents are under the poverty line. Yes, he skipped Econ recitations, but I think you're being almost absurdly reductionist for a fairly decent reflection on how someone ended up in a job they never expected. Not to mention the last sentence where he even states he feels "ridiculously privileged".
- parennoob 10y ago
  I don't think this is absurdly reductionist. As someone born in a poor country, my family's income was barely $2000 per year. Even allowing for a conversion factor of 10 while going to the USA, that is less than half of 50k. So it might be worth mentioning that this young man has a lot of advantages merely by being born in an average household in a first world country, and being located close enough to Princeton so he could talk to professors there, etc. That should not detract from his achievements, but maybe it can help put them in some kind of perspective.
  - wueiued 10y ago
    Dont waste your time. We have our white/male privilege, and that is golden ticket on its own. Btw my father paid whopping $60/month child support for 5 children.
    - dang 10y ago
      It sounds like you've faced some major challenges. That's something we can all respect. But please don't channel that experience into resentment-filled comments on Hacker News. You make the discussion and the community worse when you do so. Instead, find a way to share your experience that does it justice in its own right. That would be more constructive, more interesting, and more dignified.
- RamshackleJ 10y ago
  Not to diminish the accomplishment but... There are entire states with lower avg household incomes. 20% below the poverty line is also substantially lower than many rust belt cities (detroit metro: ~39%, flint: ~55%, gary: 48.5%). Pieces like this are dangerous because they distract us from the often insurmountable challenges many children in america are born into
dang 10y ago
What a dismayingly nasty thing to say. I read such comments nearly every day on this site, unfortunately, yet I still wince at how nasty and personal people get when demeaning the experience of others. Please don't comment like this here. Whatever substantive point you might have is lost amid the snark and bile, and those are two acids we need less of.
- untilHellbanned 10y ago
  You do realize that Princeton increases one's chance at success massively? The sarcasm is justified because you can blog about whatever you want but as soon as you name-drop "Princeton", everything else is a rounding error. Just my opinion, but your policing of HN is getting more proselytizing and distorting of what's actually being written.
  - dang 10y ago
    Well, yes, and other things diminish one's chance at success massively, and no one knows how these factors objectively sum up—but that doesn't stop them from believing they do and angrily making judgments about others.
    - untilHellbanned 10y ago
      Tell me what diminishes ones chances like Princeton increases ones chances. Also there is no judging happening. This is disconnected from any one person.
      - dang 10y ago
        Trauma in personal or family history can hold one back in a way no number of Princetons can match.
        Mz 10y ago
        So can incurable medical conditions.

asimuvPR 10y ago

OT - The jopwell page seems to not be rendering properly on Mac / Firefox. Here is a screenshot: http://imgur.com/8m01gRN http://imgur.com/8m01gRN

aphextron 10y ago
My money is on a javascript error from one of a thousand ad network or user tracking scripts they're loading. Try using an ad blocker.
- asimuvPR 10y ago
  Could probably be Ublock origin blocking it. Either way, it should work. :)

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

jimmywanger 10y ago

How is founding an openly racist startup ok? If they switch the words "Black, Latino, Native American" with "White, Chinese and Indian" we'd all think this is racist as all get out.

utternerd 10y ago
"Reverse racism", or whatever term you prefer has widely been accepted as a means to level the playing field. I think your comment is dead on; if this were a firm dedicated to hiring Whites and Asians, it would be lamented and thoroughly castigated, as it and this start-up should be. It's a dangerous path, and sadly somehow you're seen as a racist if you speak out against it - I'm willing to accept down votes to speak the truth, as we all should. Singling out specific ethnic groups to hire is wrong, it's that simple.
- antisthenes 10y ago
  Not to mention that class privilege trumps all other privileges combined by an order of magnitude. If he wanted to actually elicit some change and inequality, that should always be the first place to look.
  - jshevek 10y ago
    "Not to mention that class privilege trumps all other privileges combined by an order of magnitude." Absolutely. I mean, there are numerous disadvantages that are race specific independent of class (rich black people were still disproportionately harassed by the police the last time I looked at the data), but on the whole, with regard to your overall empowerment, access to education, access to jobs, medical care, everything - class trumps race by far.
elliotec 10y ago
Lots of things seem to be starting to become ok under the guise of diversity initiatives. Reminiscent of how giant corporations funding PACs and lobbying are exercising their rights to free speech.

yummyfajitas 10y ago

He was privileged to be a black man since this drastically improved his odds of getting into Princeton. It's not anywhere near as much of an achievement as you are making it out to be. As of 2006, between 2/3 and 5/6 of black students in the top 25 schools are there only due to race. http://www.jbhe.com/features/53_SAT.html http://www.jbhe.com/features/53_SAT.html So with high probability, it wasn't that much of an achievement to get into Princeton. It's certainly far less of an achievement than it would have been if he were Asian. (If anyone has more current numbers I'd love to see them. I've seen more recent numbers on state schools, which suggest 23% of blacks are only there due to race. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/heres-what-happens-when-you-ban-affirmative-action-in-college-admissions/ https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/heres-what-happens-when... But nothing at the ivy level.)

rmxt 10y ago
Is your implication that he was at Princeton only due to his race? Can you prove that? Otherwise, this seems gratuitously negative and irrelevant.
- yummyfajitas 10y ago
  Obviously if I'm claiming a 66-83% chance of something, I'm not claiming to have "proof". I'm simply claiming that it's more likely than not.
nemothekid 10y ago
>As of 2006, between 2/3 and 5/6 of black students in the top 25 schools are there only due to race. Thats a pretty bold claim that assumes 1. Any minority at Princeton falls neatly into that trend, and isn't simply an outlier. 2. Princeton & Ivies weigh SAT scores significantly as part of the admissions process. 3. Princeton & Ivies use raw objective performance as the primary basis for acceptance. If 2 & 3 were true, you wouldn't see as much pressure for students to play 3 sports, 9 instruments, and have 300 other extra-currics to remain competitive for those spots. Anyone who believes that they just rank applicants by SAT scores and take the top N is a little bit delusional.

intrasight 10y ago

Everybody ended up in tech by chance. Everyone ended up alive by chance.

occam65 10y ago
That's a great negative viewpoint. Thanks for sharing it. I think you missed the larger point - that we can be doing a better job as evangelists of the industry, and broadening it's reach.
- aianus 10y ago
  > I think you missed the larger point - that we can be doing a better job as evangelists of the industry, and broadening it's reach. Humour me, why do we care to do this? The more people that think programming is magic and stay away, the more money we make.
  - solitus 10y ago
    AMEN.
  - dionidium 10y ago
    Because a lot of outreach is really about saying, "you know, people who are just like me are pretty great."
  - uola 10y ago
    Because "we" want to raise the standard of programming so "our" experience is actually valued? Depending how driven you are, you can "max out" a programmer career in 5-15 years today.
- jshevek 10y ago
  How is that a "negative" viewpoint? I see absolutely no negativity in that person's post. Is it possible you might be projecting something?
- intrasight 10y ago
  No, I got that point and indeed I do agree with it. In truth, I was just commenting on the title with the point that most everything is by chance - most importantly our very existence as individuals. No negativity was intended.

giltleaf 10y ago

Frustrated by the people who are claiming that this piece or the company is racist/unexceptional, or that this man's success is due to exclusively hard work. They are missing a greater point that hard work and circumstance are both needed and one is significantly less useful without the other, and that there are structural social challenges that should be addressed. It's also very possible to praise this, and everyone else's, achievement without: comparing starting circumstance in an attempt to one-up each other on the tragedy train, discounting luck, or discounting other struggles. Discussions like this remind me of this poignant comic on income inequality that is pretty much impossible to argue around: http://thewireless.co.nz/articles/the-pencilsword-on-a-plate http://thewireless.co.nz/articles/the-pencilsword-on-a-plate

Meegul 10y ago
That's a really good comic. I grew up very privileged and it's easy to give in to some of the thoughts that are displayed. I know far too many of my peers who probably wouldn't see the irony in it if you chopped off the right half.
yummyfajitas 10y ago
It's pretty easy to argue against that comic. Most of it is made-up anecdote. 2 of the 3 testable claims it makes are completely and nonsensically wrong, almost to the point of complete fabrication. The third testable claim I don't know how to google. Poor Americans don't live in overcrowded homes. Only 3.3% of those homes have "severe physical problems" (what I'm interpreting the comic to mean), and they typically have 2 rooms/person. http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/h150-07.pdf http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/h150-07.pdf 60% of poor children have parents who didn't work at all during the year. In contrast, 51% of Americans 18-64 whole did work full time year round. http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2015/demo/p60-252.pdf http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publication... I don't have stats on classes sizes - do you? I suspect the author of that comic didn't bother to google before writing it. I'm not even going to try and refute the made-up anecdotes, e.g. dying father, parents who don't care about academics, and a boss who looks like a dog.
- 10y ago

Meegul 10y ago

What's stopping someone from signing up for Jopwell when you don't fit their racial criteria? Surely once they find out that you're not the race they're looking for, they can't deny you services because of your race. Regardless, diversity is an issue that the tech industry certainly does needs to tackle, and things like this are one way of going about it; I just feel like it's the wrong way. Denying opportunities to people based on race might achieve the goal, but it does it in a way that's only going to breed contempt. It also ignores that poverty, while vastly more common among the specified races, still does exist for some whites and asians. I believe the metric we should be using for programs like these should be total family income, not the color of your parents skin. Is systematic racism a problem? Probably in some industries. But these days, recruiters at tech companies are not turning people down due to their opinions about their race.

jshevek 10y ago
"But these days, recruiters at tech companies are not turning people down due to their opinions about their race." Not even github? They seemed to want to aggressively reduce the percentage of white males at their company, and bragged about their success in doing so.
- messick 10y ago
  Yes, github sticking it to the most oppressed of minority groups: straight white dudes.
  - jshevek 10y ago
    "Yes, github sticking it to the most oppressed of minority groups: straight white dudes." Are they trying to reduce the percentage of straight people there as well? I thought that gay white males might be an unintended casualty of the racism and sexism at github. There is an argument to be made that poor white males may indeed be one of the most disadvantaged groups, at least in the US. It depends on how you weight various criteria.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]

qq66 10y ago

The title is wrong. The title should be "How I ended up successful in tech through the hard work and perseverance of my mother and myself, with a side dish of good fortune."