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Lost Diamonds: How our current system is failing underprivileged talent
- forrestthewoods 10y ago"I couldn't mess up even once". Except he did. And yet it worked out. So clearly the headline is an exaggeration.
- __jal 10y agoWas the most notable part of the article to you the headline writer's word choice?
- systems 10y agowell, it is the headline .. the premise of the story and the headline should not contradict each other
- forrestthewoods 10y agoGenerally speaking you state a thesis then give supporting evidence. Making a strong statement and then immediately disproving it stands out. Click bait gonna click bait I suppose.
- M_Grey 10y agoWhen there is nothing constructive to add, especially when an ideological nerve is struck, pedantry and semantics take over.
- dbshapco 10y agoI think it is the feeling that you can't mess up that this references and which persists. My past was a single mother, deadbeat dad, welfare and food banks. Now I have a comfortable six-figure income and have been employed for over two decades. I still feel like I'm one bad break away from being on the streets.
- roel_v 10y agoI grew up in a stable working class family where I was encouraged to study, and feel the same way. Why do all articles like this assume it's related to an upbringing in poverty?
- pessimizer 10y agoBecause if you belong to a stable middle class family, it's not only not true, but has never been true for you for a moment?
- forrestthewoods 10y agoBut, as discussed, this article is about feelings not truths.
- st3v3r 10y agoFeelings dictate how one acts. Even if you can fail, if you feel you can't, that is going to affect quite a bit how you approach things, or if you approach them at all.
- jorjordandan 10y agoHe got a second chance where most people in his position wouldn't. He got lucky - his point is that most people don't get a second chance. Also, I think more than the facts of the matter, he's talking about the feeling of not being able to mess up even once. Also the fact that he was haunted by that one mistake - not getting some trivial forms in on time could have ruined his life. Pretty harsh if you think about it.
- ritchiea 10y agoHeadlines are usually picked by an editor not the author. In this case the author had even already published another version of the piece with a different headline "Lost Diamonds, How a financial aid form almost convinced me I wasn’t good enough and how our current system is failing underprivileged talent". Can we discuss the content of the piece now?
- trjordan 10y agoI wish I could remember where I read this, but I once heard it explained to me as this: It's easy to deride the journey of the rich college student: 80-hour internships at Goldman Sachs, unpaid positions in government, etc. But, the things that are done by successful people are hard, as hard as walking a tightrope. The difference is that rich students walk this tightrope over a bed of pillows. Poor students walk it over an open pit of spikes. Obviously falling off onto a cushion is easier. What's less obvious is how nerve-wracking it is to know that there are real consequences. Danger creates stress, and stress ruins results. Paradoxically, if you know you have more than one shot, you're more likely to succeed on your first try.
- ethbro 10y agoFamily money also buys practice. As someone who grew up middle class surrounded by people above me on the social strata, the amount of activities wealthy kids get to train for life's challenges are mind boggling. When anyone on HN sat down to their first big interview, ask yourself what practice you had with applicable social skills? (Business culture, dress, and social norms, etc.) Now substitute someone who's never interacted with that world before, nor knows anyone from their neighborhood or social group who has.
- filoeleven 10y agoNot to mention the additional networking opportunities provided by growing up in that environment. Even absent more formal networking events, your chances of someone at a barbecue saying "oh, you're doing X? I have a friend at BigCompany, give me your resume and I'll pass it along" are much better than someone not in that class.
- wutbrodo 10y agoThe idea that "class isn't about money" is a really important one, and a distinction that isn't evident in most people's lives. I grew up in a family that was historically pretty rich and both parents had advanced degrees, but a combination of health problems and mental illness meant that for most of my childhood, we had very little money. At the same time, I went to private schools (on scholarship) my entire life, so all of my friends and acquaintances were also upper upper middle class. I'm now an adult and am extremely successful, more so than any of my acquaintances. As difficult as my childhood could be, a big part of my success is probably attributable to habits and norms I picked up from my parents. As early as college, the amount of opportunities I've been exposed to just by impressing someone during conversation has been ridiculous. Part of this of course has been knowing my stuff, but undoubtedly it depends in part on my carriage and manner of speaking. And all of this is leaving out the direct networking opportunities inherent in the environment I grew up in.
- nostromo 10y agoEdit: you can disregard this comment now as the article and title are updated to the (much better) originals. It's a good story, but the title is fairly misleading. It sounds like he did "mess up" a few times. But ultimately he persevered thanks to a tenacious teacher. It seems the real message is to keep pushing forward, even if you stumble. Clicking through to the original Medium article suggests that Vox is responsible for the title since the original is much better.
- SilasX 10y ago... no, I think it's more important to take away that our system is keeping a lot of people at 0.1x when they could be 10x, not that a few 1.2xers could become 3xers if they really pushed it.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- acqq 10y agoThanks. The original title by the author: "Lost Diamonds -- How a financial aid form almost convinced me I wasn’t good enough and how our current system is failing underprivileged talent" I find the other currently front page topic somewhat related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12603748 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12603748 "How Anxiety Warps Your Perception"
- ritchiea 10y agoHeadlines are usually picked by an editor not the author. In this case the author had even already published another version of the piece with a different headline "Lost Diamonds, How a financial aid form almost convinced me I wasn’t good enough and how our current system is failing underprivileged talent". Can we discuss the content of the piece now?
- lavrov 10y agoI think that this depends on the definition of "messing up" - he missed a financial aid window in 6th grade, and something as trivial as filing a form late had a tangible impact on a year of his life. I think that his point is that this experience conditioned him to view risk quite differently from wealthier peers. I would disagree that "pushing forward" is a valid prescription - the counterfactual "without Mrs. Harris and Head-Royce" leaves him on a different trajectory.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- M_Grey 10y agoExtend this to doing something stupid and illegal as a white kid, or a black kid.
- asdf333 10y agoI've read countless articles like this one but for some reason, this is the first one where I felt like I personally connected with the story.
- ajkjk 10y agoFor a year or so I've been keeping an ad hoc record (a text file!), to the best of my ability, of all my financial losses due to personal mistakes - so, moving out of my old apartment a month late was a 1200$ mistake, and dropping and breaking my phone was a 200$ one. I'm also trying to keep track of very risky behavior that didn't become an actual financial loss: driving in NYC during the blizzard last year didn't actually lead to my car being damaged, or to requiring a tow, but the chance of one of those happening was at least substantial, probably 20-50% - so it's a financial error of a few hundred dollars, maybe, anyway (this doesn't have to be precise). I've learned from this that I lose far more money to incidental errors than I realized. Lots of small expenses like parking tickets, breaking things, misplanning my day and paying for Lyft/Uber or other luxuries to make up for lost time, buying things I already own, etc - it all really adds up. But a few days ago I mentioned this to a friend, and after a second of thought she just said, "well, isn't it nice that all your mistakes can just be fixed with money?"
- ianai 10y agodid you remind her that you were only tracking financial mistakes?
- ajkjk 10y agoI should've finished with how it hit me: that I found the statement pretty powerful because, indeed, most of everything that had gone wrong or been stressful in my life that year was in that file. It was a reminder of how fortunate I've been.
- mixmastamyk 10y agoYes, not looking for sympathy but as a note for others. Recently a loved one of mine passed away very quickly, which I missed, and it put everything in perspective. No amount of money in the world (times ten) can fix such a mistake.
- ianai 10y ago
- KevinEldon 10y agoI benifitted from systems hat supported school choice. I hope uS governments (local, state, and federal) support the same. Active and interested parents with active and interested teacher with options to align students with the best educational solutions can only be good for students.
- KevinEldon 10y agoI benifitted from systems hat supported school choice. I hope uS governments (local, state, and federal) support the same. Active and interested parents with active and interested teacher with options to align students with the best educational solutions can only be good for students.
- briandear 10y agoThis seems to me to be a great example of why school choice is important. Those opposed to school choice would have this kid staying in a falling school to serve their social agenda. I get it, we should make all schools "good schools," but while we're waiting for that to happen, must the smart and motivated be the pawns?
- harryjo 10y agoWhat happens when everyone chooses the same good school?
- mzw_mzw 10y agoWhat happens when everyone wants to buy a particular car or a particular phone?
- tedunangst 10y agoYou wait two weeks while they make some more.
- bdcravens 10y agoMy high school valedictorian chose MIT. He was denied, while the #8 student got accepted due to affirmative action. Choice is often an illusion.
- hayksaakian 10y agoThe most important thing nobody teaches lower class people is how to work "the system." "work hard" is the catch phrase everybody shouts from the roof tops. It's a lot like tax filing / accounting, or hiring a lawyer for a public trial. In the case of the lawyer, society has recognized how absolutely hopeless it would be to defend yourself in criminal court, and the law entitles every individual to an attorney. A lawyer helps you navigate the 'courts system'. Tax filing is similar but less extreme. You can make a simple error on your taxes, or grossly overpay without an accountant. An accountant helps you navigate the 'tax system'. Everyone with some level of wealth understands the value of a good lawyer or a good accountant. To make it simple: when you're coming from poverty there are many important things that "you don't know that you don't know". Coming from wealth, you have the advantage of "knowing about what you don't know".
- mixmastamyk 10y agoSo, what they need is some sort of advocate to show them the ropes. Sounds doable, if approached respectfully. Vaguely reminds me of the book "Rich dad, poor dad."
- pnathan 10y ago> what they need is some sort of advocate In brief, because I'm at my day job: no. That is not the right approach. That is the approach that gets one labeled an elitist and a snob. It's not appreciated by the little people you're trying to help. The correct approach is one which maximizes agency. This will have a wider variance of success, but will be received far better.
- mixmastamyk 10y agoThat's why I wrote "respectfully".
- ducttapecrown 10y agoOffering aid without first having been asked for it could be considered disrespectful, condescending, etc.
- slzuok 10y ago> As Gladwell points out, it’s often only possible for poor kids like me to reach their potential when we have a champion who can not only show us the way but help carry us there. This is just how simple it is. And the ones that get help are not the ones that need it, which leads to bad results. VCs are not interested in funding poor people, whatever their abilities or vision. VCs invest in Stanford grads, where 90%+ of the students are from well off backgrounds (look it up). Why? So if something goes wrong they can say to their LPs "It's not my fault, they went to Stanford!" A young Steve Jobs would have a harder time raising money today than he did in the 70's. And he'd have a harder time than any random person who got into Stanford - where the admissions program is easily gamed by the wealthy and connected and the graduation rate is 95%. The limited help available is all being directed at the ones that need and utilize it the least. The upside for poor people is that being poor forces ones to grow as a person. Steve Jobs used to walk across town to eat free food at the hare krishna temple...no wealthy person could ever imagine what deep reservoirs of drive a thousand humbling experiences can create in a person. It's something you would wish for your child despite the pain required.
- kalendae 10y agoThis american's life's episode "Three Miles" (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/550/three-miles http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/550/t...) won the reporter her Peabody award and is one of the most touching and haunting stories on pretty much the same topic.
- vlunkr 10y agoIt's also evident in this story that another challenge that faces many poor kids is a simple lack of knowledge about what career and education options are available to them. I applied for college on time because my mom made sure I did. It wasn't high on my priority list.
- brianlweiner 10y agoWhile it's clearly true that more privileged kids have opportunities to recover from mistakes, there is also a worrying trend where even those kids seem to think they can't possibly make a mistake (get a C, do poorly on a standardized test) http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/12/the-silicon-valley-suicides/413140/ http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/12/the-sili...
- hosh 10y agoThis is an interesting article to read and think alongside: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160928-how-anxiety-warps-your-perception http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160928-how-anxiety-warps-y... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12603748 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12603748 The poignant comment for me: "You don’t take it for granted because you understand you’re playing by someone else’s rules. Even today, Ricky and I often feel like that. Given the long odds we beat to get here, sometimes in our heads, our world feels very fragile; at any moment, the clock could strike midnight." Very much like an underlying anxiety and background survival-threat. I never went to Stanford or to an elite school. I don't feel that I grew up excessively poor, but I was fortunate that I grew up in a household where we didn't excessively bought All The Things. (That came later in a period in my life when I made enough to indulge in consumer goods for a few years). What I'm most grateful for was a period in my life where I was working deep with meditation and shamanic practices to address very intense emotions -- including that feeling of "our world fees very fragile". I don't know where that came from, and yet it would pop in from time to time. There is also a path out of that where the world opens up and you realize this inner freedom -- to play, to laugh, to love, going beyond simply surviving from one day to the next.
- lordnacho 10y agoWow, this story resonated with me. I also have parents who were Chinese minority in north Vietnam. And my dad in fact had 16 siblings as well. And some of those siblings now live in Oakland. Anyway, I recall growing up there was an incident that almost knocked me off course. My parents had been paying for a private school for years, and they let me know it was very, very, expensive. Even with a discount, pretty much everything was going to this school for me and my brother. They ran a restaurant, so food was cheap. Not a lot of other expenses, my dad somehow always knew a regular who could get a car or HiFi cheaply for us. I dressed like a slob. So I applied to go to a government school. I knew it was going to be a culture shock, not only because they tended to speak the local language instead of English, but if it was so burdensome on the family, perhaps it was worth it. I had a friend who wanted to do that and actually did. I mentioned it to a classmate of mine, and he told me not to. The best part of the school was high school, and we'd both be better off for university by staying there. A number of kids has gone to top universities from there. His family weren't rich either, also on a massive discount. So I mulled it over and stayed. My parents were supportive. High school turned out to be worthwhile, despite some weird international school issues. I got into competitive maths, skipped a year in it, and generally did quite well socially. Got good marks, and went on to a top uni in the UK. Which was also a bit of a culture shock. The mentioned buddy came for a visit and he told me he saw people walking around in top hats. There was definitely a lot of privilege around. One buddy invited me to his house, down the street from where Shakespeare grew up. This was a second home, his parents mostly lived in Italy, curating art. Guess how little I could speak about that. Events seemed to cost a fortune, but it wasn't really the money that was weird, it was knowing how to dress. Some people seem to be born with the knowledge of what black tie means. And how to behave while wearing it. There were all sorts of conventions and special lingo that in retrospect seem trivial, but as a young kid you don't want to stray too far from the norm. Anyway, one does survive such traumas. There are always people around who are very interested in your story, and understanding that people come from different backgrounds. It's not like the toffs actually hate you, a lot of them are quite curious.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- clifanatic 10y ago> We as a society need to do more to not only find these lost diamonds Ok, mr. author, what are _you_ doing? Or by "we" did you mean "everybody else"?
- allovera 10y agoThis article had me in tears. I grew up so poor I often didn't have shoes and wore dollar-store flip flops in the winter. Deadbeat dad, opiate addict mother. I was shuffled constantly from relative to relative, friend's house to friend's house. I had some very supportive teachers, including one who paid for my AP tests and SATs. I got an offer to a university in the UC system. Life was looking up! In the last semester of my senior year, my stepmom kicked me out of my dad's house. I shuffled back and forth between friends' houses, too embarrassed to explain the situation to an adult. I had to sleep rough a few times and got pneumonia from not having a whooping cough vaccination. I coughed so hard my ribs cracked. I missed a class where I had to turn in a midterm, my teacher wouldn't accept it late ("you kids always make up excuses"), I couldn't get a doctor's note because I hadn't been to the doctor. Welp, failed the class. The university rescinded my admission for the failed grade. I lost all my scholarships. I ended up bouncing around homeless shelters for a few months while I recovered my health. Eventually, I went to community college, transferred to a top 10 university. Now I work at Amazon as an SDE and make well over six figures. Happy ending, right? Well, no -- for years, I blamed myself for "blowing" that university opportunity. I felt horrible. I felt so ashamed.
- mixmastamyk 10y agoWell, now you can forgive yourself and be proud of what you've accomplished and will continue to.
- simplemath 10y agoInternalized fear of abandonment, shame, and undervaluing of self-worth... Takes years of work to undo, even after you've made it. My story is similar to the parent comment - not as severe, but close. I'm doing well now, but I suffer deeply from impostor syndrome and am constantly waiting to be fired, or cast out or sent back to the bread line, even though, rationally, I know that these are not likely, or even possible outcomes. You can't divorce yourself from your own past, no matter how high you climb or far you run to escape it.
- cheez 10y ago
- kfe 10y agoHaving gone to a school with an extremely high barrier of entry (in the terms of admission tests not financially) I would say that bright & motivated companionship was what pushed me forward. Pooling talent helps to develop it in many ways. At the same time some of the best/most braised education systems come from countries with a "level playing field" public school systems such as Finland. To me the main question is if developing talent by pooling it together is in conflict with achieving high average student development. And if so, which one of those should be the goal as a society?
- tajen 10y agoI'm in France and I sometimes notice that USA articles focus only on underpriviledged talent. Why only the talents? It's a bit like rape is fought against, except in prisons because they're lower-grade citizen. Or like articles describing unwarranted violence from the SWAT teams: "The family was playing poker, they got busted for illegal gaming, 3 died" will trigger fewer reaction than "The SWAT team killed the dog." US articles often focus on a subset of the unpriviledged population. Let's recall that our civilization needs to take care of everyone, even if they're not talented or guilty at some level. Not everyone is cute, but everyone needs to be saved.
- sageabilly 10y ago"everyone needs to be saved" Unfortunately, the prevailing social zeitgeist in the US is that not everyone deserves to be saved- you have to earn the right to be deemed worthy enough to be saved, and really if you find yourself in a position where you need to be saved then it's probably your own fault and you should bootstrap your way out of it. The puritanical mindset is very, very strong and all-prevailing in the US.
- nathanasmith 10y ago>>Unfortunately, the prevailing social zeitgeist in the US is that not everyone deserves to be saved- you have to earn the right to be deemed worthy enough to be saved, and really if you find yourself in a position where you need to be saved then it's probably your own fault and you should bootstrap your way out of it. The puritanical mindset is very, very strong and all-prevailing in the US. I wasn't sure how to parse this exactly but I was curious if you are actually correct here so I had a look at the General Social Survey[0]. The closest thing I could find to your post was the question of "EVERYONE SHOULD LOOK OUT FOR SELF"[1] and it looks like 67.7 percent of Americans disagree with that statement. In light of that fact, how do you defend your contrary position? [0]http://sda.berkeley.edu/gss http://sda.berkeley.edu/gss [1]Put EQUAL1 as the row variable then click "Run the table"
- kempbellt 10y ago
- AdamFernandez 10y agoI can attest this problem is insidious and pervasive through-out society. Not just in the U.S., but globally. Separate from the moral issue of children growing up in disadvantaged environments, this is an economic problem, and a problem for the advancement of humanity. There is so much hidden value in masses of people that have no way deliver this value due to circumstances. I know anecdotally, you can point to individuals who made it despite these setbacks, but this is not the norm statistically by far. What would happen if we found a way to lift these people up? How much better off would everyone be economically by the value these hidden 'diamonds' create? (and by everyone I mean even the wealthy) How much faster could humanity be advancing in general? From a practical and factual perspective, ignoring this, or just waving it off as 'the best rise no matter what', is so damaging and counterproductive that it is actually holding back everything.
- sfrailsdev 10y agoWe need to stop finding lost diamonds and start giving poor people in general more opportunities. People talk about rising tides lifting all boats, but ties flow in at the bottom and lifts things higher.
- gthtjtkt 10y agoJust to offer a slight counter-point re: privilege. Where I grew up, telling someone "I want to go to vocational school instead of college" was no different from telling them "I want to be a prostitute when I grow up". Hell, even joining any form of armed service was extremely frowned upon. In many cases, this led to otherwise bright, gifted people becoming "failures" because they were too afraid to do what they wanted and instead followed the socially acceptable path (college) where they never had any hope of succeeding. They struggled to finish useless degrees they never wanted, earned a decent chunk of debt in the process, and ended up with soul-crushing jobs, the main benefit of which was the fact that they earned enough money to continue showing up at their soul-crushing job for many years to come. Hooray, privilege!
- BigJeffeRonaldo 10y agoBeing against military service sounds like the 110iq librarian in a town full of low 95 iqers. Some of he smartest kids I know (many from very good backgrounds) went west point then 11b and now are flying up management fast track in some prestigious industries. Many kids from poorer backgrounds have also done the same, but they weren't in my peer group. Aristocrats and elite political families send their kids to do military service. Sounds like middle class +1 standard deviation nonsense attitude was prevalent there
- riot504 10y agoExactly this! I joined the military at 17 and turned 18 during the summer I graduated high school. I am now completing my PhD in mathematics and work as a data scientist for a small economic development firm.
- SFJulie 10y agoWell, maybe we don't need that much talent on earth. Real life 101: all people deserve respect even if not given by life the opportunity to express their talent when not that many talents are needed to make the world goes round.
- jimmywanger 10y agoThis is precisely the reason why affirmative action/outreach efforts should be based on socioeconomic status, not race or gender. This vietnamese guy has hard a much harder time of it than any black, middle class, female growing up in a nice middle class suburb, but he's the one who's discriminated against during college admission and job interviews, and applications for scholarships and coding academies and such.
- Kenji 10y agoI couldn't agree more. That's how it is where I live and there aren't many brilliant people who are barred from getting good education because of financial problems.
- cmdrfred 10y ago>you can start a business with your $1 million inherited wealth, but it has an extremely high probability of failing without hard work. That's why you don't start a business dummy, you work with a money manager and have him invest it and after 30 years of average market returns you get to brag about how 'successful' and 'hardworking' you are. >I'm not even sure what your point is. GP was pointing out that competition at every level is fierce. Not sure what that has to do with the Foxconn employee. Are they known for not being competitive? You claim a child in China has the same access to opportunities as the son of a hedge fund manager? He won't have to work any harder to get in the same position?
- hueving 10y ago>That's why you don't start a business dummy, you work with a money manager and have him invest it That's not what we are talking about. We are talking about people that built businesses. >You claim a child in China has the same access to opportunities as the son of a hedge fund manager? No one claimed that anywhere in this thread. Take your strawman fight elsewhere.
- cmdrfred 10y agoSo we both agree that the wealthy have massive advantages and thus their successes mean less. If you get a few hour head start at the marathon you don't get to brag about how you won.
- philippoi 10y agoBut, if you have a genetic advantage, you still do. Everyone starting at the same time, some are clearly in a different class. I guess the marathon analogy with regard to socioeconomic opportunity, then, is this: everyone gets to start at the same time, has to run the same distance, but not over the same course...some have the chance to purchase a downhill run; some can only afford a path of gently waving hills and valleys; others have no choice but to take the canyon route complete with stoplights and none of the ordinary traffic blocked for their course. Though 26.2 miles downhill is still hard, it's not as hard as some of the other courses available.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- NotSammyHagar 10y agoThis article made me cry. I feel for those folks who are so poor (the parents in this article, and the kids), everyone should have a decent life, a chance to earn enough money to get an education, or have access to eduction. This kind of thing is an enormous loss of potential for humanity, for these folks that can't get access to education. It's for people like that that we should look into making college much less expensive if not free. I am from a poorer, less developed southern state. I went to a high school with a lot of poor people. I was lucky enough to go to college, my parents had both been so I had an enormously easier time than most folks, including money to pay for it plus an expectation that I would go. Whenever I have gone back to high school reunions, I feel so sorry for those people that were never able to go to college, or develop their potential.
- psyc 10y agoWow. Seldom has an article hit so close to home. I grew up American-poor (household income < $10k in 1980s). I've felt this almost every day of my life. From my point of view I've had to work so much harder for results that are very mediocre relative to the stereotypical HN crowd. I've never had any sense of security. Always felt like the other shoe was about to drop. I had to work any job I could find as a kid to buy near-obsolete computers to hack on. That was probably good for me. We tell ourselves that smart kids get scholarships, but that's a half-truth. Some do, some don't. I was valedictorian, had a 4.0 GPA, 99th percentile on every academic test, and applied for scholarships. I got a half-ride to a decent state school. I had to work 30 hrs/wk at a stressful job to make up the rest and pay for used books. A major auto accident was enough, financially and psychologically, for me to drop out. None of that was good for me, and I've occasionally regretted not being able to pursue academics further. My parents never had any money, and never taught me anything about money beyond "don't spend any". I taught myself as much as I could about finance, but I've found that there are money traps absolutely everywhere. Corporations are very eager to take your money for nothing if you're less than extremely vigilant. Sub-optimal mobile plans, auto-renew subscriptions, lack of health insurance, bank fees, gotchas in employment contracts... such things are ultimately in your power to some degree, but it's a constant hostility against you, and if you're not battling, you're potentially losing tens of thousands, often for literally nothing in return. I was homeless a lot as a young adult. I still don't have an especially stable living situation. I've had a great career, and I'm a somewhat sought-after "senior" developer. That in itself is an opportunity. Where I come from, $50k/yr is called "good money", and people know how to live like princes on that. The figures tossed about in any discussion of developer comp would make my childhood friends kill themselves (or kill me). I once managed to save $100k in cash. I used it to try to start a business, but it failed. I've tried to start companies 3 times. I'm trying to start one now, with no money and a failing laptop. Of course I have the option of getting a good job if I need to. That's enough details. They don't matter that much. What matters to me is how it feels. To know that it's taken me 5 times as long to get to the same place. That the results I get have always been below what I know my potential is. I'll never give up. It's hard to contemplate, so now I meditate it away so it won't stop me from trying. The point is I've worked really, really hard, and now I'm 40, and the success I hope for is still in the future.
- dexterdog 10y agoGladwell's entire podcast that is mentioned in the article is excellent and well worth your time if you have not heard it already. IIRC it was 10 episodes.
- EGreg 10y agoInvert the classroom to deliver much more value to more people. College should be for socializing, small groups, labs and certification.
- lesolorzanova 10y agoWhat if on top of that you were not born in the U.S? I feel like this all the time. I was born in Colombia. I managed to get scholarships for all my education from school to PhD and managed to study abroad. But it was not easy. I still feel like I am not good enough, I even feel I am getting old to learn new things. I feel undeserving which can not be good for starting the PhD studies. The universities where I studied in Colombia are just as good as any university in the U.S or Europe and proof of this is that I managed to get a masters in CS in France and will start my PhD in Sweden (sometime now since there's an immigrant crisis). But as people from the "3rd world" we are often overlooked and underestimated. I felt very touched by this article and gave me hopes for my future and only makes me want to be younger to take evn better decisions in life.