I've just personally known so many professional programmers who grew up in a barely-middle-class household. Myself included. (Not that one more anecdote is need

I've just personally known so many professional programmers who grew up in a barely-middle-class household. Myself included. (Not that one more anecdote is needed, but I remember getting a Commodore computer one Christmas, and getting a hard drive the next Christmas, and the whole thing was hooked up to an old black and white TV.) Also, I've worked with some good programmers who learned to program in college. Yes, the competition is tough, but that's because programmers tend to be smart, not because they've been programming since they were 8, necessarily. The premise of the article just completely