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First thanks for what you're doing. I think it's definitely part of the solution. My worry though is that I don't think everyone is equipped to be a programer.

First thanks for what you're doing. I think it's definitely part of the solution. My worry though is that I don't think everyone is equipped to be a programer. The thing I keep coming back to is my younger brother. He's got mental disabilities which mean he can't read or do math at more than a very basic level (first grade maybe) and for what ever it's worth he also scored pretty low on IQ tests. Despite a bit of a falling out he's working in construction and doing fine, but he could never go into a highly skilled occupation. There's plenty of people like him some not nearly on such an extreme who would have been perfectly capable of working in management or similar, but as we require more and more training for simple jobs I worry that we loose places for people who can't keep up

yjhoney 8y ago
Thank you for sharing your story. I don't know the severity of your brother's disabilities but I believe that there is a potential place for him as a teacher to teach introductory courses (like JS basics, html, etc). The daily interaction someone like your brother might have with other people might help with his mental disabilities. Just a my two cents, but I'm not trying to advocate for everyone to learn coding though. Simple jobs will always be there in the near future for those who need it. I just have a problem with people who are capable of a skilled jobs being forced into simple jobs because of financial reasons.
- yjhoney 8y ago
  I remembered one of our students has a brother who has severe ADHD (to the point where he had to be heavily medicated). He comes in and tries to learn but couldn't seem to hold his attention for more than a few minutes before disappearing into reddit and gaming sites. I wasn't able to help him. Remembering that, I realize my response above is (unempathetic? I can't find the right word to describe the feels) and I apologize for that.
pkaye 8y ago
I think gardening is a pretty lucrative business right now in the bay area. Atleast by the rates that many are asking. And I've seen many of my neighbors asking each other if they know of any reliable services. All one needs to be is reliable, communicate well and do a decent job.
- chrisseaton 8y ago
  But gardening is a skilled job requiring a couple of years or more apprenticeship to learn - not much easier than going into tech. Hence being lucrative.
  - tlow 8y ago
    Generalize your argument and reply please. Many things require skill, maybe initial capital and upfront investment is the OPs point. OP claims to pay "2k/mo" to get people to quit their jobs and focus on learning X, where X is programming.
    - chrisseaton 8y ago
      > Generalize your argument and reply please. Generalise it? No, because it was specific. The person said ‘why aren’t people immediately filling demand for gardeners it pays well’ and the answer is... they don’t know how to garden it’s a skill they don’t have that takes years to acquire.
  - C1sc0cat 8y ago
    Gardening is an unskilled job in the main.
    - m0llusk 8y ago
      Which is why so many people hiring gardeners get poor results. Mow and blow is cheap and easy but also extremely bad at generating healthy landscapes.
Scipio_Afri 8y ago
Replying so that the other person pleading for skepticism in this thread, and myself, can be seen near the top. This non-profit is not vetted, has a very basic website, has no proof of the students, this persons account is 24 days old. Please be mindful that while this all sounds like a great idea and I hope it really exists, this also could be a scam as there is no evidence or any 3rd party that this is a real nonprofit which has been paying 20 people 2k a month to learn to code. Please don't donate until you're sure this person is using the money as they claim. Attempting to verify their website and facebook leads to some red flags - no pictures of events, just events on facebook with 1 or 2 people attending, no documented proof of the 16 people who are full stack developers. If the non-profit is successful as they've said it is, then if he doesn't want to burn through his own savings (again supposedly) then he needs to seriously do better marketing and proof. Even with those things, I'd be skeptical unless it was independently verified.
- yjhoney 8y ago
  Thanks for reminding people be aware. Fundraising wasn't the point of my original comment, so I took out the donation link. My focus primarily has been to teach students, so I haven't had time to update any of the social media or the landing page. I lost the pw to my original account on HN, but here's my username: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=songzme https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=songzme
  - ma2rten 8y ago
    Here is a link to your previous post about it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16043552 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16043552
- ma2rten 8y ago
  I would generally only donate to non-profits that have 501(c)(3) status (not sure if this one does). Not just because I want to save money on my tax, but also because the IRS has some checks in place to make sure the money is used as intended. EDIT: It looks like they do have it.
stale2002 8y ago
The amount of people who actually have significant mental disorders is a small percentage of the total population. This article is instead talking about the middle 90% of the population. And many many people in this group are perfectly capable of moving to tech.
cutler 8y ago
Exactly. Programming is not for everyone. Probably not for even half of the population so if we fail to diversify our economies and pour all our resources into tech it's going to be a very sad world where the other half of the population are good for nothing. A world fuelled by tech at the expense of everything else is not a world I want to live in.

yjhoney 8y ago

Thank you for sharing your story. I don't know the severity of your brother's disabilities but I believe that there is a potential place for him as a teacher to teach introductory courses (like JS basics, html, etc). The daily interaction someone like your brother might have with other people might help with his mental disabilities. Just a my two cents, but I'm not trying to advocate for everyone to learn coding though. Simple jobs will always be there in the near future for those who need it. I just have a problem with people who are capable of a skilled jobs being forced into simple jobs because of financial reasons.

yjhoney 8y ago
I remembered one of our students has a brother who has severe ADHD (to the point where he had to be heavily medicated). He comes in and tries to learn but couldn't seem to hold his attention for more than a few minutes before disappearing into reddit and gaming sites. I wasn't able to help him. Remembering that, I realize my response above is (unempathetic? I can't find the right word to describe the feels) and I apologize for that.

pkaye 8y ago

I think gardening is a pretty lucrative business right now in the bay area. Atleast by the rates that many are asking. And I've seen many of my neighbors asking each other if they know of any reliable services. All one needs to be is reliable, communicate well and do a decent job.

chrisseaton 8y ago
But gardening is a skilled job requiring a couple of years or more apprenticeship to learn - not much easier than going into tech. Hence being lucrative.
- tlow 8y ago
  Generalize your argument and reply please. Many things require skill, maybe initial capital and upfront investment is the OPs point. OP claims to pay "2k/mo" to get people to quit their jobs and focus on learning X, where X is programming.
  - chrisseaton 8y ago
    > Generalize your argument and reply please. Generalise it? No, because it was specific. The person said ‘why aren’t people immediately filling demand for gardeners it pays well’ and the answer is... they don’t know how to garden it’s a skill they don’t have that takes years to acquire.
- C1sc0cat 8y ago
  Gardening is an unskilled job in the main.
  - m0llusk 8y ago
    Which is why so many people hiring gardeners get poor results. Mow and blow is cheap and easy but also extremely bad at generating healthy landscapes.

Scipio_Afri 8y ago

Replying so that the other person pleading for skepticism in this thread, and myself, can be seen near the top. This non-profit is not vetted, has a very basic website, has no proof of the students, this persons account is 24 days old. Please be mindful that while this all sounds like a great idea and I hope it really exists, this also could be a scam as there is no evidence or any 3rd party that this is a real nonprofit which has been paying 20 people 2k a month to learn to code. Please don't donate until you're sure this person is using the money as they claim. Attempting to verify their website and facebook leads to some red flags - no pictures of events, just events on facebook with 1 or 2 people attending, no documented proof of the 16 people who are full stack developers. If the non-profit is successful as they've said it is, then if he doesn't want to burn through his own savings (again supposedly) then he needs to seriously do better marketing and proof. Even with those things, I'd be skeptical unless it was independently verified.

yjhoney 8y ago
Thanks for reminding people be aware. Fundraising wasn't the point of my original comment, so I took out the donation link. My focus primarily has been to teach students, so I haven't had time to update any of the social media or the landing page. I lost the pw to my original account on HN, but here's my username: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=songzme https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=songzme
- ma2rten 8y ago
  Here is a link to your previous post about it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16043552 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16043552
ma2rten 8y ago
I would generally only donate to non-profits that have 501(c)(3) status (not sure if this one does). Not just because I want to save money on my tax, but also because the IRS has some checks in place to make sure the money is used as intended. EDIT: It looks like they do have it.

stale2002 8y ago

The amount of people who actually have significant mental disorders is a small percentage of the total population. This article is instead talking about the middle 90% of the population. And many many people in this group are perfectly capable of moving to tech.

cutler 8y ago

Exactly. Programming is not for everyone. Probably not for even half of the population so if we fail to diversify our economies and pour all our resources into tech it's going to be a very sad world where the other half of the population are good for nothing. A world fuelled by tech at the expense of everything else is not a world I want to live in.