A common effective solution to situations like this is for the affected to proactively tell their own story — this seems to be one of the 'only' ways to counter

A common effective solution to situations like this is for the affected to proactively tell their own story — this seems to be one of the 'only' ways to counter long-standing social image problems. Recently this website was posted to HN, http://weusemath.org/ http://weusemath.org/ They're trying to change the common ideas held in regards to math and what you hear from high schools, "I'll never use math in real life!" Now seems like the primetime to begin a similar movement for geeks/hackers and I assume this has even been tried before. There is Zuckerberg the successful geek with even the movie (The Social Network) pushing this image. Some of my friends who I know I do some programming have approached me saying they have a cool idea for an app and asked if it'd be hard to make. I think an effective answer would be to explain how the development process goes, show them writing some basic app, and inviting them to learn.