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The luck and the postscript really resonated with me. For more than 30 years now, I've been telling people I hit the jackpot: Computer programming is something

The luck and the postscript really resonated with me. For more than 30 years now, I've been telling people I hit the jackpot: Computer programming is something I'm really good at, that I enjoy doing and that pays really well. Very few people get all three. I had to work summer jobs though, starting at 15: road crew, pounding spikes on the railway, lumberjack. I'm not sure I would have been better off for not having those jobs though. I learned a lot about what the average person does to get by and about how much alcohol gives me minor alcohol poisoning.

flaubere 5y ago
The author said in a postscript that he was worried about seeming elitist. I didn't think it was elitist at all, and I completely understand why it was a good choice for him to write BASIC code. However, I also did manual labour in the summer when I was ~20. There was nothing wrong with it. I would certainly recommend a brief stint of it to a young person, especially if you are training towards a sitting down/talking type job. You are outdoors, you end the day physically tired but with mental and emotional energy for other things. You gain skills and improve your health and fitness. There's usually a good atmosphere among the workers. And you get to point at something concrete and say 'I helped put that up/knock that down/repair that'.
- Ensorceled 5y ago
  Part of why it didn’t come off as elitist for me is that everyone had their own story; his dad was relatable, his mother supportive and he wanted to not disappoint them. The car dealer guy sounded awesome and not at all like someone he looked down on.
- Symbiote 5y ago
  My parents made a similar deal with me, when I was 18. "Manual work" for all but 3 weeks of the summer was indoors for me, in factories -- mostly cleaning and assembling. There was a good range of jobs, from boring, tough work more-or-less alone, to a place where everyone seemed to chat while they worked slowly as the summer was usually a quiet period. In the final job, I took a half-day off to collect my exam results. Going into work afterwards, people naturally asked what they were -- all A grades. It was difficult not to feel apart from many of the staff from that point. The owner's daughter was the same age and also working the summer at the factory, and her results weren't good enough to go to university.
  - Ensorceled 5y ago
    Did you ever get a "Hey, don't be using twenty dollar words in a twenty-five cent conversation." That was a wake up call.
    - Symbiote 5y ago
      That sounds fairly confrontational to me. I only had phrases like "look at you with your fancy words", which (in Britain, depending on tone) can mean something from "I'm impressed you remember words like that", to "I don't understand you" and "you seem to think you're better than me".

flaubere 5y ago

The author said in a postscript that he was worried about seeming elitist. I didn't think it was elitist at all, and I completely understand why it was a good choice for him to write BASIC code. However, I also did manual labour in the summer when I was ~20. There was nothing wrong with it. I would certainly recommend a brief stint of it to a young person, especially if you are training towards a sitting down/talking type job. You are outdoors, you end the day physically tired but with mental and emotional energy for other things. You gain skills and improve your health and fitness. There's usually a good atmosphere among the workers. And you get to point at something concrete and say 'I helped put that up/knock that down/repair that'.

Ensorceled 5y ago
Part of why it didn’t come off as elitist for me is that everyone had their own story; his dad was relatable, his mother supportive and he wanted to not disappoint them. The car dealer guy sounded awesome and not at all like someone he looked down on.
Symbiote 5y ago
My parents made a similar deal with me, when I was 18. "Manual work" for all but 3 weeks of the summer was indoors for me, in factories -- mostly cleaning and assembling. There was a good range of jobs, from boring, tough work more-or-less alone, to a place where everyone seemed to chat while they worked slowly as the summer was usually a quiet period. In the final job, I took a half-day off to collect my exam results. Going into work afterwards, people naturally asked what they were -- all A grades. It was difficult not to feel apart from many of the staff from that point. The owner's daughter was the same age and also working the summer at the factory, and her results weren't good enough to go to university.
- Ensorceled 5y ago
  Did you ever get a "Hey, don't be using twenty dollar words in a twenty-five cent conversation." That was a wake up call.
  - Symbiote 5y ago
    That sounds fairly confrontational to me. I only had phrases like "look at you with your fancy words", which (in Britain, depending on tone) can mean something from "I'm impressed you remember words like that", to "I don't understand you" and "you seem to think you're better than me".