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I am a high school dropout and who learned math using Khan Academy after never having completed more than pre-algebra in middle school. Sal Khan’s work changed

I am a high school dropout and who learned math using Khan Academy after never having completed more than pre-algebra in middle school. Sal Khan’s work changed my life and allowed me to build a foundation in not only math, but also finance and economics, that allowed me to feel confident enough to go to college. I did not have a support system or people in my life who could teach me these things, but I had the internet and patience, which meant I had opportunities that did not exist even a few years before (this was in 2014). Now I work in AI and generally have a life I could not have dreamed of. Every time I go to the grocery store to buy something and don’t have to worry about my card being declined, it feels like magic. Even years later. If I had been in that situation a few years earlier, my life would be very different. I’m excited to live in a world where my daughters and countless others will have a tutor that can help them maximize their potential throughout their lives. I’m excited not only for them, but for society. What a time to be alive.

sonabinu 2y ago
A very powerful story! thanks for sharing
- bertil 2y ago
  I have significant concern about this—that it is a story. I don’t doubt that it’s true in OC’s case. But I don’t think it’s representative of the impact of technology. It’s the example that will get Bill Gates’ attention and end up on the stage at TED, but it might not be representative of 90% of how people are affected by technology. It might, and the story of how videos will change how people relate to each other (what made Chris Anderson buy TED, what Salman Khan has built, what Grant Sanderson a.k.a, 3blue1brown has done). It is true, anecdotally. It is a fantastic, compelling, clear story. I love that story: video is the easiest way to share any practice; people watch, learn, practice, and get good at something no one in their village knew was possible. Hurray. But when I trained as a statistician, i.e., epistemologically someone working for the state, I was told I was the opposite of a journalist: my job is not to tell stories that explain what a problem is. My job is to tell the boss how common that story really is. A story tells all the details to pull your emotions, and journalists (at the time, at least) were telling fact-check, double-verified stories. “Truth” wasn’t our goal. It is too easy to get numbers that argue for any position. Representative was what we were told we should be aiming for—so that the government makes the right decision. I’m not seeing a lot of “representative” here.
  - rramadass 2y ago
    > I have significant concern about this—that it is a story. Your concerns are very correct but while you are willing to give him/her the benefit of the doubt, I am very very skeptical of their story; it sounds "too pat" and made up. If you look at their other replies there are too many incongruities and "movie plot tropes". I have a better chance of winning the lottery than "learning mathematics starting from long division and progressing to a good job in the current hot market of AI/ML while working at Home Depot, sleeping on a air mattress, with almost no money and a dysfunctional family, studying at coffee shops and rising through a bunch of roles starting from lowly corporate IT into high-paying data science/ML and leading teams". It is all just a bit too much and beggars belief.
    - squigz 2y ago
      I genuinely don't know why you have a hard time believing that chain of events. It's really not that uncommon. What "movie tropes" are you talking about that aren't just... extremely common real life things? Sleeping on an air mattress? Working at Home Depot? Teaching yourself a skill and working your way up to a respectable position?
      - rramadass 2y ago
        Each event by itself may not be uncommon (but some like learning mathematics from absolute basics to AI/ML requirements via just Khan Academy is well-nigh impossible) but all together happening to one person which led to the claimed outcome is very very highly improbable. Real life doesn't work that way; time, energy(i.e. effort), money are all finite and wax/wane with context/environment and defines success/failure. Also speaking from my own experience, early in my career for about 3-4 years i lived alone, working a software engineer job by day and attending a computer science course/labs in evening/weekends. The lack of proper sleep/rest/nutrition, constant stress due to work and studies almost broke me. Thankfully i managed to get through that (mainly due to my robust health) but it made me realize that if you don't have a supporting family, proper nutrition/sleep and some sort of support system (i.e. family/friends) to encourage/emphathize/push/pull you as needed there is no way for an average person to overcome all hurdles particularly when they come at you all at once. There is a reason it is impossible to get out of poverty just based on your own efforts without somebody external actively lending you a helping hand via money/opportunity etc. As the saying goes; "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_claims_require_extraordinary_evidence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_claims_require_e...
Hypocritelefty 2y ago
[dead]
piker 2y ago
> Every time I go to the grocery store to buy something and don’t have to worry about my card being declined, it feels like magic. Even years later. So this is universal!
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- tptacek 2y ago
  I'm almost 30 years from anything resembling precarity and I still subtly cross myself almost every time I swipe a card at the grocery store.
  - barrenko 2y ago
    Just did this a minute ago!
  - fragmede 2y ago
    the real question is how many backups do your carry in case the first one doesn't work, and I'm not asking about credit card point games
  - labster 2y ago
    I doubt God carries much sway with the credit card companies. Maybe try the other guy.
    - pfannkuchen 2y ago
      He didn’t specify a directionality.
  - thom 2y ago
    Removing this anxiety was one of the most unexpectedly powerful changes in my life. And then in a moment of hubris I signed up for an American Express card and now have to relive it every time because a good portion of vendors in the UK don’t take it.
- 2y ago
doctoboggan 2y ago
Impressive! You should give yourself more credit as it takes more than just internet and patience to teach yourself enough to get into college. I am also excited for society. However I am worried as well. While an AI tutor who is able to understand the child's current knowledge and gear the lessons toward what will make the most sense will be very powerful, it could also be used for brainwashing, propaganda, misinformation, etc. While we've invented a better way to transfer knowledge, we haven't removed the human desire to control information.
- diddypiddy 2y ago
  We live in a world where wealth is increasingly being concentrated at the top, social mobility for the average person is trending downwards, suicide rates in the US are at all-time highs, drug abuse rising, general deaths of despair rising, mental illness rising, climate and ecological catastrophes mounting by unchecked greed and all of this AI crap is mostly in the hands of the powerful who will use it to solidify the trends of the things I've mentioned above. Which begs the question, what kind of society is this to be excited about? Great if you live in a bubble unaffected by the above, but for the rest of us, the society sucks.
  - fullofideas 2y ago
    I am not discounting what you said about wealth concentration and upward mobility, but the top post that started this thread is surely a counter example for what you are saying? Yes, the makers of openai/gemini/whatever could power such ai tutors, and make more money, but there are legit cases where this will be an enormous boost that was unthinkable just a few years ago.
  - megaman821 2y ago
    The average person has a higher standard of living and more wealth than ever before. Suicide rates are not at all-time highs, they were much higher during the World Wars and Great Depression. Drug abuse is down too, but newer drugs are more potent. Mental illness is a hard stat to compare over time since it is very sensitive to the collection mechanisms. The growth of carbon-free technologies has been exponential over the last few decades. Open(source?) AI models trail the leading closed models by 6-12 months, it's hard to say they are only in the hands of the most powerful. The world is better than ever before, but it could be even better. The internet is filled with too many doomerist takes.
jjice 2y ago
Khan Academy is a treasure of a service. Probably my favorite non-profit out there. High quality information with low barrier to entry. It got me through Calculus, Calc 2, and Linear Algebra.
- 7thpower 2y ago
  I tell basically every parent I meet about it with the enthusiasm of Tom cruise jumping on Oprah’s couch.
  - pjmorris 2y ago
    So does my wife; she's a high-school guidance counselor.
meetingthrower 2y ago
Love to see this - a miracle! We used it to partially homeschool a kid in math, then he graduated to SAT prep for himself, etc. Totally free. What a gift to the world.
keybored 2y ago
> Now I work in AI So it goes.
tomjen3 2y ago
Have you written that story to Khan academy?
- 7thpower 2y ago
  I started to, but then never completed it. Typical dropout behavior ;)
siamese_puff 2y ago
That’s pretty impressive. Any chance you can shed light on the feasibility of this for a standard high school dropout? Did you have certain luxuries from family or otherwise that made this possible? I’m mostly asking to learn how the US system (assuming you’re in the US) supports folks taking this path.
- 7thpower 2y ago
  I definitely had advantages in that I knew tools like Khan Academy existed, was not battling depression, and also had talked to people who I admired and saw they were not so different than me. I also had a mother who loved me and a step-father who came into my life a bit later who cared, but they were dealing with some pretty big challenges of their own, including mental health, bad relationships, debt, children who were in and out of jail, and everything that comes with that. I do not like to spend too much time focused on race, but I am a white male, which was also an advantage. At the time I was leveraging Khan Academy I was around 24, had distanced myself from the people I had grown up with who were not on a positive track. I also don't know how, but somehow I got it in my head that finance was the universal language and that learning more about finance was the key to understanding more about the world. So I was very focused on that. I had no clue what economics was at the time, but once I learned about that, I was addicted. Finding topics like that deeply interesting is a HUGE advantage. At that time, I was living on my own and had a stable job managing a department at Home Depot. I slept on an air mattress and didn't have any money to speak of, but I had enough time on my hands that I could spend time at a coffee shop after work and on my days off working my way through the knowledge map on KA, starting with long division (which was humiliating) and learning how to do everything by hand, and then progressing from topic to topic. My goal was to not have to take a remedial math class at the local junior college (2 year colleges in the US). I spent months mastering basic math and worked my way to more advanced topics (1 million energy points on KA, not sure if that's a lot but I'm still proud of it). One last advantage I had was that I genuinely enjoyed learning and talking to people, and it showed. And I was young. So people were willing to take the risk. Many people were willing to give me a chance, encouragement, and their time as I was making my way through school. If I had a question or was interested in a career or topic, I would just ask someone if I could call them or shadow them, and most the time they would say yes. I had nothing to lose by asking, and was always amazed how often it worked. I try to share this with others who were in my position so they know it is possible. Thank you for asking.
no_wizard 2y ago
> Every time I go to the grocery store to buy something and don’t have to worry about my card being declined, it feels like magic. Even years later. 100% with you here! Grew up in poverty, fought for myself and clawed my way out into a wonderful career as a software engineer. This one still hits every time, even for me, over a decade later. The other one for me is petty cash. I looked in my wallet the other day and I had $100 in it. That is still wild to me to walk around with $100 dollars without even really consciously realizing its there. I use to rush to put all unused cash into my bank account to make sure my balance was always as high as it could be just in case. Went through a can collection phase too. Sometimes it was the only way I'd eat. Here's to better life circumstances! And may it continue for us from here on out.
- devoutsalsa 2y ago
  It wasn't that ago when I has figured out how to mix/max overdraft checking because I was so damn broke. I'd over draw my account by $980, the overdraft fee was $20, and my account would be -$1000. Then 29 days later, I'd get a cash advance on my credit card, pay bring the checking account up to $0, and then make a payment to the credit card company for $980. I was slowly digging myself deeper into a hole just so I could hang onto having a bank account.
  - beavis000 2y ago
    you'll enjoy this Louis CK bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_-1l_SlA7c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_-1l_SlA7c
- datavirtue 2y ago
  I used to have a site up that yielded about $100 a month from AdSense. That enabled me to make my house payment more than a few times.
spaceman_2020 2y ago
Growing up, I had a strong aptitude for both math and literature. I loved writing and reading. Also loved doing math, especially algebra. But I grew up before YouTube or even broadband, and I had very limited access to quality math resources. Otoh, we had a pretty nicely stocked library at home and I could read all the literature I ever wanted to read. I ended up majoring in English. Although I now work in the tech field, I’m not deeply technical and my math knowledge is effectively stuck at freshmen college level. I wonder what my life trajectory would have been like if I had access to teachers like Sal Khan - or even YouTube - back then. Young people today are blessed. They can learn from the best, often for free.
- 7thpower 2y ago
  I do not think people understand or appreciate what a truly fundamental shift that access to zero marginal cost instruction has been (including YouTube, etc.). It is a tool that humanity still has not figured out how to take advantage of at scale, we’re in the early days and it will take time.
  - passion__desire 2y ago
    > It is a tool that humanity still has not figured out how to take advantage of at scale I blame shitty recommendation system of Youtube for not making it easily available. They have high engagement sections like Gaming etc but not Education. Just goes on to show their priorities.
    - idiotsecant 2y ago
      They could reccomend calculus videos all day long, people will ignore them and watch the stuff they find entertaining. Its not YouTube's job to rush behaviours down users throats. If they want to learn calculus, its there.
      - passion__desire 2y ago
        Well if there can be a dedicated google scholar, why not the same for education. In the mobile, when one clicks on the compass icon, I get suggestions for gaming but not the same education. This is hypocrisy.
aleph_minus_one 2y ago
> Every time I go to the grocery store to buy something and don’t have to worry about my card being declined, it feels like magic. Even years later. Pay cash: it's much more privacy-conscious - and you don't have to worry about your card being declined. :-)
- motoxpro 2y ago
  Card was declined because they had no cash :)
EarthAmbassador 2y ago
Not so fast: my daughter could not afford Khan’s tutoring service at a crucial time in her development. I was out of work, had depleted our savings supporting the family, and couldn’t afford it. I pleaded for a waiver. The answer was no and basically “go eff myself.” My daughter lost all confidence in her math aptitude. Her teachers never alerted us as parents about her progress. We’ve been repairing the damage ever since.
- 7thpower 2y ago
  They have actual tutors that you pay??
  - glompers 2y ago
    GP may be referring to Khan Academy affiliated but offline Khan Lab School. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Lab_School https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Lab_School
mrdevlar 2y ago
I had the same thing, I relearned all my mathematics from grade school to calculus when I was in my 30s so I could go get a degree. Khan literally changed my life for the better. I also think his take is the correct one. AI's future in custom education is beyond anything else. It can teach it to you using the concepts you have available.
- 7thpower 2y ago
  Fam! Love it! I hope life is treating you well.
oulipo 2y ago
Well, that's great. Now in Europe, we fund the government through taxes so that the public education system can do for EVERYONE what Sal Khan did for YOU So then you no longer have to worry about what your children can do in their lives
- robertlagrant 2y ago
  What does this mean? OP went to high school, but dropped out. How does how education is paid affect this?
- ttrmw 2y ago
  meanwhile also in Europe, we fund public education systems that do not do for everyone what Sal Khan does for everyone
- 7thpower 2y ago
  The EU has a system that allows people to get an education, at their own pace, even after they have been adults for some time? My situation was not a failure of our education system. I was just not in a situation that was stable and conducive to learning when I was young. Part of that was my parent’s fault, but they were doing the best they could; part of that was my fault, there are many things I could’ve approached differently. Although we were poor by US standards at the time, I actually was on the edge of a great school district for most of my early education. A school system was not going to fix the problems, both situational and self inflicted, that lead to my situation. And there is no equivalent to what Khan Academy is doing that I am aware of. Part of the value is it has zero marginal cost, so anyone can use it. That’s actually the point. You don’t have to be in the EU to get a great education. You can be in Mauritania, as long as you have internet, you have a shot at receiving an education.
vijucat 2y ago
I love such stories. Thanks for sharing. I'd be super glad to read about your process, your note-taking techniques, etc if you ever write a blog post about it!
- 7thpower 2y ago
  I should do that. Will post it to my twitter (in my profile) if I do. Honestly i wrote as many notes as I could in a way that someone else could pick up and understand and the main thing I stuck to was never using a calculator until I absolutely had to, even if it was slower, so I could build a stronger foundation. I’m not sure I ever looked at the notes though. And then I was just very disciplined about spending a few hours a day, every day, for a few months, drilling course by course, and didn’t skip anything in the knowledge map (at the time). I still make time every weekend to learn something new or work on a challenging project for a couple hours a day while my little girls are napping.
  - vijucat 2y ago
    Love the work ethic, thanks!
BurningFrog 2y ago
I think we can be damn proud that Software Engineering is still open to anyone who can do the job, whether they have a formal degree or not! Almost all other high paying professions are locked away.
- 7thpower 2y ago
  I think this is mostly true. IT/Software in general are a lot less focused on proxies for success than other fields, I think that is largely because it is much easier for individuals to learn skills outside of a professional setting, it is also much easier to validate knowledge and competency than in other fields; and, of course, there are many other factors such as a more progressive workforce, etc. I was very lucky to have a professor who pulled me aside and steered toward IS. Once I got my first post-degree job, the company I worked for was happy to help me develop technical competency.
- spaduf 2y ago
  Things have definitely changed for the worse in the past few years. You won't hear anybody with a similar story coming into the field today.

sonabinu 2y ago

A very powerful story! thanks for sharing

bertil 2y ago
I have significant concern about this—that it is a story. I don’t doubt that it’s true in OC’s case. But I don’t think it’s representative of the impact of technology. It’s the example that will get Bill Gates’ attention and end up on the stage at TED, but it might not be representative of 90% of how people are affected by technology. It might, and the story of how videos will change how people relate to each other (what made Chris Anderson buy TED, what Salman Khan has built, what Grant Sanderson a.k.a, 3blue1brown has done). It is true, anecdotally. It is a fantastic, compelling, clear story. I love that story: video is the easiest way to share any practice; people watch, learn, practice, and get good at something no one in their village knew was possible. Hurray. But when I trained as a statistician, i.e., epistemologically someone working for the state, I was told I was the opposite of a journalist: my job is not to tell stories that explain what a problem is. My job is to tell the boss how common that story really is. A story tells all the details to pull your emotions, and journalists (at the time, at least) were telling fact-check, double-verified stories. “Truth” wasn’t our goal. It is too easy to get numbers that argue for any position. Representative was what we were told we should be aiming for—so that the government makes the right decision. I’m not seeing a lot of “representative” here.
- rramadass 2y ago
  > I have significant concern about this—that it is a story. Your concerns are very correct but while you are willing to give him/her the benefit of the doubt, I am very very skeptical of their story; it sounds "too pat" and made up. If you look at their other replies there are too many incongruities and "movie plot tropes". I have a better chance of winning the lottery than "learning mathematics starting from long division and progressing to a good job in the current hot market of AI/ML while working at Home Depot, sleeping on a air mattress, with almost no money and a dysfunctional family, studying at coffee shops and rising through a bunch of roles starting from lowly corporate IT into high-paying data science/ML and leading teams". It is all just a bit too much and beggars belief.
  - squigz 2y ago
    I genuinely don't know why you have a hard time believing that chain of events. It's really not that uncommon. What "movie tropes" are you talking about that aren't just... extremely common real life things? Sleeping on an air mattress? Working at Home Depot? Teaching yourself a skill and working your way up to a respectable position?
    - rramadass 2y ago
      Each event by itself may not be uncommon (but some like learning mathematics from absolute basics to AI/ML requirements via just Khan Academy is well-nigh impossible) but all together happening to one person which led to the claimed outcome is very very highly improbable. Real life doesn't work that way; time, energy(i.e. effort), money are all finite and wax/wane with context/environment and defines success/failure. Also speaking from my own experience, early in my career for about 3-4 years i lived alone, working a software engineer job by day and attending a computer science course/labs in evening/weekends. The lack of proper sleep/rest/nutrition, constant stress due to work and studies almost broke me. Thankfully i managed to get through that (mainly due to my robust health) but it made me realize that if you don't have a supporting family, proper nutrition/sleep and some sort of support system (i.e. family/friends) to encourage/emphathize/push/pull you as needed there is no way for an average person to overcome all hurdles particularly when they come at you all at once. There is a reason it is impossible to get out of poverty just based on your own efforts without somebody external actively lending you a helping hand via money/opportunity etc. As the saying goes; "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_claims_require_extraordinary_evidence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_claims_require_e...

Hypocritelefty 2y ago

[dead]

piker 2y ago

> Every time I go to the grocery store to buy something and don’t have to worry about my card being declined, it feels like magic. Even years later. So this is universal!

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
tptacek 2y ago
I'm almost 30 years from anything resembling precarity and I still subtly cross myself almost every time I swipe a card at the grocery store.
- barrenko 2y ago
  Just did this a minute ago!
- fragmede 2y ago
  the real question is how many backups do your carry in case the first one doesn't work, and I'm not asking about credit card point games
- labster 2y ago
  I doubt God carries much sway with the credit card companies. Maybe try the other guy.
  - pfannkuchen 2y ago
    He didn’t specify a directionality.
- thom 2y ago
  Removing this anxiety was one of the most unexpectedly powerful changes in my life. And then in a moment of hubris I signed up for an American Express card and now have to relive it every time because a good portion of vendors in the UK don’t take it.
2y ago

doctoboggan 2y ago

Impressive! You should give yourself more credit as it takes more than just internet and patience to teach yourself enough to get into college. I am also excited for society. However I am worried as well. While an AI tutor who is able to understand the child's current knowledge and gear the lessons toward what will make the most sense will be very powerful, it could also be used for brainwashing, propaganda, misinformation, etc. While we've invented a better way to transfer knowledge, we haven't removed the human desire to control information.

diddypiddy 2y ago
We live in a world where wealth is increasingly being concentrated at the top, social mobility for the average person is trending downwards, suicide rates in the US are at all-time highs, drug abuse rising, general deaths of despair rising, mental illness rising, climate and ecological catastrophes mounting by unchecked greed and all of this AI crap is mostly in the hands of the powerful who will use it to solidify the trends of the things I've mentioned above. Which begs the question, what kind of society is this to be excited about? Great if you live in a bubble unaffected by the above, but for the rest of us, the society sucks.
- fullofideas 2y ago
  I am not discounting what you said about wealth concentration and upward mobility, but the top post that started this thread is surely a counter example for what you are saying? Yes, the makers of openai/gemini/whatever could power such ai tutors, and make more money, but there are legit cases where this will be an enormous boost that was unthinkable just a few years ago.
- megaman821 2y ago
  The average person has a higher standard of living and more wealth than ever before. Suicide rates are not at all-time highs, they were much higher during the World Wars and Great Depression. Drug abuse is down too, but newer drugs are more potent. Mental illness is a hard stat to compare over time since it is very sensitive to the collection mechanisms. The growth of carbon-free technologies has been exponential over the last few decades. Open(source?) AI models trail the leading closed models by 6-12 months, it's hard to say they are only in the hands of the most powerful. The world is better than ever before, but it could be even better. The internet is filled with too many doomerist takes.

jjice 2y ago

Khan Academy is a treasure of a service. Probably my favorite non-profit out there. High quality information with low barrier to entry. It got me through Calculus, Calc 2, and Linear Algebra.

7thpower 2y ago
I tell basically every parent I meet about it with the enthusiasm of Tom cruise jumping on Oprah’s couch.
- pjmorris 2y ago
  So does my wife; she's a high-school guidance counselor.

meetingthrower 2y ago

Love to see this - a miracle! We used it to partially homeschool a kid in math, then he graduated to SAT prep for himself, etc. Totally free. What a gift to the world.

keybored 2y ago

> Now I work in AI So it goes.

tomjen3 2y ago

Have you written that story to Khan academy?

7thpower 2y ago
I started to, but then never completed it. Typical dropout behavior ;)

siamese_puff 2y ago

That’s pretty impressive. Any chance you can shed light on the feasibility of this for a standard high school dropout? Did you have certain luxuries from family or otherwise that made this possible? I’m mostly asking to learn how the US system (assuming you’re in the US) supports folks taking this path.

7thpower 2y ago
I definitely had advantages in that I knew tools like Khan Academy existed, was not battling depression, and also had talked to people who I admired and saw they were not so different than me. I also had a mother who loved me and a step-father who came into my life a bit later who cared, but they were dealing with some pretty big challenges of their own, including mental health, bad relationships, debt, children who were in and out of jail, and everything that comes with that. I do not like to spend too much time focused on race, but I am a white male, which was also an advantage. At the time I was leveraging Khan Academy I was around 24, had distanced myself from the people I had grown up with who were not on a positive track. I also don't know how, but somehow I got it in my head that finance was the universal language and that learning more about finance was the key to understanding more about the world. So I was very focused on that. I had no clue what economics was at the time, but once I learned about that, I was addicted. Finding topics like that deeply interesting is a HUGE advantage. At that time, I was living on my own and had a stable job managing a department at Home Depot. I slept on an air mattress and didn't have any money to speak of, but I had enough time on my hands that I could spend time at a coffee shop after work and on my days off working my way through the knowledge map on KA, starting with long division (which was humiliating) and learning how to do everything by hand, and then progressing from topic to topic. My goal was to not have to take a remedial math class at the local junior college (2 year colleges in the US). I spent months mastering basic math and worked my way to more advanced topics (1 million energy points on KA, not sure if that's a lot but I'm still proud of it). One last advantage I had was that I genuinely enjoyed learning and talking to people, and it showed. And I was young. So people were willing to take the risk. Many people were willing to give me a chance, encouragement, and their time as I was making my way through school. If I had a question or was interested in a career or topic, I would just ask someone if I could call them or shadow them, and most the time they would say yes. I had nothing to lose by asking, and was always amazed how often it worked. I try to share this with others who were in my position so they know it is possible. Thank you for asking.

no_wizard 2y ago

> Every time I go to the grocery store to buy something and don’t have to worry about my card being declined, it feels like magic. Even years later. 100% with you here! Grew up in poverty, fought for myself and clawed my way out into a wonderful career as a software engineer. This one still hits every time, even for me, over a decade later. The other one for me is petty cash. I looked in my wallet the other day and I had $100 in it. That is still wild to me to walk around with $100 dollars without even really consciously realizing its there. I use to rush to put all unused cash into my bank account to make sure my balance was always as high as it could be just in case. Went through a can collection phase too. Sometimes it was the only way I'd eat. Here's to better life circumstances! And may it continue for us from here on out.

devoutsalsa 2y ago
It wasn't that ago when I has figured out how to mix/max overdraft checking because I was so damn broke. I'd over draw my account by $980, the overdraft fee was $20, and my account would be -$1000. Then 29 days later, I'd get a cash advance on my credit card, pay bring the checking account up to $0, and then make a payment to the credit card company for $980. I was slowly digging myself deeper into a hole just so I could hang onto having a bank account.
- beavis000 2y ago
  you'll enjoy this Louis CK bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_-1l_SlA7c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_-1l_SlA7c
datavirtue 2y ago
I used to have a site up that yielded about $100 a month from AdSense. That enabled me to make my house payment more than a few times.

spaceman_2020 2y ago

Growing up, I had a strong aptitude for both math and literature. I loved writing and reading. Also loved doing math, especially algebra. But I grew up before YouTube or even broadband, and I had very limited access to quality math resources. Otoh, we had a pretty nicely stocked library at home and I could read all the literature I ever wanted to read. I ended up majoring in English. Although I now work in the tech field, I’m not deeply technical and my math knowledge is effectively stuck at freshmen college level. I wonder what my life trajectory would have been like if I had access to teachers like Sal Khan - or even YouTube - back then. Young people today are blessed. They can learn from the best, often for free.

7thpower 2y ago
I do not think people understand or appreciate what a truly fundamental shift that access to zero marginal cost instruction has been (including YouTube, etc.). It is a tool that humanity still has not figured out how to take advantage of at scale, we’re in the early days and it will take time.
- passion__desire 2y ago
  > It is a tool that humanity still has not figured out how to take advantage of at scale I blame shitty recommendation system of Youtube for not making it easily available. They have high engagement sections like Gaming etc but not Education. Just goes on to show their priorities.
  - idiotsecant 2y ago
    They could reccomend calculus videos all day long, people will ignore them and watch the stuff they find entertaining. Its not YouTube's job to rush behaviours down users throats. If they want to learn calculus, its there.
    - passion__desire 2y ago
      Well if there can be a dedicated google scholar, why not the same for education. In the mobile, when one clicks on the compass icon, I get suggestions for gaming but not the same education. This is hypocrisy.

aleph_minus_one 2y ago

> Every time I go to the grocery store to buy something and don’t have to worry about my card being declined, it feels like magic. Even years later. Pay cash: it's much more privacy-conscious - and you don't have to worry about your card being declined. :-)

motoxpro 2y ago
Card was declined because they had no cash :)

EarthAmbassador 2y ago

Not so fast: my daughter could not afford Khan’s tutoring service at a crucial time in her development. I was out of work, had depleted our savings supporting the family, and couldn’t afford it. I pleaded for a waiver. The answer was no and basically “go eff myself.” My daughter lost all confidence in her math aptitude. Her teachers never alerted us as parents about her progress. We’ve been repairing the damage ever since.

7thpower 2y ago
They have actual tutors that you pay??
- glompers 2y ago
  GP may be referring to Khan Academy affiliated but offline Khan Lab School. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Lab_School https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Lab_School

mrdevlar 2y ago

I had the same thing, I relearned all my mathematics from grade school to calculus when I was in my 30s so I could go get a degree. Khan literally changed my life for the better. I also think his take is the correct one. AI's future in custom education is beyond anything else. It can teach it to you using the concepts you have available.

7thpower 2y ago
Fam! Love it! I hope life is treating you well.

oulipo 2y ago

Well, that's great. Now in Europe, we fund the government through taxes so that the public education system can do for EVERYONE what Sal Khan did for YOU So then you no longer have to worry about what your children can do in their lives

robertlagrant 2y ago
What does this mean? OP went to high school, but dropped out. How does how education is paid affect this?
ttrmw 2y ago
meanwhile also in Europe, we fund public education systems that do not do for everyone what Sal Khan does for everyone
7thpower 2y ago
The EU has a system that allows people to get an education, at their own pace, even after they have been adults for some time? My situation was not a failure of our education system. I was just not in a situation that was stable and conducive to learning when I was young. Part of that was my parent’s fault, but they were doing the best they could; part of that was my fault, there are many things I could’ve approached differently. Although we were poor by US standards at the time, I actually was on the edge of a great school district for most of my early education. A school system was not going to fix the problems, both situational and self inflicted, that lead to my situation. And there is no equivalent to what Khan Academy is doing that I am aware of. Part of the value is it has zero marginal cost, so anyone can use it. That’s actually the point. You don’t have to be in the EU to get a great education. You can be in Mauritania, as long as you have internet, you have a shot at receiving an education.

vijucat 2y ago

I love such stories. Thanks for sharing. I'd be super glad to read about your process, your note-taking techniques, etc if you ever write a blog post about it!

7thpower 2y ago
I should do that. Will post it to my twitter (in my profile) if I do. Honestly i wrote as many notes as I could in a way that someone else could pick up and understand and the main thing I stuck to was never using a calculator until I absolutely had to, even if it was slower, so I could build a stronger foundation. I’m not sure I ever looked at the notes though. And then I was just very disciplined about spending a few hours a day, every day, for a few months, drilling course by course, and didn’t skip anything in the knowledge map (at the time). I still make time every weekend to learn something new or work on a challenging project for a couple hours a day while my little girls are napping.
- vijucat 2y ago
  Love the work ethic, thanks!

BurningFrog 2y ago

I think we can be damn proud that Software Engineering is still open to anyone who can do the job, whether they have a formal degree or not! Almost all other high paying professions are locked away.

7thpower 2y ago
I think this is mostly true. IT/Software in general are a lot less focused on proxies for success than other fields, I think that is largely because it is much easier for individuals to learn skills outside of a professional setting, it is also much easier to validate knowledge and competency than in other fields; and, of course, there are many other factors such as a more progressive workforce, etc. I was very lucky to have a professor who pulled me aside and steered toward IS. Once I got my first post-degree job, the company I worked for was happy to help me develop technical competency.
spaduf 2y ago
Things have definitely changed for the worse in the past few years. You won't hear anybody with a similar story coming into the field today.