I went to the library and did a small experiment; what could I do if I were to start with nearly nothing? Ignoring my library card sitting in my pocket, I went up to the librarian and asked for access to the public computer.
Were you wearing clothes? What would the librarian's response have been if a naked person walked up and asked to use the computer? Had you showered or bathed recently? What would the librarian's response have been if smelled of body odor? Was your stomach full while you were learning Github and Heroku? How much could you have learned if you were constantly racked by hunger pangs.
Yes, there are ways if you have some money to make it go farther and learn new skills relatively cheaply. However, to say that this is an illustration of wealth irrelevance is really pushing it.
On that practical level, public libraries in some of the places with the most need for public computer/internet services also, unfortunately, end up rationing them pretty severely. For example, the Los Angeles library's computer use policies are [1]: 15 minute sessions for walk-up computers (no card needed); 1 hour sessions if reserved in advance and you have a library card; 2 hours/day total limit for any combination.
I know this in part because I'm a middle-class CS prof whose stuff is all "on the internet". At one point I had the great idea that I don't need to carry around a laptop, since my stuff is all on the internet anyway. I'll just use public libraries, or other university libraries, problem solved. Sometimes it works, but there are obstacles strewn all about. On a side note, it's also made me appreciate physical books in libraries more. If you really did want to learn something and had $0 to spend, and you can find a physical book on the shelf of a public library, you can read it for as long as the library is open, without a card or 15-minute time limit.
(Edit: I realize the original post was going for something more philosophical, and I see they commented in a sibling comment that they're sorry if they came across as tone deaf. I don't mean to pile on! But wanted to point out that just the bare practical aspect can surprisingly difficult even if you know what you're doing.)
I was wrong to assume how access is treated in different places. I'm a poor immigrate but been fortunate to have lived my life in a relatively wealthy county in New Jersey where libraries are much more laxed. What can be done to give hope to those without forgoing the practical aspect completely? While those who have the resources to, should; what can those that don't do if they wanted to try and improve, it can't be completely hopeless?
Wealth is very important, especially at the level. I was trying to avoid that scenario with "nearly nothing" instead of "nothing" but I failed. Do you have recommendations to better phrase it? I was thinking more like freshmen in college, or people in some minimal wage job seeing to get out and trying to get things done but seeing like huge fees like Bootcamps and AWS and feel discouraged but still able to afford look at goals in a different light besides getting rent in and ensuring they have enough to eat, it's entire different beast at the level I'm not familiar with talking about.
people in some minimal wage job seeing to get out and trying to get things done
Someone in a minimum wage job would possibly be trying to work overtime or a second job in order to make ends meet, and would have very little time/energy left over to do anything, let alone figure out how to break into the world of software development. Even considering a happy path where someone works ~40 hours/week, has a short commute, and doesn't have dependents to care for, it can still be incredibly challenging to muster the focus necessary to self-tech programming.
I understand that the resources to become successful at software development are freely available, but this post glosses over all the prerequisites (as pointed out by some other comments): ample free time (for years), a growth mindset, intelligence, resourcefulness, etc. If somebody already possesses all those things, then the idea that they can teach themselves valuable skills online would be helpful (if not obvious).
As you said, somebody couldn't accomplish this goal starting from literally "nothing". It might be helpful to identify and delineate what _is_ required to embark on such a journey. That way people who tick a lot of the boxes will feel empowered, and those that don't will have an idea of what it takes to get there.
Do you have any suggestions on how to start delineating those requirements? You're right that there's a lot of implicit prerequisites but felt the message would get lost if I jumped the rabbit hole from the beginning. I knew fellow immigrates who never used a computer in their life and this was definitely out of their scope unless I started with the basics but I was mainly trying to target other people reading Hackernews in their free time. How can I better address those issues in a way that isn't limited?
Comments
Were you wearing clothes? What would the librarian's response have been if a naked person walked up and asked to use the computer? Had you showered or bathed recently? What would the librarian's response have been if smelled of body odor? Was your stomach full while you were learning Github and Heroku? How much could you have learned if you were constantly racked by hunger pangs.
Yes, there are ways if you have some money to make it go farther and learn new skills relatively cheaply. However, to say that this is an illustration of wealth irrelevance is really pushing it.
On that practical level, public libraries in some of the places with the most need for public computer/internet services also, unfortunately, end up rationing them pretty severely. For example, the Los Angeles library's computer use policies are [1]: 15 minute sessions for walk-up computers (no card needed); 1 hour sessions if reserved in advance and you have a library card; 2 hours/day total limit for any combination.
I know this in part because I'm a middle-class CS prof whose stuff is all "on the internet". At one point I had the great idea that I don't need to carry around a laptop, since my stuff is all on the internet anyway. I'll just use public libraries, or other university libraries, problem solved. Sometimes it works, but there are obstacles strewn all about. On a side note, it's also made me appreciate physical books in libraries more. If you really did want to learn something and had $0 to spend, and you can find a physical book on the shelf of a public library, you can read it for as long as the library is open, without a card or 15-minute time limit.
[1] https://www.lapl.org/about-lapl/internet-use-policy
(Edit: I realize the original post was going for something more philosophical, and I see they commented in a sibling comment that they're sorry if they came across as tone deaf. I don't mean to pile on! But wanted to point out that just the bare practical aspect can surprisingly difficult even if you know what you're doing.)
I was wrong to assume how access is treated in different places. I'm a poor immigrate but been fortunate to have lived my life in a relatively wealthy county in New Jersey where libraries are much more laxed. What can be done to give hope to those without forgoing the practical aspect completely? While those who have the resources to, should; what can those that don't do if they wanted to try and improve, it can't be completely hopeless?
Wealth is very important, especially at the level. I was trying to avoid that scenario with "nearly nothing" instead of "nothing" but I failed. Do you have recommendations to better phrase it? I was thinking more like freshmen in college, or people in some minimal wage job seeing to get out and trying to get things done but seeing like huge fees like Bootcamps and AWS and feel discouraged but still able to afford look at goals in a different light besides getting rent in and ensuring they have enough to eat, it's entire different beast at the level I'm not familiar with talking about.
Someone in a minimum wage job would possibly be trying to work overtime or a second job in order to make ends meet, and would have very little time/energy left over to do anything, let alone figure out how to break into the world of software development. Even considering a happy path where someone works ~40 hours/week, has a short commute, and doesn't have dependents to care for, it can still be incredibly challenging to muster the focus necessary to self-tech programming.
I understand that the resources to become successful at software development are freely available, but this post glosses over all the prerequisites (as pointed out by some other comments): ample free time (for years), a growth mindset, intelligence, resourcefulness, etc. If somebody already possesses all those things, then the idea that they can teach themselves valuable skills online would be helpful (if not obvious).
As you said, somebody couldn't accomplish this goal starting from literally "nothing". It might be helpful to identify and delineate what _is_ required to embark on such a journey. That way people who tick a lot of the boxes will feel empowered, and those that don't will have an idea of what it takes to get there.
Do you have any suggestions on how to start delineating those requirements? You're right that there's a lot of implicit prerequisites but felt the message would get lost if I jumped the rabbit hole from the beginning. I knew fellow immigrates who never used a computer in their life and this was definitely out of their scope unless I started with the basics but I was mainly trying to target other people reading Hackernews in their free time. How can I better address those issues in a way that isn't limited?