

Finding the unjustly homeless and teaching them to code - chrisdinn
https://medium.com/architecting-a-life/fee8f3ee97a0

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gamblor956
This is blogpost demonstrates everything wrong with the Silicon Valley
mentality and is actually quite insulting. I hope it's sarcasm.

Programming is not a magical cure to all of life's problems. In time, it will
be just as necessary a skill as writing is today, and it will pay just as much
(which is to say, very little for most, and very well for a few). The $100
means more to the homeless guy than 3 javascript textooks he can't sell, and
probably can't read once night hits, and which he almost certainly can't put
into practice because _he lacks a computer_.

Most homeless folks' biggest problem is not their lack of employment, but that
they usually suffer from severe mental disorders or substance dependencies. If
they weren't sick, they amost certainly _wouldn 't_ be homeless.

Every time I see an inane blogpost like this, I feel like smacking some sense
into the overprivileged idiot who wrote it.

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majugi
It's really quite unbelievable. I was expecting the article to at least be
about how the author actually helped someone learn to code. Even then, the
title and presentation would seem smug and self-serving to me, but I could
overlook that for the feel-good story. However, what's actually written is far
worse: this post is being written without the author having approached the man
or knowing anything about him at all aside from a superficial judgement of
"drive". Then there's the straight-from-a-reality-show choice of $100 versus
books and a laptop; but it's okay, because this choice will be offered
"without disrespecting him".

I'm all for philanthropy, and it's always great that someone's willing to put
their time and money into helping others, but this really comes across as more
of an art performance than genuine help. Isn't it basic courtesy to talk to
someone before writing a blog post about how you're going to reform their
sorry life with your programming teaching skill?

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rsofaer
I'm so glad that Mr. McConlogue can tell the justly homeless from the unjustly
homeless.

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jacknews
The "unjustly" homeless? WTF? What justifies someone being homeless? The only
justification in a reasonable society is that they actively choose to live
that lifestyle. Poor life-choices, lack of planning, exposure to addictive
substances are not justifications, just excuses for society to dispense with
it's duty to care for fellow humans.

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jyz
I would be curious to know the results of this. There needs to be meetups set
up for this purpose. Nowadays in the bay area, there are too many useless
networking events, there needs to be more initiatives that actually make a
difference.

