
Canary in the Code Mine: Coal miners learning to code - wyclif
https://medium.com/backchannel/canary-in-the-code-mine-903884eca853
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sprkyco
After eight years in mining I made the jump to coding. However, my coding
quickly changed to infosec. So definitely miners can make this jump. This is
highly biased, but I would say that many blue collar workers bring a very
different work ethic as compared to other workers in the software industry.
Miners especially have a comradery that I have not heard of in other
industries. In addition to this 80+ hour work weeks were definitely the norm
in many mining industries. This type of work ethic has somewhat set me apart
from many of my peers.

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socialist_coder
I feel like your comment and the article in question are completely anecdotal.
Sure, a subset of miners can learn to code. You can't argue against that. But,
that really means absolutely nothing to the big picture.

The real question is, what percentage of the entire out-of-work blue collar
worker population can make the jump? I would agree with Bloomberg, it's
probably fairly low.

But, I might not be fully recognizing the software engineering jobs from huge
companies that are vastly less demanding than your typical SV "rock star
developer" job. Maybe there is enough of a market there...

~~~
user_0001
> Sure, a subset of miners can learn to code.

Anyone can learn to code, it isn't hard what we do. Granted some do push the
boundaries, but that is a tiny % of what actual programmers do

~~~
RogtamBar
>Anyone can learn to code, it isn't hard what we do. Granted some do push the
boundaries, but that is a tiny % of what actual programmers do

Anyone?

I attended a selective prep school. Something like 99% of people there went on
to university.

Certain students, who'd later finish say, medical school, and go on and be
doctors, were completely unable to 'get' coding. Really basic stuff, some
Pascal. Mostly women.

They treated it as 'magic'. Couldn't do anything on their own really, even
though both teachers and boys tried to explain.

And here it was students at a selective preparatory school. Above average
intelligence mostly, in a genetically privileged region(eastern Europe).

"Anyone"...

..sigh.

~~~
querulous
They failed because they thought it was magic and probably no one ever stopped
to show them that it wasn't.

The skills necessary to be an average developer are pretty minimal. Basic
math, literacy, organization, basic problem solving, patience and persistence.
Communication helps but it's obviously not a requirement as you've displayed.

~~~
RogtamBar
>The skills necessary to be an average developer are pretty minimal. Basic
math, literacy, organization, basic problem solving, patience and persistence.
Communication helps but it's obviously not a requirement as you've displayed.

I'm skeptical of this.

All of the things you say are things an average IQ person could have.

Are there any established developers with an IQ of 100? Possibly, but very
few. IQ correlates very well with the ability to solve complex problems, which
means there are few average IQ people who can solve such problems.

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lsiunsuex
I really liked this article. My father has been a blue collar worker his
entire life and I've considered teaching him how to code in the past to help
me on freelance work / side projects.

This really opened my eyes. He spent so much of his time teaching me how to
change breaks on a car, change oil, hang drywall in my house, do plumbing, lay
brick and pour concrete and any number of things I've done to my house - it's
time to circle back and teach him what I do and extend his working career a
bit. He's never had a hard time looking for a job; but why wait until he has
to.

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anonymous30
Coal miners could probably "learn to dent" too, but dentists have set it up so
dental school is expensive, exclusive, and requires a four-year degree to gain
admission. That's why the cost of dental care is soaring and the median salary
for dentists in the US is now $140-150k[1] a year. By contrast, the wages of
software engineers (sorry, coders) have been flat for decades, despite a
supposedly dire "skills gap" that tech companies cite as justification for
expanding the H-1B visa program and making "coding" part of public school
curricula.

[1] [http://money.usnews.com/careers/best-
jobs/dentist/salary](http://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/dentist/salary)

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voltagex_
>But it’s just as important that they screw around with Unity in their spare
time. It’s just as important they know he’s speaking emoji when he says “sad
face” in a sentence, and that they crack up at programmer memes. It’s the
subtler side of coder culture, the exuberant and unrepentant nerdom. And it
turns out the assessment was incredibly adept at finding the miners who could
be part of the club.

Blech. I know what they're getting at but programmer in jokes? Really? I don't
think that's what we need more of.

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mindcrime
This is a very inspiring story. As a reminder though, this kind of "rural
sourcing" isn't a totally new concept.

[https://www.google.com/search?q=ruralsourcing](https://www.google.com/search?q=ruralsourcing)

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mathgenius
I conjecture that if you take any random subset of the population, about 10%
of them will be able to program. It's a curious bug that seems to afflict
certain people for no apparent reason and spare others.

But the beards will definitely help, that's for sure.

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Maken
When did exactly "programmers" become "coders" and why?

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rjsw
When journalists started worrying about their job security.

