

Ask HN: Do rich kids learn programming? - designium

I&#x27;m curious if people from rich family background go to learn programming and computer science or most CS &#x2F; programmers come from middle class or lower.
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arn
Strange question.

Of course "most" programmers come from middle class or lower, as "most" people
are probably in your definition of middle/lower class.

What's your definition of "rich"?

If you consider "rich" to be in excess of $100 million net worth, and private
jets and stuff like that, then ya, maybe @nick2 is right.

If you consider "rich" to be in excess of $200k/year salary, and up to $10
million net worth... guessing there isn't a huge trend one way or the other.
But the general bias is probably towards the middle/upper class vs people who
are in the very lower class. Since having some resources (internet, computer,
education) is needed.

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jones1618
As a middle-class father of teenagers, I've looked into game development
summer camps (which sell out pretty quickly each season) and sadly concluded
that these are primarily a rich kid indulgence. Obviously, most middle class
families can't afford the fees but they'd be pocket change to wealthy families
and provide a place to send Johnny or Jane while Mom and Dad go on European
holiday.

Digital Media Academy :
[http://www.digitalmediaacademy.org/](http://www.digitalmediaacademy.org/) *
$1000-$2000 1 or 2-week course

iD Gaming Academy :
[http://www.internaldrive.com/idga/](http://www.internaldrive.com/idga/) *
$3,599-$3,799 2-week course

The bitter irony of these programs is that while they probably represent
merely "fun, free time" for rich kids, the same skills could be life-changing
for average or poor kids.

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garethsprice
Also curious about this topic but not much useful info will come from this
thread, it will be anecdotal at best.

My anecdote: grew up poor, started programming to build my own games as my
family couldn't afford new hardware. Built systems out of scavenged parts and
learned a lot about code optimization. Dev is the key factor that lifted me
from poverty in suburban England to a middle class life in NYC (and hopefully
beyond, should luck pan out).

Most of my peers appear to be from middle/upper middle class backgrounds, but
the (faux?) egalitarianism of tech would suggest that the sires of the
genuinely rich wouldn't flaunt it as everyone in this industry "made their own
success", right? ;)

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middlerichthrow
Upper middle class kid here. I've made a throwaway to avoid blacklisting,
because money does weird things to everyone.

Sure, I'm not in the 1%. But I'm from a well off family. In my room alone I
have 6 computers: a Macbook Air, an iMac, a high-end Ultrabook, two Windows 8
tablets, and a low-end HP Notebook running Ubuntu. Also a Raspberry Pi and an
Arduino.

I love programming. It isn't taught at my high school, so I have taught myself
since 3rd grade by reading textbooks on my own. I'd list my GitHub, but as I
said I don't want to be blacklisted.

So yes, I code. And I enjoy it.

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nick2
No, it would be a waste of time. When you have the money you can hire a
programmer to do it better and faster than you can ever do it. Programming is
a skill that takes many years to become really good at.

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adamnemecek
Could you pinpoint a single founder who did this? Non-technical and technical
cofounders combos do not count.

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dave809
A poll would probably work better for this

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wglb
Bill Gates was from a well-off family.

~~~
ashraful
So was Mark Zuckerberg. If you don't come from a well-to-do family its hard to
turn down a million dollars for a side project.

Look at the founders of Google, who came from middle class families, and would
have been more than happy to sell Google in the early days for even 1 million
dollars.

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31reasons
I believe they do as long as it makes them understand the world and business
they are in, not for becoming a programmer unless thats what they want to do.

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mattwritescode
Depends on your definition of rich and poor.

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Irishsteve
Because pcs used to be expensive?

