

Becoming a better Programmer: From Nairobi to NYC - francesca
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/becoming-a-better-programmer

======
GuiA
It's a cool campaign!

What's funny though, is that I want to contribute, but I'd rather contribute
in a more tangible way: i.e. buying her the laptop or plane ticket rather than
just putting money in the communal pot. For some reason, it'd make my
contribution feel more meaningful, more tangible. Like if she ends up building
a kickass startup 10 years from now, I'd get to say "Oh yeah, I gave her her
first laptop!" rather than "Oh yeah, I gave her 50$ via indiegogo".

Maybe there's room for such a model: a kickstarter style website where
individuals who need specific hardware/goods can get them purchased by third
parties.

Just musing around here.

~~~
MarthaChumo
Hey GuiA! I like you're thoughts! Especially on the laptop! The Acer Aspire
One netbook I bout with my savings when I started learning is making me go
bananas ;). I'd totally appreciate that contribution! Feel free to contact me
-> @NjeriChelimo on twitter. :)

About that kickass startup, it coming in _much_ less than 10 years!
#WatchThisGeekSpace ;)

Thanks for your support!

------
joonix
I hope she can get her tourist visa. It's by no means guaranteed, coming from
Kenya. I also hope there are mechanisms in place to return the funds to the
donors if she can't make it due to rejected visa.

~~~
desireco42
I really don't think I would want my money back. Good luck to her.

------
ashraful
A crowd-sourced scholarship fund would be a great addition to programs like
Hacker School. If Hacker School themselves handle giving out funds to
participants who have a financial need, a lot more people would benefit, even
those who don't have a social media presence or can't get to the HN front
page.

------
pyvek
I feel so genuinely happy for her seeing that the community is helping her
out. I also wanted to apply for Hacker School but it was way expensive so I
dropped the idea altogether. But now I think I am going to put in effort into
saving/earning the money to get there and apply for the next batch.

------
dysoco
Interesting, I didn't know that Hacker School was completly free, but given
that it has small room for new students... it can be complicated to get into.

Anyways I live 8600km away from New York, would be difficult :P

~~~
blaabjerg
Difficult, maybe, but seeing as you're commenting on an article about someone
who lives almost 12000 km away and is going, it's clearly not impossible :)

Unless you already live in NYC, your current location shouldn't be very
relevant.

------
psycr
Sounds like an exciting an opportunity. I'd love the chance to work with
someone like this some day, so chipping in is a no brainer. It also emphasizes
the most positive approach to engineer education.

Good luck!

------
rastasheep
After all there is justice in this world, i'am really happy about Martha.
Everyone should have a chance to learn, if they really want to do that.

------
danso
How exciting...Venturing not just into the hacker field, but to New York City
(I'm assuming for the first time). I wonder what it'd be like to try to learn
programming while traveling...my first thought was, this city is way too damn
distracting and tempting to be studious...on the other hand, the ease of
transportation and the diversity of activity has its upside for foreign
students

~~~
jdotjdot
I spent a lot of time learning programming while traveling (though not under
the same circumstances as this girl)--I did contract programming work while
traveling indefinitely, often learning as I go. You manage to find ways to
balance, especially since (in my case) if I didn't work, I wouldn't have any
money to eat or sleep.

The nice thing about it is that if you end up somewhere boring for a time,
it's almost a blessing, since you can focus more on programming and save the
exploration time for a better location.

------
kahawe
I am sorry, I HAVE to ask out of personal curiosity and to play devil's
advocate...

What tells me "Martha" even exists and that she was admitted to hackerschool
and will actually go to NYC with the money she just begged for? Even the
twitter and github accounts could be part of an elaborate scam. Plus she asked
for around $4000, by now has raised quite a bit more. Will that surplus be
donated to further her "cause" (if there even is one) and support other girls
to join her? Or is that just going to be nice pocket change?

To further satisfy my own curiosity, why is donating to her more "ok" and
others asking for money are just "beggars"? Or would you donate to some random
e.g. white guy who would ask for a couple of thousands for a nice trip like
that? Would you consider donating to a person who is in a stable living
condition but simply could not afford a trip to NYC or Berkeley? Or do you
have to be third world and implied broke to apply for that? Which I don't
think she is, by the way.

Also, why is "women in IT" a cause that even needs supporting? How would the
world be better off with more women in IT - when actually nothing is really
keeping most girls from getting into IT, unless there are local equal-rights
shortcomings to keep girls out of ALL education; in my own experience, for
whatever reason, most of the women I have met do not want to and actually say
they hate all that technical stuff. The ones that did want to start
programming, they worked hard at it and picked the right university;
unfortunately many of those who did simply failed the programming exams or
other technical courses. The remaining rest who wanted to be in IT and made
the cut, they are doing just fine... it's just a small percentage and I do not
think this is the case because anyone is actively keeping girls "out" - and I
doubt things are going to somehow be "better" if only there were more girls in
IT.

And aren't there local institutions to help people like her to further her
education? I am quite sure there have got to be, even in Africa. Even for nice
trips like that.

So, at the end of the day all I see so far is, you are supporting a romantic
story and at first glance, that is tugging too many heart strings so it
naturally sets off my "scam" alert. Please do prove me wrong! I am honestly
curious.

Finally, most importantly, even if all she said is true: There are people
simply dying not too far away, I think 5000 or the surplus 1000 could buy a
good amount of actually very cheap but vital medicine to keep locals from
dying under horrible conditions, to give them back their eye sight and keep
their babies from starving.

So all the doubts aside, let's cut to the chase: WHY should I or anyone
finance a nice NYC trip for Martha while that is going on and she can very
well pick up ALL the necessary skills right where she is, over the internet,
for free? Just like pretty much all "hackers" did.

Why does she ask for money instead of asking the community to support her with
knowledge and skills?

~~~
akaptur
Hacker School employee here. I can confirm that she's been admitted.

------
michaell2
I can name quite a few low score threads in the "New" section that are more
interesting and relevant to the hackers amongst us than this. IMHO there is
something rotten about the outcomes of the HN frontpage promotion mechanism
nowadays.

~~~
ryanmolden
The last sentence hints at some kind of conspiracy or upvoting-ring, but of
all stories this one seems least likely to be due to something like that. It
may just be the case that your interests and what you find relevant are not
actually generalizable to the HN community at large.

I actually like stories like this. Stories of people being driven to better
themselves and their lives and using the internet to open doors that never
would have been possible even 10 years ago. If HN just became story after
story like this then, yes, it would be tiresome, but I don't think we are in
any near-term danger of that happening.

Having a broad range of stories, even some that are not strictly about tech in
some way that would personally benefit you, is good for a community, unless we
want to develop some sort of echo-chamber where all we ever read/think/talk
about is <insert pet technology topic here>. I have met people who are like
that, I choose not to associate with them for a reason.

~~~
michaell2
or perhaps the silent majority of the "HN community at large" mostly agrees
with me, but a small, entrenched, vocal minority successfully bullies its way
to impose its own view of what is and is not "inspiring" on everybody else.
"Gimme money" Nigerian letters are not inspiring, not even when done by a
Kenyan who allegedly knows (or wants to learn?) how to program.

~~~
MarthaChumo
michaell2, I respect your opinion, but to remove the doubts from your mind, I
will give you a few links to show you a bit of what I have done. You can
Google "Martha Chumo", or "Njeri Chelimo" (This is the name I use for github,
twitter, etc) and check out the results. I have been featured on various sites
cause of my learning. Checkout <http://www.codecademy.com/stories/code-from-
kenya> . You can contact codecademy, and will tell you I'm a moderator there
and I helped out creating the Ruby lessons. You can also contact
teamtreeshouse.com, and ask about their student @NjeriChelimo. I have been
very active in the community, and I am soon to be featured in the Treehouse
Dean's list. Here's the link to my profile there ->
<http://teamtreehouse.com/njerichelimo>. I have been contributing to the
Apache deltacloud project -> <http://deltacloud.apache.org/>. You can contact
the deltacloud devs and confirm that I exist, and that I can actually program.
I was accepted as a speaker at DevCon Tel Aviv -> <http://devcon-
june2013.events.co.il/people/847-martha-chumo> . You can contact the conf
organizer and confirm this. I am the Nairobi MongoDB user group organizer.
This you can confirm from the 10gen community manager. I try to blog -
<http://nchelimo.blogspot.com/> , <http://njeri-chelimo.blogspot.com/> ,
<http://njerichelimo.blogspot.com/>. You can also checkout my github account
-> <https://github.com/NjeriChelimo>

I know there are a lot of cons out there, but I am definitely not one of them.
I hope this clears your mind a little.

~~~
kahawe
Martha, regardless whether this is or isn't a con, I honestly think the only
right thing to do would be to take that money and invest it in a local, honest
and well-run charity to help the people starving and going blind and dying
because they are lacking even the most basic vital medical care - not far from
where you are.

Because I have no idea how you justify asking people for donations for a nice
NYC trip when you could actually pick up all the skills for your "cause" right
from where you are over the internet and for free - while people are dying
right where you live. Do your high-up-the-Maslow-hierarchy needs take
precedence over them starving? And if they do, it is yet another small drop in
the ocean of tears that unfortunately left big parts of Africa in the desolate
state they currently are in.

I know this isn't an easy decision because hey, everybody wants to go to NYC
like that, and I am sure you are going to say with all that knowledge you can
make Africa a little better then in the future. Well, you can do that now and
you can pick up all those skills for free without going anywhere and you could
be making Africa a little better right this very moment while learning how to
make things even better in the future. Be a hero like that. Or you take your
own slightly egoistic dreams over the needs of others and you would just be
another proverbial "brick in the wall". Others see you doing that, they are
going to ask themselves why they should do anything for others when they can
just further their own personal needs under the blanket of "charitable"
actions.

If anything, you should never have asked for money but asked the hacker
community to help you out with skills and knowledge or e.g. (used) hardware
donations. That would have gotten you much more towards your proclaimed "goal"
and with more ethical integrity.

~~~
MarthaChumo
kahawe, you seem to have heard a single story about Africa. I was born and
have lived in Kenya all my life. I am another story of Africa.

You had one story of Africa, I have given you another. I suggest googling some
more. Read my campaign again. You'll realize I'm not telling people to pity
me, but see how awesome I am - because I am - and help me get even better!

Here's a nice talk to inform you the danger of a single story ->
[http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_...](http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html)

I suggest visiting Kenya. I'll take you around.

------
just2n
This is cool, but to be a little OT: every time I see "Hacker School" I get a
little more confused.

Being a hacker isn't something you can teach someone. It's a mindset. You
either have it or you don't. I think most people can understand this, so then
"Hacker School" would imply that it's a school for hackers. This is somewhat
confirmed by their about page:

> You should genuinely enjoy programming. That's most important. We spend our
> time talking about technical problems and writing code, not working on
> startups and products. If you care more about startups than coding, you
> won't enjoy Hacker School. We look for curiosity, passion, raw intelligence
> and a desire to build things. The best way to show us this is to have a
> track record of writing code and learning new things. If you're a smart,
> curious person who loves coding, it will come out naturally. Don't try to
> trick us. It probably won't work and it won't get you what you want anyway.

Sounds like a description of a hacker to me. But then I get confused about why
"Hacker School" was chosen. You go to "Law School" to learn about law, to
become a lawyer, not because you already are one and just want to improve. You
go to (a good) "Game School" to learn to build video games, not because you
already build video games.

So I guess in summary: "Hacker School" seems inappropriately named. Perhaps
"Hacker Bootcamp" would be more fitting, given the goals of the school, or
even "School for Hackers"? I guess both sound less likely to drum up
sensationalist media headlines, though.

~~~
adamors
> You go to (a good) "Game School" to learn to build video games, not because
> you already build video games.

The law school thing may be valid, but I doubt that anyone goes to a "Game
School" (whatever that may be) without having written a game before.

Similarly, a lot of people who attend a CS university already know how to
program (to a degree anyway).

~~~
Ogre
> "Game School" (whatever that may be)

<https://www.digipen.edu/>

<http://www.fullsail.edu/game-school> (right in the URL on this one)

