Canary in the Code Mine: Coal miners learning to code
1–10 of 31 posts
Re: Canary in the Code Mine: Coal miners learning to code
#2I 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.
Re: Canary in the Code Mine: Coal miners learning to code
#3After 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.
Re: Canary in the Code Mine: Coal miners learning to code
#4After 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 week…
Interesting story. How did you find the transition from an active work style to a static/sitting one?
I always say that programmers have it as hard as miners, but it's a different kind of challenge. One is more physical, another mental (not going insane from sitting in front of computer all the time).
You have the comparison, What do you think?
Re: Canary in the Code Mine: Coal miners learning to code
#5After 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 week…
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...
Re: Canary in the Code Mine: Coal miners learning to code
#6>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.
Re: Canary in the Code Mine: Coal miners learning to code
#7After 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 week…
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 recognizin…
I'd bet it's pretty low, too. Even those less demanding BigCo jobs are often gated by a proxy IQ test in the form of coding challenges, and I'm not seeing any signs of those going away.
Re: Canary in the Code Mine: Coal miners learning to code
#8After 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 week…
Interesting story. How did you find the transition from an active work style to a static/sitting one? I always say that programmers have it as hard as miners, but it's a different kind of challenge. One is more physical, another mental (not going insane from sitting in front of computer all the time). You have the comparison, What do you think?
My favorite over the top rant on the pains of this profession: http://www.stilldrinking.org/programming-sucks It's much more than just sitting in front of a screen all the time, which I think a lot of people can think isn't that bad either given they themselves spend so much time in front of their monitors and televisions... (That particular aspect doesn't bother me at all, I was a gamer before I was a programmer.)
Re: Canary in the Code Mine: Coal miners learning to code
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 recognizin…
I'd bet it's pretty low, too. Even those less demanding BigCo jobs are often gated by a proxy IQ test in the form of coding challenges, and I'm not seeing any signs of those going away.
Even those less demanding BigCo jobs are often gated by a proxy IQ test
I'd be way of assuming that anybody working a blue-collar job has a low IQ. There are lots of reasons people take the jobs they take, and IQ is only one of those reasons. I would wager that there are a significant number of coal miners, plumbers, auto mechanics, etc. who are just as "smart" in the general sense as the average HN reader. I obviously don't know an exact percentage, but the stereotype that "blue collar == dumb" is definitely not valid as a generalization.
Re: Canary in the Code Mine: Coal miners learning to code
#10This is a very inspiring story. As a reminder though, this kind of "rural sourcing" isn't a totally new concept.