Some of the most famous self-made wealthy individuals in the UK were from poor backgrounds of varying degree.
I remember more than one stating that they felt if they wanted to escape that world, they had to make their own luck, grab every opportunity, be ready to change direction if fortuitous winds prevail, and essentially be there in body and mind to really give it a go. In some cases they literally start with nothing - failed school exams, work to acquire a very small amount of capital, see their first opportunity and go for it. Which can be seen as a series of well executed gambles.
Why Do Some Poor Kids Thrive?
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Re: Why Do Some Poor Kids Thrive?
#12There are a whole lot of tech jobs where learning on the job without a degree is completely viable. Seems like grabbing these kids out of high school is a business opportunity. I'm pretty sure that any random kid that's into anime and collecting cards can learn to do tech support.
Re: Why Do Some Poor Kids Thrive?
#13I grew up poor. Not Africa poor, but ex Soviet Union falling apart poor. One thing that made a huge difference was parents who sacrificed their career to make sure they were home with me after school. They encouraged education. Mom never finished more than 7 grades of school, but she saved money for and for the 8th of March, equivalent to mothers day (oh the irony) got me cheapest ZX Spectrum clone we could find. It…
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Re: Why Do Some Poor Kids Thrive?
#14No distractions.
Re: Why Do Some Poor Kids Thrive?
#15dang, five dollar bet this gets to 100 points. :) This in response to an earlier exchange about how race and gender related posts get many votes in the beginning and are then flagged to death, but ones about class always make it to the top. Is there a way to see how many times an article has been flagged? I would like to gather data for my assertions.
I too would enjoy seeing this. I submitted an race-and-gender-related article around a month ago that fell off the front page quickly enough to make me cock an eyebrow and wonder if the flagging system isn't giving a small percentage of users an inappropriate veto over certain topics of discussion. I know I've seen a tool out there that tracks the ranking of HN articles over time. Perhaps the slope of the descent wou…
Quickly looking at the article you submitted, it was the 'Not a Black Chair' that floated into the stream about a month ago.
I did not flag it, and I think others may have flagged it. The comment to point ratio also contributes to front-page decay to avoid flamewars. This isn't the target audience for comfortable or uncomfortable discussions about race/gender/privilege. In my opinion, the author of that article exhibited behavior that, if you take away race and gender from the equation, would be questionable, at best, if you were an individual working at a company (the relationship with a coworker and others). Those facts clouded what the author was saying about race and gender.
Re: Why Do Some Poor Kids Thrive?
#16Because they suffer more. Suffering is good. Without it, we tend to fall apart. With it, we tend to get better.
Re: Why Do Some Poor Kids Thrive?
#17I was born in a trailer park in Oklahoma. Lived in a 1 bedroom shack, and then lived with my grandparents until high school after my parents got divorced. I grew up very poor. But I loved computers, thanks to my dad having a Commodore 64.
I excelled at math, loved computers, and went to DeVry to do computer programming. I was the first in my family to go to college. Started my first tech company at 22.
With a lot of hard work, I believe anyone can break out of poverty.
Re: Why Do Some Poor Kids Thrive?
#18There are a whole lot of tech jobs where learning on the job without a degree is completely viable. Seems like grabbing these kids out of high school is a business opportunity. I'm pretty sure that any random kid that's into anime and collecting cards can learn to do tech support.
Myself and the other 3 main programmers in my last company all lacked a college degree. I think a degree is pretty useless for software development.
Re: Why Do Some Poor Kids Thrive?
#19There are a whole lot of tech jobs where learning on the job without a degree is completely viable. Seems like grabbing these kids out of high school is a business opportunity. I'm pretty sure that any random kid that's into anime and collecting cards can learn to do tech support.
That was me. I came into programming via tech support rather than computer science. I liked playing games. I lacked the home environment or support to really do very well in high school, but once I was on my own, having that tech support job helped me a lot and I was eventually able to learn a lot more IT skills.
For me and the other people I've known or mentored from similar backgrounds, I things that get people away from abusive and dysfunctional homes can make a big difference. I think I personally would have dropped out of college early on if I hadn't been able to work tech support in the summer and therefore not go home. Wonks always go on and on about what a difference parents can make, but it goes both ways.
Re: Why Do Some Poor Kids Thrive?
#20I grew up poor. Not Africa poor, but ex Soviet Union falling apart poor. One thing that made a huge difference was parents who sacrificed their career to make sure they were home with me after school. They encouraged education. Mom never finished more than 7 grades of school, but she saved money for and for the 8th of March, equivalent to mothers day (oh the irony) got me cheapest ZX Spectrum clone we could find. It…
To raise kids, money beyond a low threshold is not relevant, providing a good education is. Money, or better, social capital gets importance when these kids become young adults and have chosen career paths with less demand.
Maybe to some degree these kids are the same kids who when society was agricultural were the ones who ran away from home despite the taboo against leaving the family went to the city and tried striking it out their own way.
It's not the dame as the George Foremans or the Merle Haggards of the world who while making good had fortunate accidents help them along the way. Or maybe it is exactly the same, just expressed differently.