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John Scalzi: Being Poor (2005)

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Re: John Scalzi: Being Poor (2005)

#101

Post by donatj »

I grew up living this, we hardly had money to eat, but success came relatively easy after high school by simply trying really hard. I applied for hundreds of programming jobs and interviewed at tens of companies before landing my first gig where I worked my ass off and proved myself, within five years being the lead developer there before leaving for greener pastures.

I had taught myself on computers we had been donated first QBasic and later PHP. I am certainly lucky, but part of me is resentful at my mother in particular for how easy it seems to be to not live in poverty. I am so confused about the topic and honestly find myself angry at myself for my own thoughts. It's really hard to explain. I don't mean to or want to judge anyone but it's difficult. It's a touchy anxiety ridden topic for me.

Re: John Scalzi: Being Poor (2005)

#102

Post by jachee »

philovivero wrote: post #96
jachee wrote: post #23

I lived this. Being poor is growing up between the trailer park and the dump. Being poor is skipping homework to help repair the $600 car so dad can make it to work tomorrow. Being poor is your mother crying over a $100 invoice for the dental service you just received for the first time in living memory. Being poor is quitting junior college early, because your Pell Grant ran out, and a $12.15/hr opportunity is over…

Thank you for the inventory of my life. I remember those months as a kid when the cupboards were bare, and so I'd just shrug and go to bed without dinner. Thank goodness for government-sponsored low-income lunch program. That was my only meal many days. Naturally I was surprised when recently I got informed I have white privilege by a bunch of spoiled children who've never known a day of hardship in their lives. I'm…

Don't think for a minute that our white privilege isn't the major reason we can reflect on having been poor, rather than continuing to live that reality.

Re: John Scalzi: Being Poor (2005)

#103

Post by [deleted] »

philovivero wrote: post #96
jachee wrote: post #23

I lived this. Being poor is growing up between the trailer park and the dump. Being poor is skipping homework to help repair the $600 car so dad can make it to work tomorrow. Being poor is your mother crying over a $100 invoice for the dental service you just received for the first time in living memory. Being poor is quitting junior college early, because your Pell Grant ran out, and a $12.15/hr opportunity is over…

Thank you for the inventory of my life. I remember those months as a kid when the cupboards were bare, and so I'd just shrug and go to bed without dinner. Thank goodness for government-sponsored low-income lunch program. That was my only meal many days. Naturally I was surprised when recently I got informed I have white privilege by a bunch of spoiled children who've never known a day of hardship in their lives. I'm…

[deleted]

Re: John Scalzi: Being Poor (2005)

#104

Post by babesh »

- Lying about where you grew up - Being ashamed of free school lunch - Being embarrassed and made fun of for wearing the same sorts of clothes every day - Not wearing a coat in winter because you are embarrassed wearing the same coat for years - Only ordering an appetizer over lunch at a job interview - The soles of my $10 sneakers came off in P.E. - Not playing any of the video games your coworkers played growing up - Being extremely conservative with a little money once you have it, buying the cheapest ice cream, beans, etc... - No prom, school dances, girl friends, etc... even the poor girls don't like you - Only considering the public university since private ones meant taking loans as much as your parents made in a year and even though your test scores are higher than the average at MIT - One family vacation in all the years growing up - Inferiority complex - Limited ambitions - Feeling you don't belong - Gaps in knowledge - Too much willingness to take up hardship

On the other hand, - Making your own food from raw ingredients: hamburgers, pizza, french fries, etc... - Being amazed by foods that you were never aware of: pho, sushi, stromboli, bagels, sausages on a grill - Approaching new places and people with naivety - All knowledge gained and learned is well learnt and mostly self learnt

Re: John Scalzi: Being Poor (2005)

#105

Post by shadowtree »

Being poor is living in an illegal cellar flat.

Being poor is wiping off the mold from your shoes before putting them on.

Being poor is buying second hand - unironically.

Being poor is working harder than your peers.

Being poor is not being able to fully relax, ever.

Being poor is a chip on your shoulder, that never goes away.

Being poor is a voice, deep within, saying nothing lasts, it is all an illusion, tomorrow you're back in the cellar.

Being poor never goes away. Being poor is being angry.

Re: John Scalzi: Being Poor (2005)

#106

Post by mncharity »

amagumori wrote: post #57

for anyone who has grown up poor or working class, how do i claw my way out of this? i come from a single parent household, my mom is an elementary school teacher with 4 kids in an expensive city. she barely makes ends meet and cannot support me. i was homeless and addicted to drugs for most of my teenage years, before getting sober and going to college, but dropping out after 2 years - my mom's child support put me…

* In Boston at least, there are programming-related interest groups meeting most weekday evenings. Most with free pizza. (http://www.bugc.org/ - but it's been buggy this week, and is currently missing groups).

So one is paid dinner, to network with programmers at local companies, at a place where hiring managers congregate to look for people. ^.^

* Skill levels in industry are diverse. The lower bound is low. SV is atypical.

"so i try to work on things like a compiler and a real-time rendering engine". That is very not lower bound. That's professional development. Get a job first. Learn, and then move on - industry turnover rates are high.

One thing notably absent from your narrative, is a report of repeated job rejections. Instead of adding features to yourself, put yourself on the market - you may already have achieved Minimum Viable ProductProgrammerness. And even if not, you'll get a better feel for market fit, and for what might need to be improved. Time to release.

* Put something on github. Even if it's small. Even if it's unfinished - software almost never is. Include a test. There are people looking for programming jobs who can't write a coherent paragraph of code. Or English. Clarify that you are not them.

But perhaps set out to obtain at least one rejection first. It'd seem a pity to self-fund fiddling on github, if you could already be being paid for it.

Re: John Scalzi: Being Poor (2005)

#107

Post by [deleted] »

jachee wrote: post #102
philovivero wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for the inventory of my life. I remember those months as a kid when the cupboards were bare, and so I'd just shrug and go to bed without dinner. Thank goodness for government-sponsored low-income lunch program. That was my only meal many days. Naturally I was surprised when recently I got informed I have white privilege by a bunch of spoiled children who've never known a day of hardship in their lives. I'm…

Don't think for a minute that our white privilege isn't the major reason we can reflect on having been poor, rather than continuing to live that reality.

[deleted]

Re: John Scalzi: Being Poor (2005)

#108

Post by [deleted] »

donatj wrote: post #101

I grew up living this, we hardly had money to eat, but success came relatively easy after high school by simply trying really hard. I applied for hundreds of programming jobs and interviewed at tens of companies before landing my first gig where I worked my ass off and proved myself, within five years being the lead developer there before leaving for greener pastures. I had taught myself on computers we had been dona…

[deleted]

Re: John Scalzi: Being Poor (2005)

#109

Post by fatbird »

donatj wrote: post #101

I grew up living this, we hardly had money to eat, but success came relatively easy after high school by simply trying really hard. I applied for hundreds of programming jobs and interviewed at tens of companies before landing my first gig where I worked my ass off and proved myself, within five years being the lead developer there before leaving for greener pastures. I had taught myself on computers we had been dona…

This is one of the most interesting comments I've seen on HN in a while.

Re: John Scalzi: Being Poor (2005)

#110

Post by tekromancr »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #13

A lot of people who have never been poor just think "oh, well, to stop being poor you just need to X, then Y, then Z." But they don't understand the implications, or the difficulty. Not spending money on anything you absolutely don't need is psychologically crushing, especially when that includes everything from dental care to replacement shoes. Finding the energy to continue advancing your employment and to work at…

Not to mention all of the financial tools you dont have access to because of no/poor credit.

I remember what an incredible feeling it was when I finally worked my up to a rewards card. This magical thing that effectively makes everything I buy 1.5% cheeper. It felt like some sort of cheatcode for life. I remember then being so pissed off that I was able to have this as a rich person getting marginally richer, but not when I was poor.

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