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My Story as a Homeless Developer

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Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#51

Post by mikestew »

freddy418_sc wrote: post #21

This article makes no sense to me. It feels like there is something wrong with this dude and he still hasn't figured out what yet. I guess this article is for soliciting pity. But his real story seems extremely juicy. He should write about the details there. All of the interesting decisions and events that got him to where he is was glossed over in this article. "My interest in computers and programming was more like…

How do you "study" and "program" without being able to focus?

Because when it's time to study biology, all one thinks about is how to distribute units of work across GPUs for that thing they're working on. Kind of like the two pit bull terriers I have at home. Oh, they can focus like a motherfucker. Too bad that when they're focused on a squirrel they have no bandwidth left for my commands.

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#53

Post by jessehorne »

blondie9x wrote: post #18

Homelessness needs to be addressed nationally. Doing it on a city and county level is not effective enough at addressing this national crisis. The problem is deep and all American cities are impacted by it. We need to look together at it and come up with solutions that address housing affordability, addiction, mental illness, medical disease and insurance issues, and a basic standard of living. We need a central plac…

I love this response. It reminds me of the problem of organizing in Anarchist circles. There's two big camps that exist. 1. Insurrectionism 2. Platformism Insurrectionary Anarchism promotes distributed affinity groups and a sort of anti-organization methodology. They are the types to start community farms or food not bombs in their community and worry less about things they aren't directly connected to. It overlaps a bit. Platformism is basically the belief that an organized structure of representation, where affinity groups across a region elect representatives to make decisions for all of them if the decisions follow their "platform". I definitely have had ideas and tried to implement a few, to address homelessness, in both of the cities that I was homeless in. The projects did not get far as I was struggling to survive, but I hope to continue that work later on.

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#54

Post by toomuchtodo »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #5

Looks like this was written today. He's apparently still homeless and he closes with a request for feedback. So I'm just going to leave these links here (disclosure: they are my sites): https://www.pocketputer.com/ https://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com/ (Same look, but different site) https://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com/ This is listed on the Links page of PocketPuter.com, but I'm going to put it he…

Hey Doreen!

Do you mind if I get in touch? I ran into a young homeless man (who has a felony on his record) in a big box parking lot in Central Florida the other day. He has an AC HVAC technician license, and is having a hard time finding someone who will hire him, and I'm looking for suggestions into how best to help him not just get back on his feet, but maximize his available skillset by getting back into an AC HVAC gig (instead of a minimum wage job). Is it just a matter of me cold calling every AC/HVAC company in a 30 mile radius and inquiring if they'd hire someone with his record?

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#55

Post by jessehorne »

2kool4skool wrote: post #36
freddy418_sc wrote: post #21

This article makes no sense to me. It feels like there is something wrong with this dude and he still hasn't figured out what yet. I guess this article is for soliciting pity. But his real story seems extremely juicy. He should write about the details there. All of the interesting decisions and events that got him to where he is was glossed over in this article. "My interest in computers and programming was more like…

I am also a homeless dev and when I was in hs I only programmed and could not do school work.

I understand the pain.

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#56

Post by SwellJoe »

holtalanm wrote: post #33
jrockway wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't wait until the MTA gets so bad that people tell me, "you take the subway? sorry, we're not interested." But in some sense, having a reliable vehicle is a microcosm of a particular location and mindset. Nobody I know owns a car. We still mostly get to work on time, though.

He's in Iowa. In these midwest states (Nebraska for me), public transportation is very scarce. Most jobs out here require we own a car, or have some way to reliably get to work. Most of the time that does not involve public transportation in any way.

That's worth a whole discussion in and of itself. Iowa is a terrible place to be: Homeless, looking for a tech job, without a car.

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#58

Post by agumonkey »

varjag wrote: post #38
agumonkey wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One week I measured how much water I needed to clean myself top to bottom: two glasses. I eat low and don't feel hungry (although I don't suffer cold which drains energy fast) I agree that it can be daunting but I think it's not the quantity it's the regularity of supplies.

Two glasses of water is perhaps barely enough to wash my (fairly unimpressive) hair with shampoo, and the hand better be steady. Is there some special technique?

True I forgot hairs, maybe I had very short ones at the time. So my comment was for everything else, when I meant top to bottom, I meant scrubbing and washing everything damn clean, not just a quick job.

A bit related too, if you're homeless, cut your hairs. You won't look homeless and you'll need less water :)

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#59

Post by blacksmith_tb »

varjag wrote: post #38
agumonkey wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One week I measured how much water I needed to clean myself top to bottom: two glasses. I eat low and don't feel hungry (although I don't suffer cold which drains energy fast) I agree that it can be daunting but I think it's not the quantity it's the regularity of supplies.

Two glasses of water is perhaps barely enough to wash my (fairly unimpressive) hair with shampoo, and the hand better be steady. Is there some special technique?

Possibly spongebaths and a buzzcut could make that work. But it's quite a goal to work towards. Taking a shower with a closed drain (if you have tub/shower) suggests I'd need a lot more.

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#60

Post by DoreenMichele »

scarface74 wrote: post #47
DoreenMichele wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it shouldn't be about my parade at all. So why are you making it about my comment? Why aren't you making comments aimed at actually referring him to useful resources instead, which is what my first comment here does?

You said I was raining on “your parade.” I admitted that I had no resources on mental illness. The best I could do was Google it. Getting him another job is just dealing with the symptoms. He had a job, a car,a place to stay etc. and lost it all because of the emotional issues he admitted that he had. Why would things be any different this time without dealing with the underlying issues? I’m not judging him any more…

You were raining my parade. It's an expression. It doesn't mean I commented in order to make things about me, but you are crapping all over my advice instead of offering help yourself. This is in no way a useful comment, for anyone.

No, you aren't judging him. You are merely condemning him to a no win situation. This is done all too often to both mentally ill people and homeless people.

What would be different is that I have given him a list of remote platforms (plus other supporting information sources). If you are homeless but can access the internet, you can do work on the internet and no one cares when your last shower was.

Holding down a job while homeless is a tall order. Some people do it, but it's hard. Doing remote gig work online is very do-able. I did it for years while working on solving my personal problems.

I was frequently a loon while homeless. Doing remote gigs meant that I just didn't work when I was a loon, and I wasn't fired for taking time off. As long as I completed gigs in a timely fashion when I agreed to them, I got paid and I built my skills and reputation and increased my hourly pay and it helped me eventually get off the street.

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