[deleted]
From Prison to Programming
11–20 of 121 posts
Re: From Prison to Programming
#12I've also been to prison. My story is homeless at 20, no friends or family, in debt about $20k and just got out of prison as a convicted felon. Now I've built 2.5 unicorns, one of which I helped start. Right now, I've started two side projects that are nearing the $1M ARR (combined). Programming is a great leveler in today's world. I cannot express how lucky I am to have found it early in my life. I have a great desi…
If you want to give back, consider hiring from the organization Rick (subject of the podcast) started - Underdog Devs. It’s a loosely collected group of mentors and mentees with a small dedicated group of full-time learners on a stipend program The #1 challenge, by far, faced by the org is hiring and placement into companies for cohort graduates and mentees. If you’re able, consider posting job listings in the UD sla…
I'm in. Just DMed the UD twitter account to get an invite into the slack group.
Re: From Prison to Programming
#13This is the story of how Rick Wolter learned to program in prison and ultimately became a professional iOS developer. I figure any story that involves smuggling a python interpreter into prison on a USB stick seems like it might interest people here. But I think its also an important story because it’s about how software development can be life changing and lift people up out of hard situations.
Oh, also Rick has some of the most practical advice on learning programming, and transition to a professional dev that I've seen. I know it’s not popular to just talk about grinding, the overwork culture is not popular. I get that, this is a different space. You want this shit? You got to grind. You’re going to have to do it on the weekends, you’re going to have to lock in. I’m sure someone’s going to be like, “Oh, n…
I have tried to summarize my advice as a mid career person who switched to programming. iOS. Rick has done so more perfectly than I have ever been able to. I highly endorse his comments here.
Re: From Prison to Programming
#14Ex-cons have a tough time getting jobs and this can help lead to recidivism. It seems like programming would be a great way to keep felons from going back to prison. Getting paid to WFH on an open source project would be low risk.
[deleted]
Re: From Prison to Programming
#15Rick Wolter seems to be quite balanced. Read the last paragraph "Life’s Not Fair".
Problem is that some people read his story and thinks. "Oh, so teaching felons programming is a great way to reduce recidivism".
This kind of be-all-end-all solution always fails. Some years ago journalists in the US loved to tell coal miners that they should "learn to code" when the mines shut down due to Washington politics. How hard could it be?
When media corporations started laying off journalists in droves a few years later, the journalists did not find "Learn to code" suggestions useful or even funny.
A more general solution to reduce recidivism should probably consist of two initiatives:
1) Educate felons when they're in prison. It doesn't have to be programming. It can be a craft, something academic, programming (if they feel like it) or some other skill. Whatever.
2) Reform the prison system, so inmates are treated as humans. E.g. with private corporations running prisons in the US, they have a strong motivation to create "recurring guests". Contrast this with e.g. prisons in Scandinavia (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IepJqxRCZY) that have the lowest rates of recidivism.
We know how to reduce recidivism. It is not an easy "learn to code" exercise. But are the US willing to make the changes necessary to create meaningful impact on the rates of recidivism - or shall we continue to be fed "pull yourself up by the bootstraps! We found one guy who did it, and so can you!" stories?
Re: From Prison to Programming
#16I've also been to prison. My story is homeless at 20, no friends or family, in debt about $20k and just got out of prison as a convicted felon. Now I've built 2.5 unicorns, one of which I helped start. Right now, I've started two side projects that are nearing the $1M ARR (combined). Programming is a great leveler in today's world. I cannot express how lucky I am to have found it early in my life. I have a great desi…
That is an amazing story! I'm glad you made it out and have found a kind of success many ex convicts don't find.
I never went to prison, but similarly, I'm not sure the person I was before my software career would have faired well if programming wasn't an option. It's such a practical skill that not only can be learned for free but is lucrative and opens all sorts of doors for people to be entrepreneurs.
I hate to be one of those "learn to code" people, but sometimes it is hard for me not to evangelize. I'm of the opinion that a successful career in coding doesn't require the kind of genius intelligence that many, including a lot of HNers, think it does. Mindset is way more important than IQ, and writing "good" code isn't even that high of importance most of the time. More people can get into it than they think, and some of them should before the inevitable day that a hypothetical GPT algorithm can do everything a current day mid-level software engineer can.
Re: From Prison to Programming
#17I've also been to prison. My story is homeless at 20, no friends or family, in debt about $20k and just got out of prison as a convicted felon. Now I've built 2.5 unicorns, one of which I helped start. Right now, I've started two side projects that are nearing the $1M ARR (combined). Programming is a great leveler in today's world. I cannot express how lucky I am to have found it early in my life. I have a great desi…
That is an amazing story! I'm glad you made it out and have found a kind of success many ex convicts don't find. I never went to prison, but similarly, I'm not sure the person I was before my software career would have faired well if programming wasn't an option. It's such a practical skill that not only can be learned for free but is lucrative and opens all sorts of doors for people to be entrepreneurs. I hate to be…
I believe there are fewer and fewer "American Dream" jobs, to where you can start from nothing and emerge financially independent with a decent retirement (e.g. doctors, lawyers, programming).
Convicts really only have a few realistic options
1. Programming 2. Starting their own business
Re: From Prison to Programming
#18Rick Wolter seems to be quite balanced. Read the last paragraph "Life’s Not Fair". Problem is that some people read his story and thinks. "Oh, so teaching felons programming is a great way to reduce recidivism". This kind of be-all-end-all solution always fails. Some years ago journalists in the US loved to tell coal miners that they should "learn to code" when the mines shut down due to Washington politics. How hard…
This kind of be-all-end-all solution always fails. Some years ago journalists in the US loved to tell coal miners that they should "learn to code" when the mines shut down due to Washington politics. How hard could it be?
Did this even happen? I cannot find any articles in which miners were told to learn to code. I think instead those miners were offered vocational training, which included coding. This was in 2017.
maybe this is what they were talking about
https://venturebeat.com/entrepreneur/dev-bootcamp-shuttering...
Re: From Prison to Programming
#19Ex-cons have a tough time getting jobs and this can help lead to recidivism. It seems like programming would be a great way to keep felons from going back to prison. Getting paid to WFH on an open source project would be low risk.
most people have a tough time getting goods jobs. it's not uncommon for many people to apply some a single mid-salary opening.
Re: From Prison to Programming
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is an amazing story! I'm glad you made it out and have found a kind of success many ex convicts don't find. I never went to prison, but similarly, I'm not sure the person I was before my software career would have faired well if programming wasn't an option. It's such a practical skill that not only can be learned for free but is lucrative and opens all sorts of doors for people to be entrepreneurs. I hate to be…
I believe there are fewer and fewer "American Dream" jobs, to where you can start from nothing and emerge financially independent with a decent retirement (e.g. doctors, lawyers, programming). Convicts really only have a few realistic options 1. Programming 2. Starting their own business
For sure. This is why I think there is a definite ethical element to the kind of automation we are inventing. Not to say that automation isn't inevitable, but I don't think I would feel good about myself pushing the process along.
And yeah, non "AI" tech is still automation, but at least the option to be a programmer without having to be a genius with Tensorflow is still there.