I thought he was in jail and his equipment had been taken, not to be returned for months? I haven't heard any updates on that lately.. Anyone know?
Leo the Homeless Coder Finished His App, and You Can Download It Right Now
31–40 of 102 posts
Re: Leo the Homeless Coder Finished His App, and You Can Download It Right Now
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think Macdonough was smart to offer $100 or the opportunity to learn to code. It was a good way to screen out unmotivated people -- if someone is homeless and turns down $100, it's likely that that they're very motivated.
Yeah, I'm not sure it's a 100% reliable method though. Depends how recently the person has eaten (etc).
I'm assuming they bought him a chromebook. That's like saying do you want $100 cash or a $250 chromebook and coding lessons.
Re: Leo the Homeless Coder Finished His App, and You Can Download It Right Now
#33I'll buy this app on positive karma points alone.
I think that's the idea.
Re: Leo the Homeless Coder Finished His App, and You Can Download It Right Now
#34Does this seem exploitative to other people? Although it is exciting that his app launched, the fact that this entrepreneur is being called "The Homeless Coder" seems wrong to me.
I think the difference is nobody is exploiting anybody else. "Leo the Homeless Coder" is exploiting himself for profit, but Patrick McConlogue is not exploiting anybody. I'm not 100% sure what his specific motivation was, but it doesn't seem like Patrick is attempting to profit off this in any way.
It seems like an interesting social experiment.
There was a documentary a while back of a homeless guy given $100,000 and no restrictions.
http://voices.yahoo.com/a-homeless-man-blows-100000-free-mon...
Re: Leo the Homeless Coder Finished His App, and You Can Download It Right Now
#35Homelessness is a serious and complex issue rooted in mental health and poverty, and the "mentor" behind the homeless coder reduced it to a game, just to show that all one needs to succeed is the patronizing goodwill of some privileged narcissistic clown.
Stories like this are actually a disservice to the cause of technology as an agent for social and environmental change.
Re: Leo the Homeless Coder Finished His App, and You Can Download It Right Now
#36I hate to be cynical, but it feels like this is mostly capitalizing on the idea of a "homeless coder". In order for the app idea to work, it needs people. Lots of people. A $0.99 app is never going to get enough users to be useful for MOST of us. If the idea and execution stood on its own, I wouldn't fault them for leveraging the backstory for media attention, but since the execution is favouring short term money at…
I purchased without the intent to use it, I consider it as more of a donation.
Re: Leo the Homeless Coder Finished His App, and You Can Download It Right Now
#37Homelessness is a serious and complex issue rooted in mental health and poverty, and the "mentor" behind the homeless coder reduced it to a game, just to show that all one needs to succeed is the patronizing goodwill of some privileged narcissistic clown. Stories like this are actually a disservice to the cause of technology as an agent for social and environmental change.
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Re: Leo the Homeless Coder Finished His App, and You Can Download It Right Now
#38Homelessness is a serious and complex issue rooted in mental health and poverty, and the "mentor" behind the homeless coder reduced it to a game, just to show that all one needs to succeed is the patronizing goodwill of some privileged narcissistic clown. Stories like this are actually a disservice to the cause of technology as an agent for social and environmental change.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6441795
....every single time. Now watch as the comment section get destroyed. It's already the top-comment. By the time my comment is 12hrs old, this comment thread will take up 2 screen lengths and hardly any other comments will occur outside of it.... that is, if HN's algo doesn't drop this story from the frontpage in the next 15mins.
Re: Leo the Homeless Coder Finished His App, and You Can Download It Right Now
#39I have been thinking a lot about whether it would be possible to invest enough in someone that it got them off rock bottom. I guess this is proof that it is possible. It might be time to start asking the same question to some of the people around where I work.
I think Macdonough was smart to offer $100 or the opportunity to learn to code. It was a good way to screen out unmotivated people -- if someone is homeless and turns down $100, it's likely that that they're very motivated.
Are you arguing that lack of motivation is the root cause of homelessness, rather than poverty and mental health issues?
Re: Leo the Homeless Coder Finished His App, and You Can Download It Right Now
#40Ok, my name is Leo and I'm an Android developer. In 2000 I actually investigated the potential of dynamic ride sharing and came to the conclusion it is not feasible due to software being in the hands of the network and device providers. Later, when Android and iOS came along I had other stuff to do but noticed how many tried to enter in this market and my conclusion is still that you would have to seed it in a way that you get at least 10,000 users in one big city to start with.
10,000 global users will just not cut it by many orders of magnitude. Charging $1 for an app to try it out will not help to get to critical mass.
Please, other Leo, make the first year for free for your own and nature's good. I'm dreaming of ad hock ride shares becoming a reality since sooooo long and guess it would only work if it was pre-installed and activated by default on many many phones but then it could really have a huge impact on the global CO2 output.
Further thoughts on the app: Make it social:
* Users should be able to pick who they want to ride with, including age, sex, car brand etc. Stricter filters are less rides.
* Users should be able to pick who they don't want to ride with, little or bad feedback for example
* Users should be able to contact their ride partners without sharing any Facebook names, phone numbers etc.
* Optionally Users should be checked in on their rides for security. For extra paranoia, the app could send a special message to a contact person if the user doesn't check out from a ride. Ride sharing is little popular out of security concerns and full track of one's movement with check-in on a ride should reduce risks involved dramatically.
* Let the driver define a price per km (for friends, friends of friends, others)
* ask if you want more ideas. This is endless but I guess my post will not be noticed by the other Leo anyway ;)