Optimistic about Human Potential..

[flacaltenn]

I love these stories because they make an optimist out of this old pessimist..

Homeless Coder - Business Insider

Homeless After Just Four Weeks, The Homeless Man Learning To Code Has Almost Finished His First App

Caroline Moss and Robert Libetti Sep. 26, 2013

When I first read Patrick McConlogue's post on Medium about a month ago - titled "Finding The Unjustly Homeless and Teaching Them to Code" - I'll admit I was skeptical.


McConlogue wrote about the homeless man he sees on his way to work each day. He has drive, McConlogue assures the reader. So the 23-year-old Manhattan-based programmer comes up with this:

The idea is simple. Without disrespecting him, I will offer two options:

1.I will come back tomorrow and give you $100 in cash.
2.I will come back tomorrow and give you three JavaScript books, (beginner-advanced-expert) and a super cheap basic laptop. I will then come an hour early from work each day—when he feels prepared—and teach him to code.


"I can go through $100 in a few days. In a week," Leo said. "But he told me I could have a laptop and learn how to do something and I figured it could turn into something more." He gestured to the city surrounding us. "It's not like I don't have the time to learn to do it."

Leo told me how each weekday, McConlogue comes to Leo's regular spot for an hour, usually around 8 a.m., and they dive right in. He started telling me about JavaScript and a site called Nitrous.io and how he can write 50 functions and maybe only two of them could be error-free. Leo spoke so confidently that I kept stopping him to make sure that he had only learned about coding — in any respect — just a mere four weeks earlier.


Most importantly, Leo wanted me to know that he wasn't miserable before McConlogue came along. Patrick, to him, was not a knight in shining armor, but rather a person who looked beyond the stereotype of homelessness and offered him a chance. He had never thought about coding, he admitted; he didn't even know what it was until a month ago, but "it's really hard to convince people that you are not a bad person, or a drug addict or a crazy. How are you gonna do that when you are homeless, and that's how the homeless are depicted? It's not always a negative thing but people don't know that."



Read more: Homeless Coder - Business Insider

Saw TV coverage of this story. Leo said he was always interested in science. Interesting deal here is that the "liberal" NY Times got a hold of this story and MOCKED McConologue to death about believing he could promote the skills of a homeless man. They joked about a laptop for sale in Times Square early next week.. Apparently the NY Times has a shitty view of human potential and a basic pessimism about lifting people up....

 

[ScienceRocks]

And this is why the republican party is cutting r@d and science funding.

I understand and respect the private sector but we really should be cutting the funding for the wars. Get out of the worseness wars.

 

[LoneLaugher]

I love these stories because they make an optimist out of this old pessimist..

Homeless Coder - Business Insider

Homeless After Just Four Weeks, The Homeless Man Learning To Code Has Almost Finished His First App

Caroline Moss and Robert Libetti Sep. 26, 2013

When I first read Patrick McConlogue's post on Medium about a month ago - titled "Finding The Unjustly Homeless and Teaching Them to Code" - I'll admit I was skeptical.


McConlogue wrote about the homeless man he sees on his way to work each day. He has drive, McConlogue assures the reader. So the 23-year-old Manhattan-based programmer comes up with this:

The idea is simple. Without disrespecting him, I will offer two options:

1.I will come back tomorrow and give you $100 in cash.
2.I will come back tomorrow and give you three JavaScript books, (beginner-advanced-expert) and a super cheap basic laptop. I will then come an hour early from work each day—when he feels prepared—and teach him to code.


"I can go through $100 in a few days. In a week," Leo said. "But he told me I could have a laptop and learn how to do something and I figured it could turn into something more." He gestured to the city surrounding us. "It's not like I don't have the time to learn to do it."

Leo told me how each weekday, McConlogue comes to Leo's regular spot for an hour, usually around 8 a.m., and they dive right in. He started telling me about JavaScript and a site called Nitrous.io and how he can write 50 functions and maybe only two of them could be error-free. Leo spoke so confidently that I kept stopping him to make sure that he had only learned about coding — in any respect — just a mere four weeks earlier.


Most importantly, Leo wanted me to know that he wasn't miserable before McConlogue came along. Patrick, to him, was not a knight in shining armor, but rather a person who looked beyond the stereotype of homelessness and offered him a chance. He had never thought about coding, he admitted; he didn't even know what it was until a month ago, but "it's really hard to convince people that you are not a bad person, or a drug addict or a crazy. How are you gonna do that when you are homeless, and that's how the homeless are depicted? It's not always a negative thing but people don't know that."



Read more: Homeless Coder - Business Insider

Saw TV coverage of this story. Leo said he was always interested in science. Interesting deal here is that the "liberal" NY Times got a hold of this story and MOCKED McConologue to death about believing he could promote the skills of a homeless man. They joked about a laptop for sale in Times Square early next week.. Apparently the NY Times has a shitty view of human potential and a basic pessimism about lifting people up....

Where was the TV coverage? Please link to the NY Times mocking.

Thanks.

 

[flacaltenn]

I love these stories because they make an optimist out of this old pessimist..

Homeless Coder - Business Insider

Homeless After Just Four Weeks, The Homeless Man Learning To Code Has Almost Finished His First App

Caroline Moss and Robert Libetti Sep. 26, 2013

When I first read Patrick McConlogue's post on Medium about a month ago - titled "Finding The Unjustly Homeless and Teaching Them to Code" - I'll admit I was skeptical.


McConlogue wrote about the homeless man he sees on his way to work each day. He has drive, McConlogue assures the reader. So the 23-year-old Manhattan-based programmer comes up with this:

The idea is simple. Without disrespecting him, I will offer two options:

1.I will come back tomorrow and give you $100 in cash.
2.I will come back tomorrow and give you three JavaScript books, (beginner-advanced-expert) and a super cheap basic laptop. I will then come an hour early from work each day—when he feels prepared—and teach him to code.


"I can go through $100 in a few days. In a week," Leo said. "But he told me I could have a laptop and learn how to do something and I figured it could turn into something more." He gestured to the city surrounding us. "It's not like I don't have the time to learn to do it."

Leo told me how each weekday, McConlogue comes to Leo's regular spot for an hour, usually around 8 a.m., and they dive right in. He started telling me about JavaScript and a site called Nitrous.io and how he can write 50 functions and maybe only two of them could be error-free. Leo spoke so confidently that I kept stopping him to make sure that he had only learned about coding — in any respect — just a mere four weeks earlier.


Most importantly, Leo wanted me to know that he wasn't miserable before McConlogue came along. Patrick, to him, was not a knight in shining armor, but rather a person who looked beyond the stereotype of homelessness and offered him a chance. He had never thought about coding, he admitted; he didn't even know what it was until a month ago, but "it's really hard to convince people that you are not a bad person, or a drug addict or a crazy. How are you gonna do that when you are homeless, and that's how the homeless are depicted? It's not always a negative thing but people don't know that."



Read more: Homeless Coder - Business Insider

Saw TV coverage of this story. Leo said he was always interested in science. Interesting deal here is that the "liberal" NY Times got a hold of this story and MOCKED McConologue to death about believing he could promote the skills of a homeless man. They joked about a laptop for sale in Times Square early next week.. Apparently the NY Times has a shitty view of human potential and a basic pessimism about lifting people up....

Where was the TV coverage? Please link to the NY Times mocking.

Thanks.

Pretty sure it was a CNN story. Originally I thought this one their "hero" awards they were doing last week. But maybe an unrelated story.. When im not on a tablet, ill link the NYTimes comments in. This got WIDE coverage because I grabbed the first of dozens of major media links.

 

[Vox]

I love these stories because they make an optimist out of this old pessimist..

Homeless Coder - Business Insider

Homeless After Just Four Weeks, The Homeless Man Learning To Code Has Almost Finished His First App

Caroline Moss and Robert Libetti Sep. 26, 2013

When I first read Patrick McConlogue's post on Medium about a month ago - titled "Finding The Unjustly Homeless and Teaching Them to Code" - I'll admit I was skeptical.


McConlogue wrote about the homeless man he sees on his way to work each day. He has drive, McConlogue assures the reader. So the 23-year-old Manhattan-based programmer comes up with this:

The idea is simple. Without disrespecting him, I will offer two options:

1.I will come back tomorrow and give you $100 in cash.
2.I will come back tomorrow and give you three JavaScript books, (beginner-advanced-expert) and a super cheap basic laptop. I will then come an hour early from work each day—when he feels prepared—and teach him to code.


"I can go through $100 in a few days. In a week," Leo said. "But he told me I could have a laptop and learn how to do something and I figured it could turn into something more." He gestured to the city surrounding us. "It's not like I don't have the time to learn to do it."

Leo told me how each weekday, McConlogue comes to Leo's regular spot for an hour, usually around 8 a.m., and they dive right in. He started telling me about JavaScript and a site called Nitrous.io and how he can write 50 functions and maybe only two of them could be error-free. Leo spoke so confidently that I kept stopping him to make sure that he had only learned about coding — in any respect — just a mere four weeks earlier.


Most importantly, Leo wanted me to know that he wasn't miserable before McConlogue came along. Patrick, to him, was not a knight in shining armor, but rather a person who looked beyond the stereotype of homelessness and offered him a chance. He had never thought about coding, he admitted; he didn't even know what it was until a month ago, but "it's really hard to convince people that you are not a bad person, or a drug addict or a crazy. How are you gonna do that when you are homeless, and that's how the homeless are depicted? It's not always a negative thing but people don't know that."



Read more: Homeless Coder - Business Insider

Saw TV coverage of this story. Leo said he was always interested in science. Interesting deal here is that the "liberal" NY Times got a hold of this story and MOCKED McConologue to death about believing he could promote the skills of a homeless man. They joked about a laptop for sale in Times Square early next week.. Apparently the NY Times has a shitty view of human potential and a basic pessimism about lifting people up....

well, leftards do not respect humans as individuals. People are voting cattle for them and can live only from government handouts.

 

[flacaltenn]

Where was the TV coverage? Please link to the NY Times mocking.

Thanks.

OK.. Minor Retraction.. I found the CNN segment on YouTube where I first saw this story..

Twas NOT the NY Times that made those snarky leftist comments about "a laptop for sale in Times Square tomorrow" --- It was New York Magazine.. Pretty close..

HOWEVER --- the NY media went bonkers over this "outside the box" thinking of offering a homeless man the chance to learn a valuable skill..

New York City Programmer to Help Homeless Man With Software Coding Classes - ABC News

Still, some writers heavily criticized McConlogue's effort beyond that.

Techcrunch editor-in-chief Alexia Tsotsis said McConlogue was "tone-deaf" and that his plan demonstrated "a profound cluelessness about poverty and the disenfranchised."

Slate's Matthew Yglesias argued that housing, not coding, is the first step in fixing homelessness.

Then, Slate's Will Oremus called him a "naive techie."

The video is below.. Reference to New York Magazine comments at about 1:10

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKcZ551Ex4w]Computer programmer teaches homeless to code - YouTube[/ame]

I apologize for the uncharacteristic screw up.. Hasn't happened since August..

 

[flacaltenn]

Did ya get what you needed LL??

I work hard to make you happy...

 

[Old Rocks]

"No country, however rich, can afford the waste of its human resources. Demoralization caused by vast unemployment is our greatest extravagance. Morally, it is the greatest menace to our social order."
September 30, 1934

Once again we have had GOP policies destroy the economy and many people livelyhoods. And once again, the GOP tries to put the blame on the people whose lives their policies destroyed, or the people trying to undo the damage that they created.

I am sure that there are thousands like this man out there that if they were given a chance to rebuild their lives, and learn a new trade, would do exactly that. The WPA and CCC's in FDR's time did exactly that, and left us with a legacy of buildings and roads in our national parks, among many other civic improvements. But the GOP has prevented even the most minor of similiar programs this time.

 

[TakeAStepBack]

"No country, however rich, can afford the waste of its human resources. Demoralization caused by vast unemployment is our greatest extravagance. Morally, it is the greatest menace to our social order."
September 30, 1934

Once again we have had GOP policies destroy the economy and many people livelyhoods. And once again, the GOP tries to put the blame on the people whose lives their policies destroyed, or the people trying to undo the damage that they created.

I am sure that there are thousands like this man out there that if they were given a chance to rebuild their lives, and learn a new trade, would do exactly that. The WPA and CCC's in FDR's time did exactly that, and left us with a legacy of buildings and roads in our national parks, among many other civic improvements. But the GOP has prevented even the most minor of similiar programs this time.

You just can not escape the partisan hackery box you put yourself into, can you?

 

[flacaltenn]

"No country, however rich, can afford the waste of its human resources. Demoralization caused by vast unemployment is our greatest extravagance. Morally, it is the greatest menace to our social order."
September 30, 1934

Once again we have had GOP policies destroy the economy and many people livelyhoods. And once again, the GOP tries to put the blame on the people whose lives their policies destroyed, or the people trying to undo the damage that they created.

I am sure that there are thousands like this man out there that if they were given a chance to rebuild their lives, and learn a new trade, would do exactly that. The WPA and CCC's in FDR's time did exactly that, and left us with a legacy of buildings and roads in our national parks, among many other civic improvements. But the GOP has prevented even the most minor of similiar programs this time.

Ah yeah.. The good ole days. Instead of standing around a fire in a 55 gal drum in YOUR city.. You could have been 1500 miles from home at a mountain pass in the Sierras in the DEAD OF WINTER --- standing around a 55 gal drum fire..

And when the blizzard passes -- you can bust your balls and risk your neck hanging from the roof of that railway tresle you're building WITHOUT benefit of the EPA or OSHA..

Sure --- I get all weepy eyed about all that. Came in a Wrapped Bundle with a Movie Review Board that CENSORED all your films.. We NEED MORE of that..

Now --- did you have an opinion on how HELPLESS all of these poverty cases are? And how a CHECK is all they need?

 

[LoneLaugher]

Did ya get what you needed LL??

I work hard to make you happy...

Not really. You have failed to provide evidence that the liberal media has taken a shit on this human interest story.

Thanks anyway, though.

 

[flacaltenn]

Did ya get what you needed LL??

I work hard to make you happy...

Not really. You have failed to provide evidence that the liberal media has taken a shit on this human interest story.

Thanks anyway, though.

Did ya check the video at 1min-- 10seconds?

Interesting that this doesn't pique your intellect UNLESS your political ox just got gored..

 

[Katzndogz]

Interesting that the liberals oppose efforts to help this man stand on his own and hand wring over not throwing money at the problem.

To liberals the teacher would have been compelled to give the homeless man the $100.00 and prohibited from teaching him anything.

Then blame republucans

 

[flacaltenn]

Interesting that the liberals oppose efforts to help this man stand on his own and hand wring over not throwing money at the problem.

To liberals the teacher would have been compelled to give the homeless man the $100.00 and prohibited from teaching him anything.

Then blame republucans

Could happen..

In NYC they've banned activist food programs from feeding the poor because the food wasn't "nutritious enough".. And in San Fran, they banned activists there because they didn't apply for Health Dept oversight..

As if eating out of dumpsters and garbage cans isn't riskier..
Too many restrictions on folks attempting to help already...