[fhadley]

I found that one particular phrase,"technically privileged", both hilarious and utterly horrifying. Hilarious because I suppose I never paused to consider that the folks in my major who were both curious and motivated enough to be involved in the field outside of class to be particularly "privileged". I suppose I should have given greater thought to how unfair it was that read API documents and I didn't!

Like I said though, it wasn't just good times and passive aggressive complaining about first world problems while I read this. I can't even begin to fathom the miserable, pathetic, and generally small, unexamined existence that would lead one to believe that h(s)e is somehow the victim of deep injustice at the hands of those people with their prejudiced technical abilities and natural curiosity! How dare they not level the playing field just because she never bothered to explore the use of code outside the classroom; clearly everyone missed that she's the subjugated one, with a comfortable liberal arts education and regular internet access.

But still, we should all take a moment to recognize the plight of the comfortable, generally satisfactory lives of those among us struggling silently with the burden of "technical un-privilege."

[cushychicken]

What an uncharitable response to someone who had a legitimate revelation and used it as a catalyst for personal growth! Software development is intimidating to outsiders - of course it's a privilege to be on the inside. (Or at least it appears that way.) This isn't a complaint about an unlevel playing field - it's an awakening on how to get better at doing something you love.

[penprog]

What does it even mean to be on the inside? Nobody in my family had any experience with computers. My first programming book was a gift for me when I was ten that I asked for (it was a learn C++ in 24 hours book). You can imagine how that turned out with nobody there to help me. I didn't understand what variables were let alone how to add the compiler to the path on windows. The only help I had was that my dad bought me the book and I had a family computer in the living room.

Am I on the inside?

[mentalbastille]

Yes; you started at 10, and had a computer growing up to practice on.

[penprog]

So pretty much everyone in the US who owned a computer was on in the inside.

[prawks]

This article reminded me of an NPR piece I saw a few days ago about "When Women Stopped Coding"[1]. The theory goes that without having prior knowledge of working with computers, people cannot compete in many introductory computer science classes. Computers had been marketed like toys, to one gender: boys. Because of this, it was rare for women to have prior computer experience, and so struggled and dropped out of CS.

It made me reconsider what "technical privilege" really means and why I think it's a valid thing. Exposure to computers and technology outside of the classroom is definitely becoming more common, but not the kind of hobbyist interest that this article talks about.

[1] http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/10/21/357629765/when-wom...

[abrahamepton]

I don't think the author meant "technically privileged" as "those unfairly given an advantage for whatever reason". To me, it read more as, "folks who grew up immersed in this stuff" vs "folks who come to it later in life". I started coding in high school, and I think I approach it very differently than people who never wrote a line of anything until sometime in college or later. It strikes me as a legit difference, not one to bemoan as unjust but worth pointing out to people just getting started who might be intimidated.

[pessimizer]

Having had a bit of empathy during my college years, I spent a lot of time complaining about how my instructors and my program leaned heavily on the fact that a large percentage of students would be hobbyists, and used that as an excuse to not teach.

I'm sure it would have been easier to lean on the fact that I'm the son of two computer programmers, always had a computer (and various manuals) in the house, and started learning C when I was 10 - and to look at the plight of people who were less fortunate than me as a "first world problem", as education and employment are normally rarely described.

>But still, we should all take a moment to recognize the plight of the comfortable, generally satisfactory lives of those among us struggling silently with the burden of "technical un-privilege."

Because everybody who goes to college must come from comfortable, generally satisfactory lives - they all must have grown up with the internet, owned computers, went to good schools, and couldn't have come from crushing poverty or from the third world. They must have all been exactly like you, except lazy.

I must be misunderstanding your post, because it seems exceptionally cruel, in an cocky, stupid way.

[chrisBob]

Did we read the same thing? I got the impression that the author realized at the end that "technically privileged" was just an illusion, and the whole point is that they don't exist.

[aragot]

Yes, to me this piece flies way past the "technically privileged" assertion. And in this way, it is one of the best counter-arguments to the "technically privileged" accusation some people have against our field.

[fhnjh]

Well they do in a sense. It's the difference between growing up in a family like Roald Dahl's 'Matilda' and in a family that encourages growth. I also think that having a family member in the software development would make the transition into the world of work quite a bit easier. But in the end the right attitude can trump any of these things, which is what the author discovered. I am happy for him.

[unclesaamm]

You're missing the point: it's not about "outside of class", it's about prior experience