Yes, you, too, can end up in tech by chance, without any "privilege or luck"! You merely need to skip Econ recitations and Chinese club at Princeton so you can learn to code and join a startup.
Please don't comment like this here. Whatever substantive point you might have is lost amid the snark and bile, and those are two acids we need less of.
I didn't think it was 'dismayingly nasty' or bilious; I thought it was mildly snarky and made an important substantive point which was not lost.
Btw I didn't threaten to ban. I try to be careful that way, and this was a "please don't", not a "we ban accounts that do this, so please don't".
You cannot have meaty discussion amongst people with diverse points of view from diverse backgrounds without an expectation of civility and respect. If that isn't enforced, then minority viewpoints have no hope of being taken seriously. It becomes an echo chamber and the oxygen gets sucked out of the community. This can also drive away your most valued contributors and/or make their contributions toxic in a way they can't stop.
There is all kinds of problems with saying that it is okay to express a valid point in a nasty fashion.
The avg houshold income is ~50k, and over 20% of their residents are under the poverty line.
Yes, he skipped Econ recitations, but I think you're being almost absurdly reductionist for a fairly decent reflection on how someone ended up in a job they never expected. Not to mention the last sentence where he even states he feels "ridiculously privileged".
There are entire states with lower avg household incomes. 20% below the poverty line is also substantially lower than many rust belt cities (detroit metro: ~39%, flint: ~55%, gary: 48.5%).
Pieces like this are dangerous because they distract us from the often insurmountable challenges many children in america are born into
So it might be worth mentioning that this young man has a lot of advantages merely by being born in an average household in a first world country, and being located close enough to Princeton so he could talk to professors there, etc. That should not detract from his achievements, but maybe it can help put them in some kind of perspective.
Stop being coy and pretending like you just "stumbled" into being successful. Own it. It is okay to be successful.
It's OK to acknowledge the tremendous set of fortuitous coincidences that _allowed you to make yourself successful_ -- doing so does not diminish you. This guy understands this.
I count my own luck starting with being born in a wealthy country at peace. I moved to other wealthy countries not at war (including, right now, the USA which by any real measure faces no existential threat and is follows a rule of law). Yes I also won the sperm-ovum lottery and by changing countries am now considered part of the "accepted" race. There are roads not taken, and opportunities missed and its worth losing at them to see how more people can have the opportunity to succeed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_Uni...
The United States is at war all over the entire damn world. A couple days ago its ramifications were clearly displayed when 100 people were shot in Orlando.
You're more likely to be killed by someone behind the wheel but looking at their phone than you are by some loony trying to tie the US's external activities to something he or she was going to do anyway. The country faces no existential threat, which is why people have time to argue about picayune crap like ISIL.
You want existential threat? People in Syria are facing existential threats (and yet the US has its oar in there too). My parents grew up in towns bombed by invading forces while they were kids (on different continents); my mum's family had to flee into the jungle. My in laws' town (in yet another continent) was bombed flat while they were kids too. Even the attacks of September 2001 did not threaten the existence of the republic or the country, despite the massive and expensive thrashing of the subsequent "immune response."
Some of the things mentioned struck a close chord with me. My parents are immigrants and - though they would have liked to help - they had no higher education nor any advice to provide me when I was doing things like choosing the college to apply/attend, filling out/submitting financial aid forms, figuring out how to pay for college myself, even choosing my major, let alone helping me with suggestions on my future professional career! I was born here in the U.S., so i was "lucky" to not have language as an additional barrier. And as other posters stated, being in certain geographic regions of U.S. is helpful...But still, navigating your way through some aspects of life without having sage advice from experienced people, and people who can help with things like careers, college, etc. is freaking really hard!
Again, congrats to Randy Brown - and all the Randy Browns of the world - for this kind of accomplishment. To echo @simonw's perfect statement: very inspiring story!