Comment by nanodano | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nanodano | Hacker News Reader

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> My career (and surely the career of the article writer and anyone else who is not a bro) came as a result of the other 50%, talented, generous men and women whose shared their expertise and encouraged me.

I guess the difference is that some people don't need the encouragement of others in order to succeed. Many great programmers are self taught and self motivated. How has being gay made it harder to learn to program? Did people tell you gays weren't allowed? Did they tell you to quit because gays aren't good at coding? Did they ask you, "Wait, you're a programmer, and you're GAY!?" Did other programmers make fun of you for being gay? Was the encouragement you got specifically about being gay? Is it because you are gay that you needed the extra encouragement? Just trying to understand...

Bullshit. At some point, someone encouraged you to succeed.

Maybe it was when you grew up and were encouraged by any given authority figure to do something, maybe it was finding common ground talking about your wife instead of your husband, maybe it was when you didn't need to wonder whether you were turned down for skill or skin color, maybe it was when you knew someone was interested in you not your tits, but you were encouraged.

Personally, I'm going to encourage you to actually listen to other people's perspectives instead of challenging them to justify their life experiences.

> maybe it was finding common ground talking about your wife instead of your husband, maybe it was when you didn't need to wonder whether you were turned down for skill or skin color

And maybe I am a self-taught gay Puerto Rican who disagrees that gay people need special encouragement in order to succeed.

Fair enough, mu apologies for getting all Reddit-y.

I'm in the camp that at some point, everyone needs help. The unfortunate fact is, a lot of people aren't going to get the same amount of help, or even help at the right time, and they're going to fail as a result. Worse, they're not going to realize they could have done better.

When we're talking about continuing to try, and being positive and always working towards a solution, part of the conversation should ideally be that getting to that place involves something different for different people. Fair?

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