This post really resonates with me. When I was in high school I was interested in taking a computer science class. So I asked a guy who knew how to program what he thought. He said if I didn't already know how to program I was probably too old because you have to learn a language when you're young. He said I would probably do poorly in the class, get a bad grade, and that would affect my ability to get into a good college. I listened to his advice and didn't take computer science in high school. After all, he knew about programming and I didn't!

A few years later I realized that his "advice" was a really prevalent attitude of knowledge gate keeping in computer science. After all, if you dunk on all the people trying to learn and convince them they're not good enough every time they encounter some minor road block, you get to keep your special status as smarter than and better than.

I thought this behavior was just "high school immaturity" but apparently many people never get over their insecurities because I encounter people well into their 50s still doing it.