Comment by orangethirty | Hacker News Reader

Comment by orangethirty | Hacker News Reader

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I live in the same town you were born. Conditions are still hard. Unemployment is through the roof. The few programming jobs available pay around $10/hr. And they are mostly doing maintenance on old C#/Visual Basic systems.But that's better than what most of the population gets. Minimum wage is the norm. People make around 12K per year, and have to deal with very high costs of living. Plus the shitty infrastructure.

I had it rough, too. Grew up in a barrio. Where most of my childhood friends are either dead, in jail, or crackheads. Few ever managed to make it into college (I did not). I'm the only one who has actually made something out of himself. But not without a lot of hardships. Not long ago (less than 5 years ago) I was completely broke, no transportation, no job, nothing. But somehow I kept moving forward. Throwing punches whenever I could. Like you, I was lucky. My parents got me a computer ( a C64) early on. No one else in a radius of 5 sq. miles had a computer. It was the best thing to ever happen to me. It gave something for me to hold on to when all my friends were busy learning how to sell drugs. It kept me safe at home when drive-by-shootings started to happen. It also helped me not get a young lady pregnant (which was the norm).

Nowdays, I am an accomplished engineer, marketing consultant, and entrepreneur. I work remotely, with a great team, building a very tough system (that has me writing code like crazy in different languages). Also help great people build their businesses into powerhouses. Best of all, I get to build my own businesses, which I find extremely fun (to the point of even doing some as a hobby). Who knows what would have happened to me had I not discovered my love for code? I know that I would not be able to say how proud I am of reading about a fellow puertorican who has made it. Good luck, and let me know if you ever visit. I know a place who makes great frituras.

Wow, what a story. Thank you for sharing it. I always had some notion of the depressing realities I'd have faced if I stuck around on the island – but your testimony takes it to a new level.

It's amazing. Education really is the silver bullet. And computers are the most revolutionary education tool ever devised. Way to climb out of a tough spot, my fellow boricua.

Education is a good bullet, but its part of an arsenal.

Not everyone can make of the tools the same house you have fashioned, which follows from people themselves being massively varied.

I suspect that many tools in your tool case would be used in a variety of manners for people who wanted to get out.

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Side note - I've heard "education is the silver bullet for our problems" and seen it applied with very disappointing results.

On one hand it has definitely given several people a path to move up in life. But its also been terrible for the rest of the populace.

It ended up creating legions of people who are literate but not 'educated'. A curious situation where people can say they know about rationality without having to be rational.

It produces legions of people who can perform mental athletics like rote memorization, or mental calculus and other tricks, but about poor understanding of the logic of the underlying principles they apply.

The number of people who grow up to be like the two of you is few and far between.

I would argue that one can attain literacy without being educated.

When I say education is the silver bullet, I guess I mean that a full suite of well-rounded knowledge, along with the tools and confidence to derive more knowledge, can cure most social ills.

But your point is well-taken. I think we can lay the blame for, say, young-earth creationism at the feet of a widespread state of literacy without education.

You know enough to read a book, but not enough to know why you shouldn't take its contents at face value.

> ... a full suite of well-rounded knowledge, along with the tools and confidence to derive more knowledge, can cure most social ills

> You know enough to read a book, but not enough to know why you shouldn't take its contents at face value.

Exactly my position - you can be literate (able to read, write and master a subject enough to be employed) but either are unwilling or unable to understand the implications/meaning of what you have read.

Educated people, the way I've seen it, can apply and use what they know to make the world as a whole better, or at the very least not encourage or allow assaults on the societal contract.

I think for a while, people assumed that there was a strong correlation between education and being able to think for yourself. Especially after seeing people like yourselves who used education as a way to actually be people who have a moral compass and excel in society.

What people didn't want is the legions of excellent workers who can value a firm from its financials in their heads, but turn around and promote intolerance, racism and corruption.

Perhaps its got a lot more to do with the role models you saw. As you said you had someone who became a thief, but from the way you write, it seems that path just didn't make sense to you.

Yes, education is the important factor. Though education != college. It goes farther than that. It is what we learn from our parents ever since the day we can think. Both of my parents are very strongly educated people, something that they passed on to me (and my brothers).

Computers are an amazing tool. That is why I'm always helping people learn to use and program them. I wish all programmers would do the same. It makes a huge difference.

Oh, and I'm not done climbing. :)

Thank you.

PS. Lets keep in touch. Email in profile.

Great story. Even though I love the island, especially if/when you have kids, get out of there. It's sad that rather than advise an intelligent, motivated, hard working individual to stay and make the place better I'd advice them to get out, but I just don't see the problems getting better. There is something broken about the current culture in Puerto Rico. I'm glad I'm raising my kids on the mainland, they are learning the culture and language but in an environment where I don't have to look over my shoulder at all times. There are plenty of bad places here too, but it's much easier to get away from them here than there.

As much as it saddens me, I haven't met anyone who has left and hasn't found a better/safer opportunity here. We're lucky we don't need to worry about citizenship...

Mano y si necesitas ayuda me avisas, yo soy Cagueño también! 3 in one hn thread! Ship me some alcapurrias ;)

Thank you. I appreciate the offer. May you shoot me an email?

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