News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Homeless man releases app after learning to code.

Re:Homeless man releases app after learning to code by ritchiea on Saturday December 14, 2013 @08:57PM (#6907985)
On one hand this is great, on the other, what does this guy do now? How does this help him? I imagine this helps his self esteem, which is a good thing and a meaningful non-tangible benefit. But it's not as though he can go get a job now. And he still doesn't have a place to live. And I'm not saying the dev who taught Leo to code is somehow in the wrong, I'm genuinely curious what the next step could be for this gentleman.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Homeless man releases app after learning to code by iancarroll on Saturday December 14, 2013 @09:30PM (#6908084)
It costs 99 cents. That's 70 cents per install. A few days ago, this app was #10 on the App Store. I can imagine this will help him a lot.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Homeless man releases app after learning to code by moocowduckquack on Saturday December 14, 2013 @09:19PM (#6908049)
This isn't actually as rare as is being made out, though good luck to him, once he has an online folio of work sorted he should be able to freelance off this. A lot of people have housing problems during their lives and there are a fair few coders, so it is no surprise that the two sets overlap, especially given the tendency to nomadism. It is amazing what you can do with a cheap laptop and free wifi.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Homeless man releases app after learning to code by coldtea on Saturday December 14, 2013 @10:43PM (#6908281)
>This isn't actually as rare as is being made out

Well, of all the app developers (there are now 1 million apps for iOS alone, so let's say all US developers are 100,000) how many are similar cases? 1? 2? 10?

1 such story in multiple thousands IS rate in my books.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Homeless man releases app after learning to code by moocowduckquack on Sunday December 15, 2013 @12:46AM (#6908524)
3.5 million people in the US experience homelessness in any given year, I think you would be suprised how many professionals have gone through a period of homelessness. Most people who have gone through housing problems don't tend to advertise the fact in work situations.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Homeless man releases app after learning to code by myk7 on Sunday December 15, 2013 @12:13AM (#6908468)
Why do you say he couldn't get a job? I'd say this demonstrates pretty clearly that he's capable of applying himself and making things happen.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Homeless man releases app after learning to code by ritchiea on Sunday December 15, 2013 @10:44AM (#6909722)
I watched the video of him describing the app, and it seems as though he'd have trouble with a job interview. Is that just my impression? Do you disagree?
[ Parent | on HN ]