"It's not a matter of privilege, it's a matter of ability."
Oh, you must be very young! :)
Oh, you must be very young! :)
The point for me is recognizing that yes, I have been fortunate in my circumstances (solely by being born in a first world country in this century I was ahead of the majority of people born ever).
Having free time to pursue your interests is a luxury.
If I could extend that same privilege to others I would in a heartbeat because I think it would be both morally right and for the greater good.
If I don't recognize my already good place in the world I am disrespecting the people who worked hard to put me in the advantaged position that I am in.
Even this concept bothers me. Why do we in the "first world" (God, even the term sounds pretentious) assume we are living the height of human existence? If you live in the US, you're likely working longer hours than you would in almost any other country, and your fulfillment in life likely comes from acquiring, storing, and maintaining stuff. Contrast that with, say, rural Mongolians, who live off the land, have much tighter communities, and are largely oblivious to the problems we in high society have. Assuming that the rest of the world wants to live this insane existence we do is more offensive than not recognizing one's privilege, IMO.
> If I could extend that same privilege to others I would in a heartbeat because I think it would be both morally right and for the greater good.
Again, one man's privilege is another man's hell. I would, for instance, not want to be a trust fund baby, living a life where nothing is a challenge, where I can never truly know if someone's just being my friend or love interest because of my money, and where the rest of society stereotypes me because of a situation I had no choice about being born into. I'd rather be a rural Mongolian, TBH.
I also think it's complete folly to assume that working in tech is the height of society. It's not, which is why a lot of people don't pursue it. It's fucking tedious most of the time, you sit with your neck craned over a computer for 8+ hours a day and develop bizarre RSS conditions and nothing you build is actually material. It's not like the trades where you move your body during the day and can actually step back and see what you built or helped build.
I am definitely not one of these people that things we should teach everyone how to code. Programming is lucrative right now because not many people have a passion or a tolerance for it but the need for it is increasing. It's that simple. It's not about privilege, or race, or sex, or anything. It's just another tedious, painful thing that needs to be done that some people have a higher tolerance for than others (usually white, nerdy, socially-awkward people).