The tech industry as a whole has a really severe class problem. There is a really terrible negative attitude towards the poor and the rural. We as an industry focus a lot on race and gender (and not in that order), but the real taboo subject that makes everyone uncomfortable is talking about what it's like to be poor.

It's especially bad here on HN where often the conversation devolves into people telling me that I'm wrong about my childhood where I grew up poor...or how poor people are a blight on society.

The single topic that I find in my career people insist on secrecy is about poverty. I continue to be open about it so that others are willing to talk about it to someone, because otherwise you just can't.