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I come from a worse environment than you and have risen to a higher position. (I was making $1m/yr last year - if you want any kind of token)

I still don’t think tech is a meritocracy and will continue to know that. Do not buy into this delusion.

Just because you made it - meritocracy it does not make.

What's your definition of a meritocracy then?

There's going to be nepotism and other unfair advantages anywhere in life, but I'm only interested in where a natural born programmer with a computer, some time after school, and not much else can end up. I think in the majority of cases this person can at least get an in somewhere, and once you have an in in tech, you'll be recognized by your team/manager if you do great work.

This is all made easier if there's free community college, good social safety nets, etc. which I fully support.

> you'll be recognized by your team/manager if you do great work

Why are you so sure of this?

>once you have an in in tech, you'll be recognized by your team/manager if you do great work.

It is naive to think every work environment is like this.

> Anyone with an internet connection...

More like 1) Internet connection 2) [cognitive] ability 3) time

Add 4) physical health and safety 5) mental health 6) a job market that would actually hire you

You can imagine tossing a dice for each requirement. Is that meritocracy?

> I hate how these people try to take my accomplishments away from me

This is a good example of self-serving bias.

"self-serving bias as a phenomenon in which we credit ourselves for positive occurrences (our successes) but blame others or external factors when adverse events (our perceived failures) happen"

https://psychcentral.com/health/self-serving-bias

Obviously cognitive ability is important. Not everyone can do everything. The point is whether people can realize their potential to a reasonable extent, whatever that potential is, without their initial social status being a dealbreaker. And having seen a lot of cases of people lifting themselves up with programming, I'm inclined to think it's true here.

I was in your situation and then I came down with MS when I was 26. How am I to succeed on my merit when my medication costs > 300k/yr and I have no idea how long I'll be able to work (or what I'll be able to do for the scope of my career)?

Can you tell me what the correct Konami code is for success here?

You provide anecdata of your experience but no evidence of substance really. Which is fine as an opinion, but not when you make claims about others like

> the people know who espouse all this "the system is rigged, everything sucks, full communism now" stuff never had any drive or patience to do or learn anything and just want to put in the least effort possible to smoke weed and sit around like a vegetable all day.

It is just anecdata, but I know at least 5 people on either side (besides people who were just average and got average results), and none that act in the one way but end up with the other result.

> You provide anecdata of your experience but no evidence of substance really.

If you are a brilliant programmer in the US what short of a crippling health/personality/relationship issue would prevent you from landing a highly paid job?

Curious what you would have those of us IN that group do?

I'm far from a brilliant programmer, but I did start as a 4-year old back in the 90s and I'm competent. I also got MS in my last semester of grad school.

Why is the grandparent commenter's experience a worthy anecdote and my is not? In order to know, we'd have to somehow control for inborn programming ability and run a large study comparing career/material results after several decades, which clearly we (currently) can't do.

(And this is without getting into other factors you can't control: There were plenty of people who were happy to accept help and do projects with me until they found out I was a.) female and b.) a teenager at the time.)

I ask because the answer seems to be 'sucks for you but the system is designed for the average person'. Okay, so why are we assuming the average person has no uncontrollable roadblocks?