Leo the Homeless Coder Finished His App, and You Can Download It Right Now
slate.com
slate.com
Stories like this are actually a disservice to the cause of technology as an agent for social and environmental change.
....every single time. Now watch as the comment section get destroyed. It's already the top-comment. By the time my comment is 12hrs old, this comment thread will take up 2 screen lengths and hardly any other comments will occur outside of it.... that is, if HN's algo doesn't drop this story from the frontpage in the next 15mins.
I have imagined myself doing what the "privileged narcissistic clown" -- as you call him -- did in this story. I haven't done it yet, but one of these days I am going to push myself enough to do it. I fail to see how he was patronizing the homeless gentlemen. It seems to me that he was treating the guy as a fellow human deserving of respect, and as having potential. If he didn't think he had potential, he would not have bothered. Seriously... what is wrong with you?
If you study the issue (like we did) you will find that this is a common and recurring problem, as homeless people are mentally vulnerable and open to narcissistic individuals.
Nothing against helping others -- I myself volunteered for social-change tech ngos for several years. My problem is in exploiting a vulnerable person for personal gain, which this guy is obviously doing.
which this guy is obviously doing.
You're not projecting your own personal experience into this story at all, are you? The only way for you to draw this conclusion is to have spoken directly with Patrick McConlogue, and for him to confirm to you that his motives were to exploit this guy.
Two people can have wildly different internal motives that produce similar-looking behaviors. Careful with your snap judgments.
It seems like a mutual gain to me, compared to a do-nothing approach. If the news story were "Leo goes back to square one after software engineer ditches him after getting publicity" then it would be a different story, but for now, the cynicism feels pregnant but premature.
I'm not accusing McConlogue to throw Leo under the bus. I am accusing McConlogue to throw technology professionals under the bus: People who believe in the cause of technology for social development and environmental change. People who make real sacrifices and take their job seriously instead of making up little games. People who would not call a homeless person "unjustly homeless" as if others were "justly homeless".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_and_communication_t...
There's more than one way to skin a cat. People do methods A, B, and C all the time. This guy is trying method D, and doesn't seem to be gunning for repeatable or sustainable or "solve the homeless problem in one fell swoop". He comes across as arrogant and out-of-touch on his blog but he's basically got the dude's back. IMO, at the end of the day all of that adds up to a good thing.
Also, I've worked with some NGOs and I've found them to be generally ineffective at solving problems but great at making volunteers feel good about themselves so the last place I'd want to go if I wanted to understand homelessness would be aid workers, and the first place would be some reading, my own instincts, and working with one individual homeless person. I personally like the "ballsy n=1 experiment" approach he's taking - even though his language makes him come across as kind of a dick.
Also, he is making a real sacrifice - one in terms of time/effort teaching him to code, and two in terms of reputation/job risk. If Leo fails, or if the media twists it the wrong way, McConlogue looks like a jackass and he seems smart enough to understand that.
I think McConlogue's point is that homeless people aren't all stupid, stoned-out losers. And that some are capable of learning pretty complex stuff. Sure, plenty of homeless are screwed up, some hopelessly so, but we can't blanket them all with that label.
Here's a guy who's acting locally. And it takes some guts to do something risky. McConlogue may not be thinking globally, but he's doing what he can. Which is far more than a lot of us can claim.
And then you say I am biased?
Are you accusing me of bias when I said "homeless people aren't all stupid, stoned-out losers"? That doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
I leave money to homeless people, but I do it since it makes me feel good. I do it for me first (to be honest), then for them. I wish I have the dedication to do what this young man did, because I often think how cool it would be, but I end up just giving money. huh...
Somewhere along the line he helped make the world aware of his own actions.
Please explain to me how directly getting in and spending time educating someone is 'turning it into a game'.
[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States#Fa...
What have you done for anyone lately?
If this is the case how would we know it - what data points would show it? And how might a report on those look?
I appreciate your reminder that the correct approach is to keep a safe distance and loudly bemoan the problem as "a complex issue".
In a lot of ways, what he's doing, on a small scale, is similar to the street newspaper concept that has gained significant popularity in cities worldwide. (Disclosure: I do some volunteer layout for such a newspaper.) The guy has a way to build income for himself now, and has learned skills which could someday be useful. But most importantly, he didn't have a creative idea foisted onto him. He came up with it on his own. It might not make him a ton of money, but there is the potential it'll make him a few dollars he didn't have before.
That part about coming up with the idea on his own is huge—way huger than you think. That is something that will help Leo build confidence in his own talents. It's exactly why street newspapers are largely written by the homeless, rather than merely sold by them.
I'm not saying that this is going to solve anything, and as we've learned from similar stories (golden-voiced Ted Williams, made-over veteran James Wolf), these situations often turn dark and raise huge ethical questions the second the person relapses in any way. So maybe it's not good that our energy is focused on two guys, one of whom may find himself unprepared for the pressures of unexpected fame.
But I think that there's something to be said about the fact that McConlogue is thinking about how to scale the concept. If he turns this idea into a nonprofit driven by donations, who knows what could happen next?
I don't think anyone expects what happened here to solve the problem. But there's some room to expand and build this idea. What if, like street newspapers, this concept grows into a way to build apps for the homeless, apps that work on easily-obtainable prepaid phones that help the homeless obtain easy access to public resources often hidden away by paperwork or location, or apps that make it easier to receive assistance from a bystander? Maybe you could even create a task-based micropayment app that allows people in such situations to raise money for themselves by performing small tasks like taking photos or reporting on their surroundings—say, a Mechanical Turk for mobile. Perhaps it could use a gameplay style similar to Waze or Foursquare? I'm spitballing here, but you see what I'm shooting for.
Maybe it's wrong that we're focusing our energy on a single tree when there's clearly a forest that needs to be dealt with first. But you know what? I'd rather that someone at least try to plant a seed rather than immediately dismiss the idea out of hand.
I suggest you take a look at his Medium blog.
While I firmly believe that its not necessarily the best idea that "everyone" learns to code I think stories like this serve as a reminder that hard times fall on all of us.
Thanks Patrick for not judging Leo to be someone he was not simply because he had fallen.
Thanks for setting an example that sometimes its the littlest things, small acts of kindness that can set a person's life back on track.
And Leo, Thanks for reminding us all that with a little perseverance we can accomplish anything we put our minds to.
While the PR is strong Leo should put on his conversion hat to generate actual downloads and turn this from a story into a success.
1) On the landing page, http://www.treesforcars.com, he needs as strong of a brief headline as they have in the article eg:
"Trees for Cars is a mobile application that aims to save the environment by helping users carpool to their destination."
2) Ditto on the app store description which, instead of the description, starts with a 3-liner clarifying Leo coded this himself.
More pictures / longer description on the description will also help.
Great primer @ Copyhackers on writing effective App Store copy http://copyhackers.com/2012/06/how-to-write-an-app-store-des...
10,000 global users will just not cut it by many orders of magnitude. Charging $1 for an app to try it out will not help to get to critical mass.
Please, other Leo, make the first year for free for your own and nature's good. I'm dreaming of ad hock ride shares becoming a reality since sooooo long and guess it would only work if it was pre-installed and activated by default on many many phones but then it could really have a huge impact on the global CO2 output.
Further thoughts on the app: Make it social:
* Users should be able to pick who they want to ride with, including age, sex, car brand etc. Stricter filters are less rides.
* Users should be able to pick who they don't want to ride with, little or bad feedback for example
* Users should be able to contact their ride partners without sharing any Facebook names, phone numbers etc.
* Optionally Users should be checked in on their rides for security. For extra paranoia, the app could send a special message to a contact person if the user doesn't check out from a ride. Ride sharing is little popular out of security concerns and full track of one's movement with check-in on a ride should reduce risks involved dramatically.
* Let the driver define a price per km (for friends, friends of friends, others)
* ask if you want more ideas. This is endless but I guess my post will not be noticed by the other Leo anyway ;)The idea being that friends can confirm users are who/what they say they are
Firstly, and most importantly, Leo is still homeless.
Second, who the hell is Patrick McConlogue? This whole charade is like the film Trading Places, it's like those awful Bum Fights videos, it's Patrick using a homeless person as an object of amusement.
Some aspects of the story seem implausible, e.g. how does a homeless person afford to pay the developer fees, or supply a valid home address and tax ID number for validation by Apple and Google, but I guess it doesn't really matter given the overall story.
I think people like Patrick, along with the 'everybody can code' movement, do all programmers a disservice. It makes a mockery of those who treat software development as a true profession and craft.
Finally, nobody seems to be talking about Leo's homelessness and how he's going to survive a bitterly cold winter, it's all about a stupid bloody app.
(seriously, you again?)
If everyone keeps talking about Leo and his app, he'll have more than enough money to get off the streets, assuming his homelessness wasn't caused by mental illness or addiction.
However, if people are only buying the app out of charity for Leo, it's no different than any other sad story which gets media attention resulting in charitable donations.
So what would the point have been of learning to code? Heck, the story might as well have been Leo getting taught a foreign language so he could do translation work over the internet via sites like CrowdFlower.
The idea that homeless people can code their way out of a terrible situation, when well-fed, pampered and experienced programmers can't even make decent money from the app store, is simply a farce.
This, today, is just a guy who wants to learn how to code. Good for him; I wish him the best.
It's not like he's rolling in money, and it's not like his mentor is taking a cut.
There was a documentary a while back of a homeless guy given $100,000 and no restrictions.
http://voices.yahoo.com/a-homeless-man-blows-100000-free-mon...
Some people just love the power trip, watching others dance to their tune.
Hmm.
I guess this is proof that it is possible.
It might be time to start asking the same question to some of the people around where I work.
Of course not, that's silly. We are discussing within the context of homelessness, in which the guy is playing a game with a vulnerable individual by offering an amount that is far higher than a change, but far lower that any developer (even junior) would consider an offensive offer for a mobile app.
I don't think you have the story straight. Patrick didn't get free labor, he taught Grand so he could create his own app (and maybe profit).
Since $100 has a higher marginal utility for a desperately poor homeless person than most people with adequate shelter, the fact that someone turns it down shows an uncommon amount of motivation.
But really, if you're going from what I said to "root causes of homelessness", I can't help but feel you're just looking to pick an argument.
I assume his mentor was the one who packaged them up for Android and iOS (especially since it's listed under his name on the iOS App Store).
Not that there is anything wrong with donating to support someone homeless working to get themselves into a better situation... or anything wrong with someone who needs so much trying to cash-in. It just doesn't feel like a good faith attempt to reduce CO2 emissions, that's all.
Side note: I appreciate the concern over whether this is exploitative. It doesn't make me mad. If you've read the stories, it hasn't been at ALL or even close, but the concern is fine.
And as someone who has been here for a while (a throwaway became my main account), this is probably the most disheartening thread I've ever read here. Where's the hacker mentality of trying to make something better? Criticize if you absolutely must, but then you damn sure better have a better idea on hand than "it's a complex problem".
And the 30% to Apple/Google is their share of building an ecosystem where a homeless guy with a laptop and some knowledge can produce a sellable product to help improve his life. They worked for that 30%.
I really hope apps like his become something everyone uses in 5 years. Generally, people might not think carpooling strangers together will work but, contrary to popular belief, it's already tried and true in the Washington, DC area. Slug lines, where strangers are picked up from park ride lots by drivers so they can all use the HOV lanes, have been operational for years without a murder or incident.