Right. We're talking about the people more likely to be in the 15%.

>...and (as Sam Altman later says[1]) libraries are available for the less fortunate. Compare that to biology. Or chemistry. Or mechanical engineering. Or becoming a plumber.

That seems a little disingenuous or at least dismissive. You really can't compare the experience of learning to program on your own laptop, where you can install your own software and work in the comfort of your own home, to a public library that you have to walk to 30 minutes each way in a cold and dangerous neighborhood, to use a machine that is probably 10 years old and requires you to use internet explorer and prevents you from installing anything at all.

In fact, if it were really that easy to learn programming on the web, then it should be just as easy to learn biology or chemistry or mechanical engineering. The information is all on wikipedia-- there's even web courses on Coursera that people can take that are taught by some of the best lecturers in the world. You can even fill in gaps in your K-12 knowledge via Khan Academy.

> Mentors are helpful, but they're certainly not required to learn programming.

I'm going to say this is just false. I do not know anyone who is a competent programmer who has never interacted with someone else. I do know plenty of people who have tried to learn how to program and given up because they got stuck and couldn't figure out how to get to the next level. Having that mentor there is crucial even for the most determined individual.

> The only really necessary things are (again) a computer, internet access, and time.

This is exactly OP's point. The kid in this story has none of these, except the time component. And as he gets older and has to work his way through college, that free time is going to shrink even more while he has to compete with people who are increasingly better prepared for the courses he's in.

I think overall that coding is simply easier than the other disciplines you're comparing it to. People who learn "how to program" are not learning computer science, in the same way that people teaching themselves how to cook meth aren't learning chemical engineering. They're both just people who are motivated to learn a specific skill that is in high demand and lets them see the product of their work directly and immediately. The quality of that work though will suffer if they don't receive a more well-rounded education in the general field, which is much harder to receive without mentoring, time, money, and all the other conveniences of middle class life.