vailprogrammer

More than half the population of CO was born outside of the state. I would be surprised if it was still a top 5 state for educational attainment when looking only at those born and raised in the state.

> higher altitudes within the US have fewer environmental contaminants

Living in Denver, I routinely see headlines (and see with my own eyes) about how terrible the air quality is here, at certain times of the year at least. Wonder if that data controls for whether someone is in a high-altitude city or at the summit of a 14,000+ ft mountain.

As someone with autoimmune issues who rarely checks HN but is very interested in your work, do you have a newsletter I could sign up for or an email address I could reach out to to receive updates on your work?

I'm curious, what is your approach to some of the most common distractions in society? Namely TV (youtube?), movies, video games, and social media. Personally I have completely removed TV, social media, and video games. I only watch 1, maybe 2 movies per month. I know that I am much much happier having removed those things from my life, but I still have a hard time focusing. Wondering what other steps I could take.

As an American with an EU passport, thanks for the idea. I had been leaning towards moving/retiring to Grenoble, France for the engineering university nestled in the Alps, but I will look further afield.

> towns of that type had to be mostly independent in terms of income for money inflow....small factories, mining, farming and ranching, etc.

> I'd say that this movement of people who can afford it just another side effect of something bigger.

It sort of sounds like you answer your own question (/hypothesis): consolidation of industry. Which also seems to be a pretty big driver in wealth inequality. I've no idea what the correct response is here -- greater regulation to increase competition, so that there are more smaller players across any given industry? Who knows.

Good point. I guess you could say that its the contents of skyscrapers that are harmful to wildlife: humans. Lots of traffic (whether car, bicycle, foot, alpine touring skiing, etc) causes the wildlife herds to be pushed further away from where they originally may have inhabited.

Sorry but that is false. Please name even 1 hotel in Vail that is 10+ stories. The tallest that I can think of is 5, maybe 6 stories.

edit: having been a ski bum in Vail, I can't say that I've visited every resort in CO. But across Vail, Breck, Keystone, A Basin, Loveland, Monarch, Cooper, Copper, Beaver Creek, Steamboat, Wolf Creek, Crested Butte, all 5 mountains of Aspen, there are no 10+ story towers. I'm trying to take back some of the pedantic tone of my original comment.

Not sure what you mean.

I agree with this sentiment in cities, however, I believe that this approach in the mountains would result in skyscrapers being built in areas of natural beauty, and be harmful to all of the wildlife that live there. The Eagle (Vail) Valley is relatively small to begin with.

Lived in Vail for 4 years. I wouldn't say that they are exaggerating...

You're trying to say that both of your parents being college educated didn't provide you with any kind of advantage over someone born into poverty with uneducated parents? "Classist prejudice" is false?? Wealthier people, don't have an easier time growing up? Where is the disconnect there?

We're getting off track here. Upthread, you mentioned this negative minority who are unlucky and downtrodden. I countered that the majority of people in America are poor. I think that's something we could agree on? Some were unlucky, some were born into shitty situations, some made bad decisions. I want to know what you think all of those people should do to improve their situations? All 3 groups I mentioned. Just develop better self discipline and work harder? Genuinely curious. My contention is that the system is stacked against them, capitalism has swung too far in favor of Owners of Capital.

I like it. How would the bank make its money? The standard exploitative practices of other banks, just with smaller fees ($5 overdraft fee instead of $37?, or lower interest rate spreads?) or just charge $50 a year, and do away with those fees? Would that lead to too many people taking advantage of it?

You don't think that you are lucky to have been born into an upper middle class family, without any serious psychological issues?

Someone born with mental problems is automatically an immoral, bad person?

> Somehow other cultures tend to place virtue in the development of discipline, a personal responsibility which can mitigate all kinds of external erosions of self control.

But what about all of the social safety nets in Europe? Seems like they take care of people in hard times, rather than tell them to just develop more discipline...?

>expect the world to throw money at them and their 3 children in LA for an advanced English degree.

Would you agree that hindsight is 20/20? How were these people supposed to know that they won't make money with their graduate degrees, years ago? They are in a tough spot because of bad choices made in the past, and so they deserve no sympathy now? They should be homeless?

Your parents, who fought their way to upper middle class as immigrants, what percent of your college did they pay for?

> media like these focus exclusively on this negative minority and exaggerate the negativity of the status quo.

Can you expand on 'this negative minority' ? Because I think there are a lot more poor people than 'upper middle class' people in this country.

> I have little sympathy for people who consistently plan poorly and make bad decisions

Why not? Self control isn't some moral, righteousness, trait. To possess a certain level of self control, is to be lucky in its own right. Turns out its generally dictated by the Pre Frontal Cortex. And when that gets damaged (whether via head injury, lead poisoning as a child, malnourishment, any number of reasons), people lose self control: https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/71/6/720

Not sure why you're being downvoted, maybe its some SF NIMBYers? Anyways, your second sentence brings me an interesting idea. What if someone built a website with links to easily email local representatives (kind of like the Craigslist webmail links, maybe also with a message body filled in), so that people could quickly and easily send in complaints about housing/zoning restrictions? This idea partially inspired by the Airnoise button: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18792029

"Honey, those people are lazy, so they deserve to be poor!"

Dear lord. Go work in some shitty jobs full of poor people, and count how many work hard versus how many are lazy. Those 1%ers would be shocked at what they saw. But of course, how could they ever see the help as humans deserving of a decent, not-always-financially-scared life?

> sob stories about people who spent half their lives pursuing 3 uneconomical degrees, had 3 more kids than they could afford, in cities with some of the highest costs of living in the world, and now complain that they're living paycheck to paycheck.

So the person who ....

- never attended any sort of college, but did graduate high school

- is single and childless, in fact have no family at all as their parents died poor and young

- is living paycheck to paycheck, whether in a city or rural area

...just doesn't exist? And if they do exist, please enlighten me on what steps they should take to correct their situation?

Just curious, but are your parents college educated?

Is everyone just supposed to be as smart as us programmers? Is it peoples' own fault if they're stupid? Do they deserve no sympathy or humanity?

Right now I make $13/hr in an expensive city. I'm working to find a software job, but the people I work with... they don't have anything else. They're just happy to hold down a steady job. How do you suggest these people magically gain the intelligence and/or self-control/self-discipline and free time and knowledge of a solid path to improve their situation? Because they sure as shit can't afford to go to nursing school, but do they even know what to type into google to start teaching themselves marketable skills?

I feel bad for people like you who lack empathy to such a degree. Just literally disconnected from such a large portion of humanity.

Where can I email you? If you're open to helping others, that is. No email listed in your profile

2) I just realized that while I don't have much in the way of side projects that go along with my hospitality work, I am in a ski town and have skied over 500 days in the last 4 years.... I have probably 15+ side projects or side project ideas related to skiing, would those be suitable?

1) Understood, and will do. How do you suggest I frame the 4 year gap in tech work though? "I decided that after 17 years of school, I wanted to take some time off to ski. That year off turned into 4 but now I'm back" ?

2) Right now I'm just building some small things that are useful utilities for my personal life, but after those I plan on doing some more advanced stuff with computer vision. I could probably create something that ties face recognition into a hotel valet system....

3) Maybe its just the pessimist in me, but I am afraid that managers think I'm just trying to escape the hospitality industry, rather than looking to make my mark in the tech industry. I do agree that it's been very useful though, I can get along well with anyone now. This kind of segues into why I'm asking about networking: I feel like on paper I'm not that impressive but if I can get to know someone in a hiring position at a software company they'll see how much of an asset I could be.

Now that I think about it, I can see how going to events might not have the effectiveness I'm looking for. Once I've built up my portfolio some more and am feeling more confident in my interviewing skills, I'll start sending emails out like you suggest. This impostor syndrome really holds me back some times I feel like.

Thank you for the response! Any further help is appreciated, particularly with how to frame my 4 year hiatus from tech.

Thanks for the reply! I’ve worked at several different restaurants here, but I’ll see about kind of merging all of that under just 1 restaurant on my resume. I also started and ran a service business for 3 months last summer, should I keep that on my resume? My concern is that hiring managers will ask why I didn’t start a tech business. But at the same time I learned tons of useful stuff from running all aspects of that business.

Hey man, where did you do most of your skiing? Also I would love to chat with you about how you went from ski bum to professional programmer (I'm assuming) but you don't have an email in your bio. Cheers