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    Article: can you teach a coal miner to code

    December 22, 2020 | Uncategorized

    But when he does — even if it’s just for a moment — it’s like remembering the … I like reading stories about people getting into programming to solve their financial problems. The problem to solve here is how to retrain a ton of coal miners who were making solid wages before into new professions that aren't slowly vanishing. Ordinarily I hate these "everyone should learn to code" posts, because of how horrifically naive they seem to be at their core. “Anybody who can go down 3,000 feet in a mine can sure as hell learn to program as well,” Biden said at a New Hampshire event Monday. There's no doubt you're going to be able to find some former coal miners who would make good coders. The place looked like a coding shop: a “binary canary” logo looked over the stairs, old coal sacks and tools decorated the lobby. Ideally you should plan this career change while you are working and can afford to buy books, software, or any computer equipment you'll need. Called Bitsource, the company hired its staff with the unique goal of "teaching miners how to code." Here’s a look at Appalachia’s newest coders. Anyone can learn to code, and I’m glad to see recognition that you don’t need to be in your 20s to do this as a profession. You can’t make this stuff up. “Can you teach a coal miner to code?” Bit Source president Justin Hall said. It started three years ago when Rusty Justice and M. Lynn Parrish, the owners of a Pikeville, Kentucky excavation and engineering company […] Bit Source is proving that coal miners can, indeed, learn how to code, and do it well. In Kentucky, it’s coal mining, and in much of rural America, it’s agriculture. Terms like “startup” and “incubator” conjure up images of apple laptops, flannel shirts, Doc Martens, and $5 espressos. It makes me appreciate my good fortune. On a side note, I was struck by how little ego they seem to bring even to their standups, with the article even highlighting people being quite open about struggling with something. Can You Teach a Coal Miner to Code? Called Bitsource, the company hired its staff with the unique goal of “teaching miners how to code.” “The mind of a coal miner or an engineer, you know, they’re very technical. In other words, just teaching coal miners to code is not a panacea. Can You Teach a Coal Miner to Code? “The mind of a coal miner or an engineer, you know, they’re very technical. Reaction from West Virginia Coal Association senior vice president Chris Hamilton. Biden riffing on how Obama put him in … H ere at Bright we’ve taken you inside a tech camp for young coders in New York City. That's often under-appreciated, but a modest, competent programmer with strong domain knowledge is quite valuable. Anybody who can throw coal into a furnace can learn how to program, for God’s sake!” the former vice-president said at a New Hampshire rally on Monday. Tim Loh. The TechHire East Kentucky program attracted 1,600 applicants to its first class teaching coal miners and others from the industrial sector how to code. As America goes digital, its bluest collar workers are facing the toughest challenge of their lives. Not even going to read the article but the answer is: Yes, if they're reasonably bright and have an aptitude for it. Subscribe to the newsletter of Writrsbloc. ... “A lot of people look at us coal miners as uneducated,” said Ratliff, a 38-year-old with a thin goatee and thick arms. That’s when he came across Bloomberg’s latest jab. man, anyone can code if they have the passion and put forth the effort. Once number of subscribers rise, more and more "common ground" articles pop up, and detailed insightful reads get buried down because they are way over the head for majority of subscribers, I hadn't seen the article before and I think it's a really good one actually. The answer was yes until _headmelted picked that headline. Garland Couch used … All of them used to work in the coal industry. The gap between that and creating a success app or getting a high paying salary comes down to passion, willness to continue learning beyond 'hello world' and years and years of experience and training. I frequently recommend freelance programming or web development to anyone who is finding it difficult to get a good job. Reddit's scores also are not simply upvotes - downvotes, Rusty thought a potential miner-to-coder pipeline actually makes a weird kind of sense. After 22 weeks of company-provided training, six former coal miners and three industry support workers became coders. He added later: “Anybody who can throw coal into a furnace can learn how to program, for God’s sake!”. We now bring you a startup with a more surprising group of coding students: coal miners. There's something suspicious with the voting around here recently. Coding is literally just following the instructions of the language ( the syntax ) and performing if x do y statements. Not all programming is esoteric and difficult, and programming skills apply in job areas all over the planet, not just silicon valley, and not just dedicated programming jobs. There are literally online tutorials everywhere. Read more: http://ift.tt/1MZnYAv Mark Zuckerberg says you teach them [people] to code and everything will be great." I assume when most people think of teach me to code they mean teach me how to make 6 figure salaries, or make games and apps on a phone. With coal mining at a 35-year low, coal regions have been struggling with job losses and stagnant local economies. [Biden]: “Anybody who can go down 300 to 3,000 feet in a mine can sure as hell learn to program as well…Anybody who can throw coal into a furnace can learn how to program, for God’s sake!” The reality being anyone can create a flashlight app, or TSA random generator app by following basic instructions online in a short timeframe. One new venture in Kentucky offers a solution: teaching coal miners how to code. For instance, the average pay a coal miner can expect to make, under a contract negotiated by the United Mine Workers of America union, “comes out to at least $61,650 a year, and closer to $85,000 a year with overtime.” This does not include healthcare, pension, and other benefits usually offered by such jobs. Former Vice President Joe Biden suggested Monday that displaced coal miners should learn to code. He acknowledged the economic setbacks and job insecurity that coal miners face these days, and gave them some advice: learn to code. According to Dave Weigel of the … Joe Biden gave America déjà vu the other day at a rally in Derry, New Hampshire, when he told coal miners to learn how to code. “ You’re not going to teach a coal miner to code.” There he was, this business mogul, preaching “compassion” for … so, what went wrong with coding classes in coal country? Bloomberg can’t do it, nor can Joe, “we’ll teach coal miners to code” Biden. Every cross section of the country has its staple industry. Still, so far, according to Justice, his newbie coders have been doing just fine. As America goes digital, its bluest collar workers are facing the toughest challenge of their lives. The question is what percentage of coal miners could be taught to code to a professional level in a reasonable amount of time. 3. This is the fate of most popular subreddits. I imagine Minecraft mods would be an ideal place to start. “Appalachia has been exporting coal for a long time,” says Justin Hall, the company’s president. As America goes digital, its bluest collar workers are facing the toughest challenge of their lives. News Joe Biden Coding Coal 2020 Election During a campaign event on Monday, Joe Biden suggested coal miners could simply learn to code … But I always warn people that there is a steep learning curve and you need to give it a lot of time. In this case, the miners organised themselves, spent their own savings learning, and seem to have a very real appreciation that nothing comes without hard work. Yes, Joe Biden just literally told coal miners they should learn to code. Dev Bootcamp shuttering shows challenges of teaching coal miners to code. Fixed that for you. Whats easiest, to teach a coal miner to code (well enough to plan and build a sellable product) or teach a coder to mine coal (well enough to be able to plan and execute a productive dig)? The real question isn't can you teach some specific coal miner to code. You can't turn to programming to make money immediately. A lot of it is domain knowledge. Michael Bloomberg said nearly the same thing at his 2014 energy summit in New York: “You’re not going to teach a coal miner to code.” Yesterday, I published a story on Backchannel called “Canary in the Code Mine” that shows, quite literally, you can teach a coal miner to code. My parents can edit html sites and its amazing how many people were adding markup language to geocities, then myspace, etc. May 25, 2018 - Rusty Justice doesn’t think about Michael Bloomberg very often. “On the same day his unemployment ran out in March, Jim Ratliff walked through BitSource’s door. Actually, miners make good coders because they're good at hacking. They just don't know they are coding. The dirty secret is that you can’t become a software engineer in weeks or … If digs were constructed anywhere close to programs, those developers will be dead within a week, New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, More posts from the programming community, Press J to jump to the feed. There's no doubt you're going to be able to find some former coal miners who would make good coders. Bit Source, a two-year-old web and software design company based in Pikeville, Kentucky, was built to answer a question. After all, coal was the back-end code of 200 years of industrial progress. As America goes digital, its bluest collar workers are facing the toughest challenge of their lives. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Appalachian Miners Are Learning to Code By . The question is what percentage of coal miners could be taught to code to a professional level in a reasonable amount of time. Here’s a look at Appalachia’s newest coders. Dell monitors sat on a dozen desks, murals of Appalachians who’d made it big covered the walls.” - Lauren Smiley | Backchannel. "how to use Java 7 to write to Postgres" articles) and old stories (such as this one, it was all over here and HN a few months ago) are getting high scores within minutes of submission, then gradually drifting down. “On the same day his unemployment ran out in March, Jim Ratliff walked through BitSource’s door. The problem to solve here is how to retrain people who were making solid wages before into new professions that aren't slowly vanishing. A lot of poor quality (i.e. The startup tech company was praised Monday during the area’s Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR) Innovation Summit. medium.stfi.re. The startup tech company was praised Monday during the area’s Shaping Our Appalachian Region Innovation Summit. The above seems like a given but I shudder to think of how many evenings I've lost because it's turned out after the fact that someone on a team I've been on has sat on something they couldn't figure out, out of pride. Excellent article on the subject here. The best thing about Joe Biden telling coal miners to learn … Want to receive more content like this in your inbox? Judging by some of the comments on r/programming, I think this is more of a soft requirement. Democratic presidential hopeful and former US vice president Joe Biden told unemployed miners, particularly those in the coal sector, to learn to code so that they can access the jobs of … Coding is hard. Either way this really resonated with me. The real question isn't can you teach some specific coal miner to code. Unfortunately, there’s been a long history of projects intended to help Appalachia’s perpetually lagging economy failing because despite the seemingly airtight premise, the jobs never actually appear and the people grow more bitter and disillusioned. This comes on the heels of Biden stupidly saying at the last debate that he would eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs in order to transition to a “green economy.” You also have to be smart about freelancing and avoid speculative work, app marketplaces, freelance job sites, and clueless entrepreneurs. Several months later, in April 2014, in response to a comment by Mark Zuckerberg about shifts in energy use that has led to many coal mines being closed and coal miners behind laid off, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg at the Future of Energy Summit said, "You’re not going to teach a coal miner to code. So "Teach coal miners to code" is roughly equivalent to saying "Teach gas streetlamp mantle fitters to refurbish carburetors". That's just a problem in general as industries die, and there doesn't seem to be any solution yet. You *can* teach a coal miner to code. If you're only siphoning off a few percent of the best and brightest, you really haven't solved the fundamental problem. If you actually RTFA, you'll see that Bloomburg didn't actually make the blanket generalization he's accused of, he was referring to exactly what you said here: Not all coal miners are fit to be programmers, so to say "just teach them to code and they'll all become programmers" smacks of elitism and a lack of understanding about how the non-tech world works. “Can you teach a coal miner to code?” Bit Source president Justin Hall said. Or maybe I'm bullshit intolerant. Miners how to code. company based in Pikeville, Kentucky, it’s.... €œCan you teach some specific coal miner to code. lot of.. You teach them [ people ] to code. On r/programming, i think this is more of soft. Miners how to retrain people who were making solid wages before into professions... According to Justice, his newbie coders have been doing just fine time, says. They have the passion and put forth the effort programmer with strong domain knowledge is quite.! Reddit 's scores also are not simply upvotes - downvotes, Rusty thought a potential miner-to-coder pipeline makes! Out in March, Jim Ratliff walked through BitSource’s door or TSA random generator app by basic. Company’S president taught to code, and clueless entrepreneurs the company hired staff! Offers a solution: teaching coal miners could be taught to code to a professional level a. We’Ve taken you inside a tech camp for young coders in new York City teach miners. Downvotes, Rusty thought a potential miner-to-coder pipeline actually makes a weird kind of sense from the industrial sector to! 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