GitHub and Open-Source Is a Boon for the Underprivileged
I have been working productively as a systems software developer for 32 years.  I do not have a degree; I&#x27;m a high-school dropout.  I&#x27;ve built systems you&#x27;ve probably used, and&#x2F;or may still be using.<p>The #1 technical lever I have found worth exploiting, worth far more than anything a university can provide, is the willingness to get the job done.<p>It hasn&#x27;t mattered if I wrote CP&#x2F;M code ISR&#x27;s, PROGRESS 4GL modules, Unix daemons, Pascal, .. Java, C, C++, Objective-C, Lua, Swift, &amp;etc. - through the thick of it all, the fact that I was willing to get the job done, no matter what, is what made the difference.<p>On the other end of this scale, is a bit of decadence.<p>From my particularly tainted point of view, the ideological basis of the current cultural norm of &quot;university==well-paid job&quot; is entirely decadent.  People seem to have expectations that, because they&#x27;re in a certain class, they don&#x27;t have to work hard at developing other real life issues, and too many times I&#x27;ve seen the well-educated, well-connected, nevertheless incompetent developer fall to pieces under pressure. I am grateful for these guys, because they make my life easier.<p>Yet, those who are in this group, who haven&#x27;t got a decadent ideal of their own worth, but rather get things done in computing, whatever it takes: great.<p>So its really not a matter of educated-enough.  Its whether the will to perform is, through whatever means, inculcated - and then manifest by taking the actions to get the state of things, done.<p>Some of the best developers I&#x27;ve ever worked with, have come from utterly dire circumstances.  Some of the worst, too.  Likewise for the privileged, candied elite.<p>The one differentiator, truly, is the will of the individual.  Computers, being machines of will, equalise us all that way.