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'm a high-school dropout.  I've built systems you've probably used, and/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't mattered if I wrote CP/M code ISR's, PROGRESS 4GL modules, Unix daemons, Pascal, .. Java, C, C++, Objective-C, Lua, Swift, &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 "university==well-paid job" is entirely decadent.  People seem to have expectations that, because they're in a certain class, they don't have to work hard at developing other real life issues, and too many times I'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'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'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.