> Limiting the profession to those who started naturally at a young age is a good way to keep out everyone but rich mostly-white kids with college-educated parents.
~$100 (or less for an old second hand laptop plus a basic internet connection (or the public libraries one) is all that's needed to start programming.
Maybe there should be a laptop charity page which connects the ones needing old laptops with people having them rotting away in a drawer. Shipping can't be that expensive.
The question is, is there need for something like this?
A lot of poor people do not have free time to earn it-- they're going to school and using their minimum wage money to eat. I slept on the floor and worked 16 hour days to be able to get my education.
To have been coding for 5-15 years when entering college now... you have to think about the prices and availability of internet/computers 5-15 years ago ;)
Now, think about accessing the resources to learn programming: Books, Documentation, Compilers, IDE...
I recall being on 56k internet in 2001, paying by the hour. Couldn't have learn programming, except going around and buying books and tools on CD and offline documentation.
That was the hell of a barrier to entry compared to today.
~$100 (or less for an old second hand laptop plus a basic internet connection (or the public libraries one) is all that's needed to start programming.