Hacking Homelessness(well.com) |
Hacking Homelessness(well.com) |
The article focuses on other aspects that are important, but is not hacking.
It seems to me that homelessness IS a hack on the regular system. And the way he writes about what happens is informed by his intelligence and his programmer background. To me, the idea of a homeless guy running sims to develop his solution to efficient routing of a traveling salesman while not having a place to plug in his laptop which is his own is pretty hacky.
Maybe this article isn't EVERYTHING you would want in a clever and enjoyable read from a homeless programmer, but it may be the best out there in this genre. This was not a New York Times reporter playing a homeless person, this is the real thing. BTW, I worked with this guy briefly, so I know he is the real thing.
I suspect that more generally than being alcoholics, these are people who are mentally ill to some extent. I liked this essay (and others from this writer) because this is a homeless guy I could identify with. I could read his stuff and not think this was some situation which could never come close to happening to me or someone I would care about.
"A previous arrest in which a policeman tried to _force_ my arm back there despite my protests caused me injury and pain, and the policeman's supervisor six months of paperwork, all of which I attempted to explain to a shouting, tugging, and threatening Corporal Underwood to limited avail. "
Just proves how strangely fucked up our world is.