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Commit 15 Minutes to Help a Student Break Into Your Industry

projectxpresso.com

21 points by jontonsoup 12 years ago · 10 comments

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onedev 12 years ago

This is awesome. We should help people around us achieve the same successes many of us have been fortunate to achieve.

At some point we must all realize that this (for various values of "this") isn't some sort of race to the top (if a "top" even exists), this is about pulling everyone up with us.

I'll give you an example. When Dr. Dre was shooting the "Welcome to California" video in his hometown of Compton, the whole community was ecstatic, seeing their idols in action in real life. The same idols that provided many of them hope and the opportunity to dream. A large part of those people surrounding the scene were kids, of all ages. One of those kids was Kendrick Lamar, whose dad (or uncle?) had put him on his shoulders so his kid can catch a glimpse of the amazing scene that was taking place.

Fast forward to today, Kendrick Lamar is one of the biggest artists in the world right now. He was able to make it out of Compton, California and become bigger than what his environment told him he can be. He represents the voice of the newer generation. When he started getting big and started working with Dr. Dre, he told Dre "I was there, I one of those kids that was watching you!".

I think it's a truly beautiful story and to some extent we are all capable of inspiring and helping those around us, either through our own actions or spending 10 or 15 minutes to give someone advice, or responding to an email.

We are not that important that we cannot spare 15 mins to someone who looks up to what we do and is inspired by what we do.

zebra 12 years ago

Interesting - I already gave 2-3 hour introduction to two kids - 14 and 16 y/o. Next week one mother will bring her son for lessons. Btw the 14 y/o is already prized in his school for programming knowledge. I do it for free, because I like the idea of giving bright future to these young minds.

jacalata 12 years ago

That looks interesting, but I'd like to know a bit more about who is running it and how/why before I put my contact info in.

gnarmis 12 years ago

This is great! "office hours for the tech industry" explains itself.

BlackDeath3 12 years ago

"I'm a Professional" - cup of coffee.

I find that hilarious.

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