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I recently met a young fella (14yo) playing League of Legends. He asked:
- What do you do for a living?
- I'm a programmer, do you know anything about programming?
- I don't, actually.

Apparently he was playing from a LAN Gaming center 'cause he didn't have a computer at home (his computer had broken and these Lan centers are pretty affordable).
I figured I could explain to him what was it and what super powers you could get from it. Turns out I recommended a JS course in codecademy and now he goes to the LAN center every day to study programming (he got really into it!).
Now he always pings me with questions about JS and apparently he's learning a ton! He had almost no English skills too (we're Brazilian), and because most of the material in the internet is in English he found himself some free English courses and he's now taking them!

Knowledge is free on the internet and I guess he's just realized that.

Not exactly a rant guys, just figured it was a nice story to tell :)
#TeachAKidHowToCode

Comments
  • 108
    Yay free education! :)
  • 95
    nice story! 😊
    do a client project togheter an buy him a laptop with the earned money?
  • 34
    @heyheni He's still very fresh, but that's a nice idea :D
  • 10
    That's really cool
  • 16
    Awesome mate, I made the exact same with my brother and he is also a league of legends player!.
    Those addicted gamers can be awaken always.
  • 44
    Ive taught a 45 year old hairdresser how to make games for her nephews.
  • 8
    That’s amazing! Good on you. I remember those Brazilian lanhouses
  • 6
    You are a good guy
  • 4
    Amazing!
  • 5
    Excellent story!
  • 6
    Legend. Sharing knowledge with bright sparks is one of the best things you can do.

    How young is he btw? Intro to his parents or something so they know what you're up to. IT can have a bad rep with that sort of stuff.
  • 11
    That's awesome man! I wish to become someone's mentor some day :)
  • 8
    @linuxxx in programming/linux related stuffs*
  • 10
    @linuxxx do it man, when I was younger a guy called JCGriffs on a tech support forum gave me a load of mentoring on how I should set my career up.

    When I got into the workplace I've had a handful of amazing mentors in C#, Java, Cordova/Hybrid and now AWS.

    I can't thank those people enough so now I pay it forward by mentoring our apprentices and newbies. It's such a gratifying thing to see someone using a skill you've helped them learn.
  • 4
    @jsombrio good work man!
  • 6
    Great story!
  • 7
    Wow guys, didn't expect that many comments. Thank you!
  • 5
    Yeah that's cool! We all like to rant about devlife, but in the end it's probably one of the best paying careers
  • 3
    You're awesome!!!
  • 3
    What do you think this is, happy fucking story rant, fuck.
    Nice story though
  • 4
    @jsombrio doing the good lord's work son, of course you're gonna get this many comments. Crack on!
  • 5
    @jmacmi2 Want to but where do I find someone to mentor 😅
  • 4
    @linuxxx fair, what do you do for work at the moment? And what country?

    As I said above, I met my first great mentor on the tech support forum of the time. So can help, you might find people looking for tutoring on Craigslist or gumtree (uk's Craigslist). I think there are actually global remote mentor services in place too.

    Alternatively, call a local college, library, volunteer IT group, local tech group or Internet cafe. They still exist and are usually frequented by determined people trying to do well in hard circumstances, always grateful for the help.

    My dad used to go to the Linux user groups once a fortnight and you get a range of people.

    Let me know generally where you live and I'll do what I can to help you find somewhere you could find your mentee.

    Also you said Linux/programming is that right? I'll check your profile for skills but some specifics on what knowledge you'd like to impart would be great.
  • 4
    @jmacmi2 I live in the Netherlands and yeah I do loads with Linux (server+desktop), some node and some PHP really :). Right now I do distribution center work so don't worry about that :P
  • 4
    @linuxxx no worries man, I'll have a look at what's near you. Please remind me if I've not gotten back to you today.

    I think there will be Linux user groups and that's a great start... node is an awesome thing to have on your back, people will definitely want mentoring there.

    What are you doing in a distribution centre boss? Looking around where we've crossed paths this week, you seem like you're really good.

    Let me do some digging and I'll get back to you.
  • 5
    @linuxxx hey boss!

    So not knowing exactly where you are id say find the closest Linux user group as a starting point: http://lugslist.com/ctry/...

    You usually find a mixture of people there, some likeminded people that can appreciate what you do and give you further advice... but also newbies looking at their first distros after advice on what they should and shouldn't do.

    Also, look at the online mentoring services: https://google.co.uk/search/...

    Sign up as a mentor for a few of them and see if you get any shouts?
  • 4
    @linuxxx @jsombrio I'd love to find 'my' mentor like this. I'm currently begginer learning from online courses and books. Hope to get on your level one day, too:)
  • 2
    @dfox On fb post you just added first 3 lines of the rant..
  • 4
    You sir are a hero!
  • 3
    Aww, you little padawan
  • 2
    @jsombrio yeah dude u are awesome, congrat that boy for me, hoping to see him here one day
  • 2
    @jsombrio that kid was going to be the Brazilian Faker and get a trophy from Ronaldo himself. Now he's just gonna be another random programmer coding some shitty JS?? (Just kidding :D, wp)
  • 1
    @shinobiultra my/our level 😅. Don't worry, I'm not that special haha. I know some stuff about Linux and backend stuffs but I consider myself a junior :)
  • 3
    @linuxxx I am learning Linux atm and getting comfortable with it too 😄
  • 3
    @shinobiultra Oh I've worked with it for like 7 years now haha! Good luck man!
  • 3
    I'm a 14 yo kid, and I teach my friends to code too.

    When they realize you can build games with code, they're all for it.

    hackclub.com
  • 1
    @jajoosam That's awesome dude! Code sets you free.
  • 2
    This is actually a cool story. Nice work mate!
  • 2
    Nice.. :)
  • 1
    Great job man.! You may have added a new programmer 😎😎😎
  • 3
    @jsombrio you've got 500plus upvotes claim your free devRant stressball 🎉😊
    info@devrant.io
  • 2
    Wish I could make some realize this.
  • 1
    Nice storie
  • 1
    This is such a neat story
  • 1
    Wow, you inspire people, it is great
  • 1
    You can't be a good programmer in Brazil without sopa de macaco.
  • 1
    Dota > lol
  • 2
    Proud of you man.
  • 0
    I started playing League of Legends... Forgot programming (exaggeration).

    Feelsbadman
  • 1
    Great work you legend!! Although he's probably going to create the next JS framework so I'll hold you responsible 😆
  • 0
    @DonMcCoy I'm a league player when not coding, but started on league after already working
  • 1
    @linuxxx I know might not be the best idea for you. But I believe Netherlands has a really cool CoderDojo team that I've met last year at DojoCon :) Look it up you might be interested.

    Also anyone looking into mentoring I'd recommend attending your local CoderDojo it's actually a lot more fun than you think :D
  • 1
    @clovisIrex wtf
  • 1
  • 0
    Want some churrasco?
  • 0
    Playing game with the kids could be hard task.
  • 0
    +1111 now i can't destroy that
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