Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Build solutions that make you angry
















As a product manager, entrepreneur, technologist, and person of color this statement alone make me angry. How do I build something that solves my anger when a) my anger wasn't properly channeled until my thirties and b) I didn't have the financial resources to approach a solution until my 40's?

I went to a small liberal arts college* which I love, met my wife, and eventually learned to channel my anger. I felt encouraged to build solutions to address my anger - but I didn't know this until I was in my 30's. 

My father and mother said study what you can to make yourself a lawyer and get a job. My professors and counselors said study what makes you happy and the job will come. See the conflict? 

I started as a computer science/math major, failed a few classes and didn't know how to ask for help. I became a sociology major. I studied what made me happy which was oppression in all its nasty forms. My grades were pretty low so becoming a lawyer with a bunch of student loan debt wasn't going to happen. I understood computers enough so I became an analyst/system admin/security professional and the interviews were rough. Questions like "what did you study in college?”  “oppression within society?" never went over well. 

Sociology taught me to look at problems from a macro and micro level. Business school taught me that there is a solution to every problem.

As I said in the beginning a well-funded CEO of a major startup told me to build solutions for what makes me angry. What makes me angry is that most kids are only getting an hour of computer science training a week if that. What makes me angry is that the expectation is that the kids will go home and learn more. BUT you have to remember a large portions of kids that look like me or my wife DONT have INTERNET so HOW can they learn more at home?  So I'm building a solution that doesn't require the internet to learn about computers and coding. What makes me angry is that I and the team I am apart of will have to beg money to build this solution with minimal if any financial gains which only increases my anger.


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