Nerds of the Valley
On September 23, 1980, Bill Gates came to my office in Houston and bought the source code for our Magic Wand word processor which he wanted to use as the basis for his new product that would work with his Windows operating system still on the drawing board.
He changed the program’s name to Word. He was 24 years old. I was, at the age of 33, the oldest guy in the room. My company had 13 employees; Microsoft had 25. Helping Bill Gates become a billionaire is a bullet point on my resume.
I had a master’s in economics from Rice University and had finished the coursework for a PH.D in finance. But two friends from high school talked me into starting a company to build and market a word processor. I didn’t love teaching finance but I loved programming. It was to say the least a life changing experience.
I’m the leading author in the world on Microsoft Foxpro, one of Microsoft’s programming languages. I’ve written seven books, over 260 technical articles about programming and a couple hundred editorials. I’ve taught course on programming in a dozen countries in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Russian and broken German. I’ve lived the life of a rock star programmer. It’s been an amazing ride.
I’ve lived in Springville for nearly 10 years now, working as a software developer from my home near the Springville Rodeo Grounds. Three years ago I was named chairman of the CODE Pathway Advisory Board for Granite Hills. My duties included advising on curriculum, mentoring and finding internships for students. Companies I talked to told me any interns they took on would have to know at least some programming, so I spent the summer writing 11 courses about various skills used in modern software development. In September I called a meeting of the Board and showed them what I had done. They never called me again.
That’s why I’m running for the PUSD School Board. I want every kid in grades 9-12 to be able to take courses on subjects like HTML, CSS, Javascript, SQL and REST web services. Never mind if you don’t know what those are; they know. They’re already curious, but they need a little help, Courses in Internet programming will let them dip their toes in the water. And I think it will light a fire under at least some of them.
You can’t make young people learn but if it’s what they want you can’t stop them. And once they find out it’s fun and they can make a six-figure income doing it without leaving Porterville their hearts and minds will follow.
Price Waterhouse Coopers, the well-known consulting firm, published a study three years ago that predicted within 15 years 37 percent of the jobs in the U.S. Would be eliminated by automation and robotics. Programmers can’t be replaced by robots. And did I mention the pay is awesome?
And it’s not rocket science; anyone can learn it. Two years ago, I took a $13 online course about REACT, the code library Facebook developed in house. Four months later while I was out prospecting for internships for our students I told a local canning company’s IT manager I had written a REACT course for our students. She hired me on the spot for a five-moth contract at $10,000 a month to write software using a technology I had only learned four months before. I was 72 years old. In the software world age doesn’t matter. You’re never too old or too young; it’s what you know that counts.
My website, Pinter.com, features articles built around those 11 courses I wrote for Granite Hills. Many of these topics are covered in online courses that are both cheap and excellent. We don’t even have to train teachers — just someone to check their work. And I can be their cheerleader. Or tech support. Or just a fellow member of the tribe. Computer nerds are mi gente.
My son John Sebastian was crippled by spinal cord cancer when he was 2 and spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. But he was cured. When he was 12 I bought him the best computer at that time. But the time he was 16 he was working as a part-time software developer for $40 an hour. He graduated from UC Berkeley and went to work for Microsoft. He loved his work.
At the age of 33 John was stricken with a different cancer — this time an incurable one. John died on April 23, 2002 at 3:40 a.m. Programming was his greatest joy. I want every kid in Porterville to know that joy. And after what my generation has done to their world we owe them that much.