The cognitive gymnastics are a bit easier to master if you start early, as with language acquisition and mathematics literacy. The skill is also relatively location-agnostic; even crud-level freelancing jobs correspond to a comfortable living in many places.<br>

<br>But there&#39;s a lot of value to cheap computing beyond &quot;become a programmer,&quot; I don&#39;t think that&#39;s even the primary value of this trend. For example, Stephen Vick <a href="http://hcde.uw.edu/521/win12/jan6">gave a talk recently</a> on work they&#39;re doing to improve quality and traceability for coffee farmers. Just dropping a laptop into the process to record and track data had a big impact, but the cost is infeasible if the program wasn&#39;t providing it. $25(ish) computer which can do the same tasks? Yes please!<br>

<br>James<br>