The homeless man given coding lessons instead of money set to launch mobile app

It’s one of those stories that conservatives will latch onto as a show of “anything is possible with hard work” and liberals will show how “all they need is a lift”. Regardless of the political spin, the reality is still pretty darn nifty.

The homeless man named Leo who took up the offer put forth by Medium‘s Patrick McConlogue, to take coding lessons is now set to release his first mobile app.

Back in August, McConlogue wrote a blog post about a certain homeless man he passed on his way to work and nicknamed “Journeyman,” who seemed to him smart and driven but as if he’d “lost a series of battles.” The tech blogger and software engineer wanted to approach the mystery homeless guy with two options. One being $100 in cash to spend as the man wished, and the other being three JavaScript books, a cheap laptop, and one-hour coding lessons every day for eight weeks.