Inside a Homeless Man's Quest to Reprogram His Life

What's This?

By Fran Berkman2013-12-12 23:25:58 UTC

It was the first really cold morning of the season in late September when I first met Patrick McConlogue and Leo Grand in person. By that point, I had been following their story for about a month.

On this day, Patrick was going to give Leo, a 37-year-old New York City resident, a lesson in computer programming, which had become their morning ritual; I was there to watch. As Patrick approached, I recognized the friendly looking 23-year-old from photos he posted on a Facebook page he created to document Leo's journey to learn to code. We exchanged a brief greeting before going to meet up with Leo.

See also: The Human Behind 'Humans of New York'

Patrick and I walked less than 100 yards through the chilly breeze before we approached a sleeping man who sat on the ground, leaning against a garage door and flanked by two full shopping carts covered with tarps.

The man was Leo. Patrick gently nudged Leo from his slumber, and 10 minutes later, we were sitting on a nearby bench learning about how databases interact with servers, specifically the difference between MySQL and MongoDB. In the cold air, Leo's large hands visibly shook as he typed commands into the second-hand Chromebook laptop Patrick provided for him.

Leo, by his own admission, had absolutely no knowledge of computer programming when Patrick approached him in late August offering a choice between two months of coding lessons and $100 in cash. Two months stretched into three-and-a-half, but earlier this week, they achieved their goal of launching mobile app. The eco-friendly car pool organizer called "Trees for Cars" went live for iOS and Android users Tuesday at midnight.

With Patrick's guidance, Leo wrote each one of the 3,621 lines of code that dictate the look and functionality of Trees for Cars.

Patrick and Leo's story has propelled them to a degree of overnight fame neither of them expected. They have appeared on NBC and CNN, and countless online publications have written about them. They've had vocal fans and critics alike throughout the process. The situation has brought them together not only as student and teacher, but also as friends.

In the mini documentary above, Patrick and Leo take us on a tour of their journey from its unexpected beginning and discuss the challenges they faced along the way.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

Video produced, shot and edited by Bianca Consunji

Image: Mashable

Topics: Apps and Software, coding, homelessness, Journeyman Hacker, Leo Grand, new york, programming, U.S., US & World