I'm really sorry, but have you looked at all the pictures in the author's story? I came up with the same association and took madhadron's remark to be about those pictures, not the author.
If your first reflex is to be 2nd hand offended, maybe you should relax a little and try to not to see hostility everywhere ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yes, I've looked at all the pictures in the author's story. And it never occurred to me to assume those are pictures of a ghetto the author lives in, as implied by the words "the real solution to the author's angst is to go study the field more broadly and get out of whatever ghetto they are living in" (emphasis mine).
But after I read your comment, I went back to the story and did a Google image search for a few (but not all) of those pictures. And guess what? They all come from other sources.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It's not like I was looking for hostility. I was reading the comment and nodding along and then the hostility came out of nowhere and smacked me in the face.
"Code ghetto" is actually a term I've heard bandied about before, usually used to denigrate an ecosystem someone doesn't like, but in this case I think it's wholly appropriate terminology[0], and I don't think the offense taken at it is justified.
