[thesephist]

Thanks for that encouragement /s

I think it's great to encourage students like Samarth and I by sharing and talking about what we're building. You can offer specific and helpful feedback which I would really appreciate. But I don't appreciate your calling my work bullshit. And I think this attitude chases away less privileged students from pursuing things like software further. There's value in making something that people get joy from, even if it's not the cutting edge shit that OpenAI blogs about. And I'm confident in what I made here.

[phazon_dude]

They didn't call your work bullshit, they said the article would be bullshit.

[bartread]

Weeeell... strictly, yes, but actually I'm inclined to think not. The tone was sweeping, not to mention disrespectful, enough that I think a broader interpretation is warranted. By claiming such articles are only worthy of being ignored the implication is clearly that the object(s) of such articles are also unworthy of interest.

[msla]

The comment wasn't about you, it was about articles written by people who want to try very hard to Be Encouraging, an affliction which inhibits adults from seeing children and, in advanced cases, minorities, as people, instead of Things Which Need Encouragement. The end result is articles which are incapable of talking about the achievements, and instead talk about the achievers, as if "encouragement" consists of having your life story plastered on the nearest piece of media.

[rgawdzik]

welcome to HN -_-: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863

[somejerk123]

From my perspective, it's the article calling your work bullshit: if the author thought it was interesting on its own merits, they wouldn't have to lead with the age of the creator.

I would bet that OP was once themselves the recipient of similar "breathless gushing" when they were young, and lost a lot of the wind in their sails when formerly impressive achievements became simply expected. Better not to depend on that kind of validation, it stops early and never comes back.

And worse, someday you might read articles like this and feel discouraged, because it seems nobody will care that you just discovered how much fun you can have with Markov chains in your 30s.

[oh_sigh]

My specific and helpful feedback to you would be to not immediately feel attacked if someone criticizes something tangentially related to your work. OP never said your work was bullshit. They said the article/coverage of your work is probably 'breathless gushing bullshit'.

OP was actually wrong with their hueristic in this case - the article doesn't really go into your age beyond a passing mention, but that doesn't change the fact that OPs critique was with article writers, not programmers-who-have-their-work-written about.

[thesephist]

Point taken. Thanks for noting.

Still feels like HN generally has a counterproductive attitude to stories of this type.

[oh_sigh]

Oh, 100%. Unfortunately the best strategy I think is to just ignore the mindless comments and pick and choose who you are going to have a conversation with.

Personally, I think your project is getting coverage not at all because of your age, but because it produces interesting results that people want to see, regardless of whether the algorithm used is considered cutting edge or not.

[RobertKerans]

It's getting coverage [on the website of the company that provided the API that was used for the app] _because_ of the age , that's why the age is in the headline, it's a gift-wrapped marketing win.

This isn't to denigrate the work of either of the two kids involved: the program produced is interesting and fun, the encouragement is awesome, and they've lucked out with this publicity and should milk it for all it's worth.

[colek42]

The fact that you have the courage to share your work speaks volumes about your ability to take risks and receive feedback.

[zeropnc]

Some feedback that will help you as you grow older: grow a thicker skin and stop taking everything so seriously.