Ask HN: I'm a 14yo HS student. How can I improve my situation?

[Khroma]

Sorry if the title sounds whiny. I'm currently in HS and I have been doing development since I was eleven. I'm doing web development now but I have several limitations. I don't know how I can schedule my time. There always seems to be too much school work, but I know that there are a lot of people like me who do activities outside of programming and manage to found many websites.

I’m facing limitations because I don't have any money to even buy a $20 VPS or a domain name. I don’t have a bank account so I can't buy books from the Internet. What's your advice for overcoming these, what should I do to improve my situation, and how should I schedule my time?

[michaeldhopkins]

1. Read this article and follow the advice. If it works for college in three semesters, it will work for high school in eight semesters http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/05/10-tips-for-college...

2. Solve the bank account problem by buying prepaid debit cards. If you really need 30 dollars for VPS and a domain name (and I agree with others that free services are the way to go here), you can get that quickly by walking around asking to weed gardens or mow lawns.

3. You need to get connected, so go to meetups, try to get informational interviews with local software companies, etc.

[timerickson]

I'm going to address the monetary issues as others will be better at talking to time management/school work than I.

First off, don't buy books. Pleeeeenty of great reading for absolutely free online. Just dig around a little.

Talk to your parents about setting up a VisaBuxx card in your name. It has all the controls and such they'll love and will give you the oppertunity of purchasing things online. http://usa.visa.com/personal/cards/prepaid/visa_buxx.html

As for a domain name, $7.49 with a coupon for Godaddy.com http://www.retailmenot.com/view/godaddy.com

As for VPS. A one year contract with Linode (10% off if you buy a whole year) will get you 512mb RAM, 200GB of transfer for $216. I'd consider selling your iPod or something to cover that, if a VPS is really important to you... you can always setup LAMP locally to learn server setup and programming at no cost.

[techietim]

As a soon to graduate high school senior and someone who seems to have the same interests as you, here are some of my thoughts:

1. Stay on the ball with your school work. I regret doing this myself. Freshman and sophomore year I had a decent average (85-90%), however, junior year I just got lazy. Most of my classes went down into the 70s and I was not enjoying myself. I'm in my final semester now, I have been accepted to university, but I'll most likely have to take out a big student loan as my average isn't good enough for most scholarships. I could have done better in those last two years of high school, but I didn't know how to manage my time. I'm getting better with it now, thankfully, and two tips I have for you are: (a) write down what homework you have for the evening on an ipod, notebook, or whatever you are guaranteed to look at once you get home. As soon as you get home, before you visit HN, reddit, or play any games(!), do that homework! You'll be able to focus better if you're not distracted by anything else, and you won't have to rush to finish it before bed (b) find time to do as much work as you can at school. If you happen to have a free period, study hall, or lunch break, take advantage of that. If you have something to do, find somewhere quite to work and JUST DO IT. You'll feel so much better after completing it and then you won't have to spend time at home on it. Don't let your friends talk you out of doing your homework to spend time with them, as there will be opportunities for that later. There's a due date on assignments, and you'll most likely not have another chance to get it done.

2. I've attended the canada-wide national science fair two times (hopefully a third. I'll find out soon), and this is something where one has to spend TONS of their free time working on a project. My projects were programming related, so I got to do what I enjoy doing and I won some cash and prizes doing so. However, there are huge time management issue with this. This is where finding those spare moments at school to do homework and assignments is really important.

3. Don't worry about a VPS. I know the feeling of wanting one though, but I've had to resist. There's just no practical reason why you actually NEED one. Before you buy something, ask yourself if it's something you actually need. If you would like to get a domain name (which can be helpful if you're advertising yourself on Kijiji or Craigslist for web dev.), you could just have a static HTML page (which most domain registrars allow you to have free), and have it link to your work (Github, etc.)

4. As others have pointed out, there are many free resources online. You just have to look.

[cmos]

About science fairs: I used to spend my summers working on my science fair project, then in the US (MA) win local and regional fairs to eventually get to the State Science Fair, where you could win $1k-3k in cash 'scholarships'. Better than a summer job, and looks good for college.

[reason]

Personally, I would attend to my educational duties, and try to enjoy these years the best I can. That's not to say you shouldn't give attention to your development interests -- you absolutely should. Just don't worry too much about optimizing every second for maximum productivity. You're still really, really young, and have many years ahead of you to bury your head down in your work and really make progress. Plus, in my opinion, abandoning high school work wouldn't be the wisest thing to do. Make sure you stay on top of it; I don't think you'll regret it.

As for VPS, you could use free hosting services like Heroku and Google App Engine to play with some ideas. And for books, what type are you looking for? There are tons of free resources online to learn everything you could possibly imagine regarding web development (see other comments here for links). For someone strapped for cash, seek out resources online -- the same goes for those who've got money, too.

For scheduling time, like I said, don't worry too much about it. You might want to make a very rough schedule to stick to (like finish homework by 8pm, do programming tutorials for an hour, and work on an idea for another 3 or 4). But don't break your back sticking to it. Go out and enjoy being a kid.

[redlightbulb]

I made a lot of movies in High School and had similar problems (lack of time/resources). My solution? Boot strapping.

I used my Dads cheap video camera and some terrible movie editing software to make a Dvd of the Spring Dance recital, then got the dance department to take orders for DVDs from eager parents. By making everyone pay upfront, I was never at risk. With a $5 markup ($2 for me, $3 for the Dance Department), I suddenly was a lot closer to being able to buy better equipment.

Get OK at making really simple websites using free tools - there are tons of people who will gladly pay you if you can set up a good looking blog for their knitting group or fundraiser. Suddenly you'll have some money. Invest it in yourself to learn more complex and advanced things (through materials or just money to pay for your projects). Those new projects will lead to new jobs. New jobs means more money. You get the idea.

As for time? Its always a struggle. I got most of my work done during school vacations (spring break, summer vacation) and weekends. It helps if your friends are also your 'business' partners.

Good luck!

[iqster]

Google's app engine and Amazon's EC2 both offer free tiers. Windows Azure might offer a free tier too. I think for App engine, you might not need a credit card number.

My suggestion is don't waste cash on domain names and physical books. You can use the free subdomains that you get from App Engine for now. If you write something awesome that people start using, you might be able to make some cash off of that. For now, you should focus on learning and building.

For time, I'd suggest coding really early or really late. Basically, when you have few distractions. Blast the music on and give at least 2 hours per coding session.

Best of luck to you!

[ryot]

Trouble scheduling time in HS? Ha! Try doing an engineering degree, my friend.

That being said, I would recommend "being a kid" for a bit while you still can. You're already very much ahead of the curve when it comes to programming and development it looks like (14? Holy cow that's awesome). I honestly don't think your situation needs much improvement, it sounds great.

Focus on school first though - if you're getting a lot of work at 14 then it sounds like you're going to a good one. As for money, you could always get a summer job and save up for the domains and books you want to purchase.

[rcavezza]

I have extra server space - I can host your stuff. Send me an email - bob[at]easyunsubscriber.com

[imechura]

Where are you located? You want books, I have books. You could also find more value than programming in being plugged in to your high school social activities. By being in touch with what the cool kids and upcoming hipsters are doing you may have insight into a market that lots of companies would pay good money for.

BTW, if you had a server and a domain name do you even know what you would do with it? Not in a technical manner but what problems are you going to solve with the software you write. Learn how to recognize problems in a market and offer valuable solutions.

[sown]

Go to community college. I just walked in asked nicely and they let me in. Drop out of HS if you can. Transfer straight to college. Don't tell any CC students about your situation because it can make things awkward.

Don't listen to counselors or even parents on this: no one will care about a HS diploma, especially if you go into development. No one will even ask.

If it ever comes up, casually don't mention you didn't graduate. Just say I went to Such-and-such HS.

[clojurerocks]

Im a social entrepreneur involved with several non profits doing programming projects. Ive actually be brainstorming an organization that uses these projects to help people like yourself learn about the industry and the tools. As such if youd like to help out and thus learn about programming wed be open to having you involved. So you can learn from the projects and from myself as well as other people on the projects.

Please let me know if interested. Thanks.

[Khroma]

Sure, can you tell me more?

[clojurerocks]

Can we chat through email instead? Mine is [e-mail]

[bpeters]

Reach out locally and find a mentor. He/She could provide you with a tremendous amount of help and guidance. Perhaps even offer to fund your projects.

[Undergrads]

I would be happy to provide you with free web hosting and even a domain name to get you started. Let me know if you're interested.

[PonyGumbo]

Make good use of your summer vacation. Mow some lawns, rake, do whatever you can to get paid in cash, then open starter checking and savings accounts. If you need to buy things online (hosting, etc), get a prepaid Visa card from your local drug store.

[DanielStraight]

There are loads of free books online:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/194812/list-of-freely-ava...

[mindcrime]

Also:

http://www.reddit.com/r/csbooks

http://www.reddit.com/r/mathbooks

http://www.reddit.com/r/eebooks

http://www.reddit.com/r/econbooks

http://www.reddit.com/r/physicsbooks

And not just books, but there is a tremendous amount of useful technical informaation, tutorials, articles, etc. on the web that are free. Heck, you could spend a lifetime just reading papers from Citeseer or ArXiv.org.

OP: it might help if you told us a little more about what you're interested in, what kind of projects you're working on, what kinds of things you want to work on, etc.

Also, regarding the money thing... at the risk of stating the obvious, have you approached your parents or other relatives about funding some of your ideas? I mean, a domain name + cheap VPS really doesn't cost a lot... maybe they'd front you what you need to get started, and if you make something that actually makes money, then so much the better. If not, it's still a valuable learning experience for a fairly small investment.

[Khroma]

I tried to ask them but there's always so many blocks. I have to explain so much just to get them to do something. It's like an inefficient bureaucracy with lots of red tape. I can't really contact any of my relatives because they are in another country. I think they're hostile to the idea because my grades have been low (although they are improving) ever since we moved to a new state over winter. They are also worried about my vision...

Right now my main goal is to make money. In the long term I would want to have several websites set up and do some research in CS. I've only completed one web app, and it's a really simple one in Sinatra (it's a pastebin...). I plan to learn Rails, JS, and graphic design with Inkscape.

Thanks for the links!

[mindcrime]

I tried to ask them but there's always so many blocks. I have to explain so much just to get them to do something. It's like an inefficient bureaucracy with lots of red tape. I can't really contact any of my relatives because they are in another country. I think they're hostile to the idea because my grades have been low (although they are improving) ever since we moved to a new state over winter. They are also worried about my vision...

Understood. Another option would be to setup some sort of online "donation box" thing (like some open source projects do) and just put the word out "help a high-school kid get a VPS / domain / books" and see if you can raise a few dollars. I know I'd chip in a few bucks to such a cause myself.

And, as others have mentioned, a summer job is an option. But it doesn't necessarily have to be mowing lawns or whatever. You already have some coding skills, and apparently have a computer and a 'net connection... maybe you can find a scenario where somebody will pay you to build them a basic app or website or whatever. Unfortunately you probably can't use ODesk or anything due to your age, but you might be able to set up an "under the table" deal and get paid via Paypal or something. Hmm... not sure if you can have a PayPal account if you're < 18, but maybe your parents would be willing to help make that happen, if there's an age limit?

[coryl]

I used to trade logo/web design work for hosting and domain registrations (before I had a paypal account). I'm sure you could trade programming work for those too.

[jsavimbi]

Get thee to Heroku, get thee to GitHub. I'm biased towards the Ruby community, but there are a great bunch of people there who publish a lot of code and related information that you can take a lot of advantage of. Also, the Node.js community is on fire right now and there are a lot of enthusiastic people constantly contributing. Joyent has free shit as well https://no.de/

As far as scheduling your time goes, I would try and use little increments. Get yourself a calendar and think about small projects with limited feature sets, setting a max limit of one or two hours of development a day and cross off each day that you code in red marker. After a couple of weeks you'll notice a lot of progress. It may help you to focus on specific parts of a functionality in order to familiarize yourself with larger concepts and gain expertise, like authentication, messaging, client vs. server javascript, etc.

Most importantly, become a member of a community of developers. That will expose you to a lot more than just dogmatic handouts from the few people who actually get involved in online education and aside from making friends and contacts, may lead to paid work so that you'll be able to line the walls of home with fancy, outdated programming books like the rest of us.