[jiggy2011]

Ok, really how common are people who have started 2 companies and written an OS by the time they start college? I did CS at a pretty good university (AAB A level requirement) and there were plenty of uber-nerds in the class but nobody had done anything like this.

I did a bit of casual freelance work building basic PHP/HTML websites and fixing/building PCs before I started college, but never anything I would have dreamed of incorporating a company for. In fact I'm not sure how many jurisdictions would even let one start a company at that age?

[sentinel]

I think you might be missing the point of the article.

[jiggy2011]

Not really, no wonder companies have problems hiring if they are after some mythical person who does not represent the top 1% of programmers, more like the top 0.001% (even Linus Torvalds or Bill Gates don't tick all the boxes here).

In fact I would be surprised if someone with that level of accomplishment so young would even consider taking any job with any company, more likely they are already putting together an MVP of the thing that will replace google.

[sanxiyn]

You may be surprised, but it is possible to be very talented in programming without much entrepreneurial ambition. Well, the original article mentioned "started two companies" so probably Norman is not looking for jobs.

But I do know a person who's been programming since ~12, wrote a 3D game in C++ at ~16 (multiplayer one, thousands of players), and wrote his own OS, and happily employed.

[jiggy2011]

Out of curiosity what were the game and OS?

[sanxiyn]

Try Lesia Online. (Most information is in Korean since he is Korean.)

[jiggy2011]

This One? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdgzKHOfUI8

Shame all I can find is that youtube video and no download links etc, that game looks utterly insane and quite fun.

Technically it's only really a 2D game though , still very impressive for a 16 year old.