[netcan]

I don't think thats its a variant of the meme "I could build stackoverflow in a weekend." It doesn't have the in a weekend part.

The OP seems to consider getting a PhD an acceptable route. He's asking for directions, not a shortcut.

[noahc]

Twitter, Facebook, Stackoverflow are all really just CRUD apps. They face social and scaling challenges everyday among other technical challenges. I don't think he's giving CRUD apps enough credit. There's also security challenges, etc.