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by memonkey 4074 days ago
Maybe because he's 19?

I agree though. This is not exceptional or very impressive. I don't really get why this has more upvotes than the 14 year old kid who posted a relatively way cooler site that utilized a bunch of APIs, etc.
2 comments
argklm 4074 days ago
He is young, surely, but in this very moment, there are silent young people on GitHub with exceptional projects. There are some people in their early-20 that are proving to be exceptional in the startup and the programming world. Maybe we are stuck in time when we started: back in the days Internet was more like a myth than a resource. And this feat would have been amazing. Nowadays you can nearly be a programmer without knowing how to program. Today the entry level was lowered exponentially... Back in the days there was an obscure manual and in a lot of cases written in another language with the need to go to the university and be laughed on the face, because you were too young, with a question that neither the professor was able to answer... And this was the easy part. For the hard part... Let the reminiscence kicks in and be amazed to how far we have gone. Learning alone like 20 years ago, could be outlawed as torture now lol
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memonkey 4073 days ago
Why do we all have to be young?

I'm 27 years old (am I still young?) and started self teaching 2 years ago. I'm creating an API for poets/poetry because it doesn't exist. I'm implementing my own API to serve the poems and let users metaphorically match their favorite poems to their favorite alcoholic beverages; poetryandalcohol.com (not up yet). I'm also working on something similar to Yummly and BigOven, however, not only let's users plan their meals, but incorporates the USDA food prices API to let them know how much their grocery list will be for the week or whatever.

I have no reminiscing to do. The internet has ALWAYS been a resource for me. But in different ways.

The feat this gentleman has made is no less than that of twenty years ago. You still need a degree to get an entry level job of the same sort as ten years ago. In fact, I'd argue that twenty years ago, people didn't care if you had a degree or not in computer science, so long as you had the experience/could prove you can do the work. Today, it's not only a degree/experience, which this person has BARELY showed (aw crap, I forgot he's 19), but you also need side projects, open source contributions, and a penchant for motivation. I'd say it's still torture for us self-taughts who work in a warehouse 9-5 filling orders for computer fans at a median wage.

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toomuchtodo 4074 days ago
Drive and ambition are more valuable than "look what cool thing I made". You can teach talent; you can't teach motivation.
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memonkey 4074 days ago
Well, okay. I see where you're coming from but you can absolutely teach motivation. It is, however, extremely harder, because motivation is not as tangible as talent in the case of the individual. I mean, I'm not sure I'm not alone in wishing my own motivation at 19 was matched by this very motivated person.

I think, however, that is the idea of this community. The I-Wish-I-Executed-My-Idea-At-19 types Even-Though-I-Only-Have-Words-And-College-Classes-To-Show-For-It. Maybe I'm wrong.

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toomuchtodo 4074 days ago
The sort of motivation I'm talking about you can't be taught:

https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-be-as-great-as-Bill-Gates-St...

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memonkey 4073 days ago
Well, then your previous definition is moot. Also, if you're interested in it further, I suggest Interest and Effort by John Dewey..
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