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I have a related question. Since when is a 16 year old who makes an app a prodigy? Even if she did write it all by herself? I was getting paid to make back off

by throwaway2016a 9y ago

I have a related question. Since when is a 16 year old who makes an app a prodigy? Even if she did write it all by herself? I was getting paid to make back office software for local businesses at 13 in 1998 with absolutely no help from anyone and no one called me a prodigy. I'm sure tons of NH people have similar stories. I seem to remember a survey at one point that the average person on HN who actually codes started coding at around 12. Perhaps we should be teaching young people that coding is an obtainable goal that if you put your mind to it and work hard you can do? Not something you need to be a "prodigy" to do.

dudul 9y ago
I would say that it depends on the maturity of the app. If it's 2 or 3 screens with a couple buttons yeah, nothing extraordinary. If it can handle a massive load and do actual complicated calculation then it's more impressive. I was also making websites for business at the beginning of the Internet when I was a teen. But back then anybody who could understand HTML was seen as a freaking wizard :) But I also recognize that the complexity of what I was building was nowhere near what I do today for example.
EnderMB 9y ago
It's easy enough to write code when you're young, but to write something that is being actively used is impressive. With that being said, I do find the worship of young people in tech a bit worrying. Over the years I've worked with a handful of talented developers that have started from a very young age, and over the years they become very good at a relatively young age. By the time they reach 20, they're senior-level developers. That's all well and good, but these youngsters have been praised for years. Once they reach their twenties, they go from being young to being an adult, like everyone else. All of a sudden, the slack they were given to build their career up is gone, and many of them struggle from here onwards. It can be a mixture of being treated differently, or from essentially being jaded about dedicating that many years of their youth to a skill to be building the same old CRUD shit year after year.
- cableshaft 9y ago
  My brother was a security consultant for a few major websites that you've most likely used yourself at the age of 16, many years ago. He knew more about security at 16 than most developers I work with today. Don't discount someone's knowledge or abilities because of an arbitrary age. He's still successfully protecting servers from getting hacked today, when pretty much every other server is getting hacked nowadays.
  - simplify 9y ago
    Did you reply to the wrong comment? They didn't say anything dismissive, and even expressed the impressiveness of someone writing a usable app at 16.
- msla 9y ago
  There's nothing magic about writing software. There's nothing magic about writing software people use. The magic is in being in a position where your software is in a position to reach people who can use it. Traditionally, this was handled through pure nepotism, but these days it's possible for people to succeed without such connections.
gameswithgo 9y ago
Obviously the fact that she was a woman made the story more appealing, which would be fine if it was a true story, it is nice for people to have role models they can identify with and be inspired by. Everyone loves an underdog story...well I do. I sometimes find the fact that women are successfully being high profile scam artists (Elizabeth Holmes etc) encouraging in a twisted way. Plenty of men have made a bunch of money by cheating and lying in the business world, women are now making their mark too (and likely always have of course)! why not? =)
- throwaway2016a 9y ago
  My point is if she did make the app herself it makes sense to hold her up as a role model but holding her up as a "prodigy" is counter productive. If anything it is a little sexist (not you, the "prodigy" idea). That if a 16 boy makes an app it's just normal but if a girl does it, she is a prodigy. We need to be teaching people that men and women are equal and that girls can do this stuff just the same as boys. Saying it takes a prodigy to do it discourages people from even trying because it comes with the implication that person is capable of something the average girl isn't.
  - corpMaverick 9y ago
    IMHO, we shouldn't even use the word prodigy. It is a heavy weight for those who are labeled as such, and in most cases it is just a happy combination of passion, intelligence and hard work well directed.
JeremyNT 9y ago
It's unfortunate that this seems to be the case of fraud, but I hope people don't take the wrong lesson from it. "Kids" can be far more intelligent, persistent, and effective than many adults seem to be willing to believe. I don't think there's anything inherently implausible about the general story "16 year old creates usable and useful app," even if that's not what happened in this case. Programming isn't magic, it's a skill one can learn, and at this moment of history it's easier than ever to get the information and tools required to do so. Teenagers (and younger kids) can learn incredibly quickly - if they decide to do so.
CM30 9y ago
Yeah, if a 16 year old makes an app like this it's certainly a good thing, but I'd be hesitant to say it makes them a prodigy. Kids are not stupid, and a smart, determined kid or teen can often outdo an adult or team of adults when it comes to programming, especially if it's something they're personally interested. Look at the golden age of games over here in the UK if you need proof of that. You've got many stories of famous game designers and developers starting as kids with a ZX Spectrum or Amiga and learning to code extremely impressive games in the teens or younger (and sometimes ending up employed in the field before they've even left school). There's also the fan game, ROM hack and game mod fields, where quite a few notable users are between 12 and 15 years old, yet have learnt enough about the hobby to learn how to write assembly code and build tools to help reverse engineer a game made by a team of hundreds. Add to this the no doubt thousands of great website and app developers in the same age range as the subject of the article, and well, while writing an app at 16 is impressive, it's certainly not some impossible task that couldn't have been done without outside help.

dudul 9y ago

I would say that it depends on the maturity of the app. If it's 2 or 3 screens with a couple buttons yeah, nothing extraordinary. If it can handle a massive load and do actual complicated calculation then it's more impressive. I was also making websites for business at the beginning of the Internet when I was a teen. But back then anybody who could understand HTML was seen as a freaking wizard :) But I also recognize that the complexity of what I was building was nowhere near what I do today for example.

EnderMB 9y ago

It's easy enough to write code when you're young, but to write something that is being actively used is impressive. With that being said, I do find the worship of young people in tech a bit worrying. Over the years I've worked with a handful of talented developers that have started from a very young age, and over the years they become very good at a relatively young age. By the time they reach 20, they're senior-level developers. That's all well and good, but these youngsters have been praised for years. Once they reach their twenties, they go from being young to being an adult, like everyone else. All of a sudden, the slack they were given to build their career up is gone, and many of them struggle from here onwards. It can be a mixture of being treated differently, or from essentially being jaded about dedicating that many years of their youth to a skill to be building the same old CRUD shit year after year.

cableshaft 9y ago
My brother was a security consultant for a few major websites that you've most likely used yourself at the age of 16, many years ago. He knew more about security at 16 than most developers I work with today. Don't discount someone's knowledge or abilities because of an arbitrary age. He's still successfully protecting servers from getting hacked today, when pretty much every other server is getting hacked nowadays.
- simplify 9y ago
  Did you reply to the wrong comment? They didn't say anything dismissive, and even expressed the impressiveness of someone writing a usable app at 16.
msla 9y ago
There's nothing magic about writing software. There's nothing magic about writing software people use. The magic is in being in a position where your software is in a position to reach people who can use it. Traditionally, this was handled through pure nepotism, but these days it's possible for people to succeed without such connections.

gameswithgo 9y ago

Obviously the fact that she was a woman made the story more appealing, which would be fine if it was a true story, it is nice for people to have role models they can identify with and be inspired by. Everyone loves an underdog story...well I do. I sometimes find the fact that women are successfully being high profile scam artists (Elizabeth Holmes etc) encouraging in a twisted way. Plenty of men have made a bunch of money by cheating and lying in the business world, women are now making their mark too (and likely always have of course)! why not? =)

throwaway2016a 9y ago
My point is if she did make the app herself it makes sense to hold her up as a role model but holding her up as a "prodigy" is counter productive. If anything it is a little sexist (not you, the "prodigy" idea). That if a 16 boy makes an app it's just normal but if a girl does it, she is a prodigy. We need to be teaching people that men and women are equal and that girls can do this stuff just the same as boys. Saying it takes a prodigy to do it discourages people from even trying because it comes with the implication that person is capable of something the average girl isn't.
- corpMaverick 9y ago
  IMHO, we shouldn't even use the word prodigy. It is a heavy weight for those who are labeled as such, and in most cases it is just a happy combination of passion, intelligence and hard work well directed.

JeremyNT 9y ago

It's unfortunate that this seems to be the case of fraud, but I hope people don't take the wrong lesson from it. "Kids" can be far more intelligent, persistent, and effective than many adults seem to be willing to believe. I don't think there's anything inherently implausible about the general story "16 year old creates usable and useful app," even if that's not what happened in this case. Programming isn't magic, it's a skill one can learn, and at this moment of history it's easier than ever to get the information and tools required to do so. Teenagers (and younger kids) can learn incredibly quickly - if they decide to do so.

CM30 9y ago

Yeah, if a 16 year old makes an app like this it's certainly a good thing, but I'd be hesitant to say it makes them a prodigy. Kids are not stupid, and a smart, determined kid or teen can often outdo an adult or team of adults when it comes to programming, especially if it's something they're personally interested. Look at the golden age of games over here in the UK if you need proof of that. You've got many stories of famous game designers and developers starting as kids with a ZX Spectrum or Amiga and learning to code extremely impressive games in the teens or younger (and sometimes ending up employed in the field before they've even left school). There's also the fan game, ROM hack and game mod fields, where quite a few notable users are between 12 and 15 years old, yet have learnt enough about the hobby to learn how to write assembly code and build tools to help reverse engineer a game made by a team of hundreds. Add to this the no doubt thousands of great website and app developers in the same age range as the subject of the article, and well, while writing an app at 16 is impressive, it's certainly not some impossible task that couldn't have been done without outside help.