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You're leaving out the part where your parents were of sufficient means to provide you with the resources -- eg, a computer, a modem and phone line, not to ment

You're leaving out the part where your parents were of sufficient means to provide you with the resources -- eg, a computer, a modem and phone line, not to mention food, clothing, and an expensive private school education -- that put you slightly ahead of the curve. I coded when I was a teenager, too, but my access was limited to a couple of hours a day in a public school computer lab for 9 months out of every year. My evenings, weekends and summers were spent bussing tables and slinging hash... to pay for college. So yeah, you did have an unusually fortunate circumstances. Even being in Chicago versus rural Texas provided you with a greater pool of jobs that would consider you beyond your academic credentials. And a greater pool of badass, awesome people to work with. And internet access, which multiplied both of those pools by some huge amount. Not everyone has those kinds of resources, but universities with deep pockets attract them. And last, entrepreneurial work is not harder, just more risky.

tptacek 16y ago
I agree with all of this but I also assume that someone who thinks they're a dev "badass" just out of high school is privileged enough to consider putting college off for 5 years to see if they can make it on their own. If your circumstances are such that you'll be leaving home to support yourself on your own and never have the luxury of downtime or uncertainty (and there are many tens of millions of these people), yeah, I think, go to school. Oh, hey, Hacker News readers, welcome to 5-7% of all of me and Erin's arguments. =) Erin's got a (technical) degree and had to clean up hotel rooms to pay for it. Our worldviews are uh different.
CGamesPlay 16y ago
I think the point about entrepreneurial work being harder was mainly referring to the self discipline required to get a job done when it stops being fun, and the understanding that your livelihood depends on the success of your product rather than the number of hours you spend at a place. It's much higher risk, yes, and I imagine that risk is something most teenagers simply haven't had the experience to be able to understand properly.

tptacek 16y ago

I agree with all of this but I also assume that someone who thinks they're a dev "badass" just out of high school is privileged enough to consider putting college off for 5 years to see if they can make it on their own. If your circumstances are such that you'll be leaving home to support yourself on your own and never have the luxury of downtime or uncertainty (and there are many tens of millions of these people), yeah, I think, go to school. Oh, hey, Hacker News readers, welcome to 5-7% of all of me and Erin's arguments. =) Erin's got a (technical) degree and had to clean up hotel rooms to pay for it. Our worldviews are uh different.

CGamesPlay 16y ago

I think the point about entrepreneurial work being harder was mainly referring to the self discipline required to get a job done when it stops being fun, and the understanding that your livelihood depends on the success of your product rather than the number of hours you spend at a place. It's much higher risk, yes, and I imagine that risk is something most teenagers simply haven't had the experience to be able to understand properly.