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The more interesting question is why there is incredible pressure in Silicon Valley and other tech hubs to be successful by 30. In other professions, particular

The more interesting question is why there is incredible pressure in Silicon Valley and other tech hubs to be successful by 30. In other professions, particularly ones that require graduate education such as law or medicine, it's almost impossible to be "successful" by 30. I suppose the easy and simple answer is: one must be young to "understand" what the youth market wants. Facebook went after the college market at first, and Zuckerberg was a college student, so that makes sense, right? Well, life is what you make of it. Sometimes circumstances prevent young successes. That doesn't mean that anyone should give up. In fact, it may be a self-fulfilling prophecy - people are so enamored with the idea of being a billionaire by 25 that if they don't make it by age 28, they give up. Life is your own story and you are the only writer.

anonymousDan 16y ago
This is kind of a good point, but I have a feeling that this will change over time. The internet is still fairly young remember, and there are still plenty of middle-aged/older people who have very limited exposure to it. As people of our age (20s/30s) get older, I think the fact that we've grown up with the internet will make the elderly a much bigger market.
- esoteriq 16y ago
  Yes, excellent point. I was thinking about that as well. Just to expand on your comment, it's interesting to think more about the generational differences. I know that my generation (I'm in my mid-20s) was one of the first generation that had kids learning programming and starting internet businesses in high school. My dad who is in his 70s now studied computer science, but he sees computer science as more of an academic area rather than practical. I think you're right - the younger generation will continue cutting their teeth on the internet phenomenon throughout their 30s, 40s and (gasp) 50s. Once again, just because most of the famous billionaires-by-age-25 are internet wunderkids doesn't mean that youth is a necessary ingredient for entrepreneurial success.

anonymousDan 16y ago

This is kind of a good point, but I have a feeling that this will change over time. The internet is still fairly young remember, and there are still plenty of middle-aged/older people who have very limited exposure to it. As people of our age (20s/30s) get older, I think the fact that we've grown up with the internet will make the elderly a much bigger market.

esoteriq 16y ago
Yes, excellent point. I was thinking about that as well. Just to expand on your comment, it's interesting to think more about the generational differences. I know that my generation (I'm in my mid-20s) was one of the first generation that had kids learning programming and starting internet businesses in high school. My dad who is in his 70s now studied computer science, but he sees computer science as more of an academic area rather than practical. I think you're right - the younger generation will continue cutting their teeth on the internet phenomenon throughout their 30s, 40s and (gasp) 50s. Once again, just because most of the famous billionaires-by-age-25 are internet wunderkids doesn't mean that youth is a necessary ingredient for entrepreneurial success.