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Note that missing from your assessment here is an honest analysis of the alternative. I.e. where would you and your brother have ended up if you had stayed in

Note that missing from your assessment here is an honest analysis of the alternative. I.e. where would you and your brother have ended up if you had stayed in school and gone the traditional college path? You say you're making $150k now as a software engineer, but there's a damn good chance if you had stayed in school and gotten a CS degree in college you would be making a lot more than that now (and earlier in your career as well). As others have mentioned, you also have to consider how few career paths offer the kind of "no formal training" entry bar that programming does. What if your brother had hated computers and realized at age 22 that he wanted to be a doctor? He'd be years behind his peers.

Foober223 6y ago
> honest analysis An honest comparison can't be made unless he gives up some details of what he's made throughout his life, and his geographic location for fair salary comparisons. But... from a glance his outcome blows most college grads out of the water. Even compared to comp sci grads with good outcomes. He was earning income at age 13 and full time income at age 16. The traditional school/college route will have you start work at maybe age 23. With debt. For most geographic areas in the US, 150k is a serious salary, the apex. It would be hard to increase with paper/certs/degrees. Geography change may be the only reliable way to bump it, but then you'd have to subtract the increased housing costs (million dollar shacks) to compare.
- garden_hermit 6y ago
  The counterfactual is still useful to think about, because what works for the poster may not work for the modal person. There is a big self-selection problem—if the poster wasn't a successful software engineer, we wouldn't be hearing about their life on an HN post. We are also engaging with their comment, because they are exceptionl and have an interesting life story—who read this article but didn't comment? And whose comments were ignored because their story was less interesting? This person is clearly successful, but the question is whether their unique schooling experience was causal to their success, and we honestly have no idea. This person may have been equally, or maybe even more successful had they did typical schooling and college. Or maybe not. We also don't know if this person's experience translates to other children—does everyone benefit? Or are there hundreds of less successful unschooled children for every one success?
BeetleB 6y ago
The median salary for a SW developer is a lot lower than $150K. It's about $108K. If you earn $165K or more, you are in the top 10% of SW developers.
leetcrew 6y ago
keep in mind $150k is a lot for an IC in most parts of the US.

Foober223 6y ago

> honest analysis An honest comparison can't be made unless he gives up some details of what he's made throughout his life, and his geographic location for fair salary comparisons. But... from a glance his outcome blows most college grads out of the water. Even compared to comp sci grads with good outcomes. He was earning income at age 13 and full time income at age 16. The traditional school/college route will have you start work at maybe age 23. With debt. For most geographic areas in the US, 150k is a serious salary, the apex. It would be hard to increase with paper/certs/degrees. Geography change may be the only reliable way to bump it, but then you'd have to subtract the increased housing costs (million dollar shacks) to compare.

garden_hermit 6y ago
The counterfactual is still useful to think about, because what works for the poster may not work for the modal person. There is a big self-selection problem—if the poster wasn't a successful software engineer, we wouldn't be hearing about their life on an HN post. We are also engaging with their comment, because they are exceptionl and have an interesting life story—who read this article but didn't comment? And whose comments were ignored because their story was less interesting? This person is clearly successful, but the question is whether their unique schooling experience was causal to their success, and we honestly have no idea. This person may have been equally, or maybe even more successful had they did typical schooling and college. Or maybe not. We also don't know if this person's experience translates to other children—does everyone benefit? Or are there hundreds of less successful unschooled children for every one success?

BeetleB 6y ago

The median salary for a SW developer is a lot lower than $150K. It's about $108K. If you earn $165K or more, you are in the top 10% of SW developers.

leetcrew 6y ago

keep in mind $150k is a lot for an IC in most parts of the US.