4 ms·

> I think because I was so young I absolutely knew it was totally possible to do, I was fully determined and without consulting any professionals I had no barri

> I think because I was so young I absolutely knew it was totally possible to do, I was fully determined and without consulting any professionals I had no barrier stopping me. IMO, this is the mindset of greatness to come. So many who have failed before us are quick to proclaim the impossible. Time and time again humans have displayed that the impossible may in fact be nothing more than a lack of imagination.

ianlevesque 5y ago
Yeah it's a really interesting human trait. There's clearly hazard in falling prey to the sunk costs fallacy and spinning your wheels forever, but naive determination is an integral part of the human success story.
Shish2k 5y ago
I miss having this attitude - as a teenager, I created a two minute long animation with ~200 bytes of code and ~1700 bytes of data (demoscene-style). Now as a professional software engineer if you asked me to do that, I’d say “it’s impossible - the unit tests alone would break the 2KB limit!” :(
- rmetzler 5y ago
  Unit Tests don’t count against the byte limit. ;-)
  - heavenlyblue 5y ago
    I would also assume it’s compiled code too, not source code?
    - rmetzler 5y ago
      Depends on the language though as there are JavaScript compos nowadays.
hutzlibu 5y ago
"Time and time again humans have displayed that the impossible may in fact be nothing more than a lack of imagination. " Sure, but there is still no working Perpetuum Mobile, despite many freaks are working on it. And I mean, who knows, maybe one of them accidently invents cold fusion in that approach, but most of the time, youthful optimism can be very blinding for reality. (And I mean not the reality of old cynics, who failed to achieve their dreams and conclude that since they could not make it work, why should the young and dumb ones succed, who lack experience and skills) But actual reality, with physical boundaries of time and matter. But nothing was impossible with this project, it was just lots of work, so congratulations.

ianlevesque 5y ago

Yeah it's a really interesting human trait. There's clearly hazard in falling prey to the sunk costs fallacy and spinning your wheels forever, but naive determination is an integral part of the human success story.

Shish2k 5y ago

I miss having this attitude - as a teenager, I created a two minute long animation with ~200 bytes of code and ~1700 bytes of data (demoscene-style). Now as a professional software engineer if you asked me to do that, I’d say “it’s impossible - the unit tests alone would break the 2KB limit!” :(

rmetzler 5y ago
Unit Tests don’t count against the byte limit. ;-)
- heavenlyblue 5y ago
  I would also assume it’s compiled code too, not source code?
  - rmetzler 5y ago
    Depends on the language though as there are JavaScript compos nowadays.

hutzlibu 5y ago

"Time and time again humans have displayed that the impossible may in fact be nothing more than a lack of imagination. " Sure, but there is still no working Perpetuum Mobile, despite many freaks are working on it. And I mean, who knows, maybe one of them accidently invents cold fusion in that approach, but most of the time, youthful optimism can be very blinding for reality. (And I mean not the reality of old cynics, who failed to achieve their dreams and conclude that since they could not make it work, why should the young and dumb ones succed, who lack experience and skills) But actual reality, with physical boundaries of time and matter. But nothing was impossible with this project, it was just lots of work, so congratulations.