5 ms·

I think it's easier to get the money if one has funding from parents or friends, after all most of this stuffs are dirty cheap (under $1K) and he has a whole ga

I think it's easier to get the money if one has funding from parents or friends, after all most of this stuffs are dirty cheap (under $1K) and he has a whole garage to play around, but it's MUCH more difficult to learn the skills described in the article!

was_a_dev 5y ago
As mentioned, getting that equipment would cost an order of magnitude higher in my part of the world. However, there is no doubt the feat pulled off here is impressive and insanely difficult to do. I most likely couldn't replicate it, but I wouldn't be able to find that out.
Symbiote 5y ago
It's rather inconsiderate to refer to $1K as "dirt cheap" when replying to someone who says they can only just afford a soldering iron.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- csdvrx 5y ago
  > It's rather inconsiderate to refer to $1K as "dirt cheap" when replying to someone who says they can only just afford a soldering iron That's like 10 bucks on amazon? Skip 2 meals, or panhandle for 4 hours. Done - soldering iron.
  - Symbiote 5y ago
    I'd assumed they were in India, but they wrote in another comment "My PhD is funded by a research council and my stipend is £12k." I had forgotten the pathetic level of funding science PhDs get in Britain. £12k is possibly on the low end, but a PhD with this funding was on the fourth page of the main site listing them [1]. Minimum wage assuming a 40-hour working week is £19,760 per year, and after taxes works out to £17,100. In other words, they are probably already skipping meals. For comparison, a PhD student at the University of Copenhagen is paid £47,500 per annum [2], or £31,000 after tax (probably more, I think there's a tax discount for foreign researchers). [1] https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/CMM286/phd-studentship-achieve-nearly-zero-energy-in-educational-building-and-investigate-its-impact-on-airborne-virus https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/CMM286/phd-studentship-achieve-ne... [2] https://uniavisen.dk/en/salaries-of-university-of-copenhagen-staff/ https://uniavisen.dk/en/salaries-of-university-of-copenhagen...
    - was_a_dev 5y ago
      It truly is a career driven via passion rather than monetary gain
      - resueman 5y ago
        Well if you choose passion over money, it's not really luck anymore when someone has more money than you. An engineering undergrad can probably earn more in a summer internship than your stipend pays in a year.
        was_a_dev 5y ago
        This guy is a student. It's not like he has "chosen" money unlike myself I used to be a junior software developer (hence username) earning £40k - far above median income. Post tax, rent, bills I could save over the year to purchase the £5k electron microscope I mentioned quite easily. But then I'd need to rent space for it. And purchase the rest of the equipment. My points aren't some "look how bad I have it" gotcha. It's highlighting the perspective that this student is lucky to be supported with the resources to excel in his passion. Even if his use case is quite exceptional Others have highlighted for Americans this probably represents a family in the top 5-10% of earners. A realm which American software developers can fall into For myself, the chance to work in a lab of equipment costing the order of six figures required a career change and significant pay cut. But that's just me To clarify. I am mind blown he has pulled this off. It's an extraordinary feat. All I can be is envious of his skills and privilege
        quantumwannabe 5y ago
        I don't think you realize just how much higher the median income is in the US and how much space the typical family has. A homeowner who earns middle class wages would have the space for a home lab/shop (without renting additional space) and would be able to pay a couple thousand dollars for their son's hobby. The stereotypical middle-class soccer mom spends more than that a year on her kid's activities. This is representative of at least the top 50% of American earners, not just the top 5-10%. This kid's father is the owner of a small sheet metal fabrication shop and he probably does decently well for himself but most of his wealth is likely the value of his business. On posts advocating for density on HN, I often see people wondering why Americans resist densification because the benefits of a walkable city are so immense. Stuff like this and your belief that having a home electronics fabrication shop is out of reach for all but the rich (and the fact that most Americans can already do nearly any errand with less than 15 minutes of travel) are some of the reasons why. It is not that unusual for a middle class homeowner to have a home shop, though normally the equipment in them is something like a table saw or a mid-20th century manual milling machine, not a homebuilt photolithography machine and an old refurbished SEM. People who have them either use their garages (either an extra bay if they have a two/three car garage and only one/two cars or they use the entire garage and park their cars in the driveway or on the street) or they use a shed placed in their yard. Ever wondered where the stories of people starting companies in their garages come from? To a middle-class American not living in a super high cost of living area this kid's story is something that they could have done had they had parents who trusted them and if they had the motivation and inclination to do it. The people complaining about that this kid being "privileged" are ignorant of how much of America lives and/or are jealous that they weren't able to do what he did when they were younger.

was_a_dev 5y ago

As mentioned, getting that equipment would cost an order of magnitude higher in my part of the world. However, there is no doubt the feat pulled off here is impressive and insanely difficult to do. I most likely couldn't replicate it, but I wouldn't be able to find that out.

Symbiote 5y ago

It's rather inconsiderate to refer to $1K as "dirt cheap" when replying to someone who says they can only just afford a soldering iron.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
csdvrx 5y ago
> It's rather inconsiderate to refer to $1K as "dirt cheap" when replying to someone who says they can only just afford a soldering iron That's like 10 bucks on amazon? Skip 2 meals, or panhandle for 4 hours. Done - soldering iron.
- Symbiote 5y ago
  I'd assumed they were in India, but they wrote in another comment "My PhD is funded by a research council and my stipend is £12k." I had forgotten the pathetic level of funding science PhDs get in Britain. £12k is possibly on the low end, but a PhD with this funding was on the fourth page of the main site listing them [1]. Minimum wage assuming a 40-hour working week is £19,760 per year, and after taxes works out to £17,100. In other words, they are probably already skipping meals. For comparison, a PhD student at the University of Copenhagen is paid £47,500 per annum [2], or £31,000 after tax (probably more, I think there's a tax discount for foreign researchers). [1] https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/CMM286/phd-studentship-achieve-nearly-zero-energy-in-educational-building-and-investigate-its-impact-on-airborne-virus https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/CMM286/phd-studentship-achieve-ne... [2] https://uniavisen.dk/en/salaries-of-university-of-copenhagen-staff/ https://uniavisen.dk/en/salaries-of-university-of-copenhagen...
  - was_a_dev 5y ago
    It truly is a career driven via passion rather than monetary gain
    - resueman 5y ago
      Well if you choose passion over money, it's not really luck anymore when someone has more money than you. An engineering undergrad can probably earn more in a summer internship than your stipend pays in a year.
      - was_a_dev 5y ago
        This guy is a student. It's not like he has "chosen" money unlike myself I used to be a junior software developer (hence username) earning £40k - far above median income. Post tax, rent, bills I could save over the year to purchase the £5k electron microscope I mentioned quite easily. But then I'd need to rent space for it. And purchase the rest of the equipment. My points aren't some "look how bad I have it" gotcha. It's highlighting the perspective that this student is lucky to be supported with the resources to excel in his passion. Even if his use case is quite exceptional Others have highlighted for Americans this probably represents a family in the top 5-10% of earners. A realm which American software developers can fall into For myself, the chance to work in a lab of equipment costing the order of six figures required a career change and significant pay cut. But that's just me To clarify. I am mind blown he has pulled this off. It's an extraordinary feat. All I can be is envious of his skills and privilege
        quantumwannabe 5y ago
        I don't think you realize just how much higher the median income is in the US and how much space the typical family has. A homeowner who earns middle class wages would have the space for a home lab/shop (without renting additional space) and would be able to pay a couple thousand dollars for their son's hobby. The stereotypical middle-class soccer mom spends more than that a year on her kid's activities. This is representative of at least the top 50% of American earners, not just the top 5-10%. This kid's father is the owner of a small sheet metal fabrication shop and he probably does decently well for himself but most of his wealth is likely the value of his business. On posts advocating for density on HN, I often see people wondering why Americans resist densification because the benefits of a walkable city are so immense. Stuff like this and your belief that having a home electronics fabrication shop is out of reach for all but the rich (and the fact that most Americans can already do nearly any errand with less than 15 minutes of travel) are some of the reasons why. It is not that unusual for a middle class homeowner to have a home shop, though normally the equipment in them is something like a table saw or a mid-20th century manual milling machine, not a homebuilt photolithography machine and an old refurbished SEM. People who have them either use their garages (either an extra bay if they have a two/three car garage and only one/two cars or they use the entire garage and park their cars in the driveway or on the street) or they use a shed placed in their yard. Ever wondered where the stories of people starting companies in their garages come from? To a middle-class American not living in a super high cost of living area this kid's story is something that they could have done had they had parents who trusted them and if they had the motivation and inclination to do it. The people complaining about that this kid being "privileged" are ignorant of how much of America lives and/or are jealous that they weren't able to do what he did when they were younger.