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I'm certainly impressed by that poker bot, but it sure is depressing reading about it at 22 and having never really written anything more than 1k LOC. I feel h

by cgag 15y ago

I'm certainly impressed by that poker bot, but it sure is depressing reading about it at 22 and having never really written anything more than 1k LOC. I feel hopelessly behind sometimes. edit: I also wanted to mention that Curvio sounds like a great idea, do you have any competitors? It's one of those ideas where I'm surprised it hasn't already been done, which I feel is usually a good sign.

dustinupdyke 15y ago
Feeling behind is a great motivator, use it for good.
sounds 15y ago
I remember being 22 and feeling hopelessly behind. Keep at it!
- no-go-mojo 15y ago
  How do you feel behind at 22? Your 20s should mostly be blown away on things you'd not do later in life. I think.
  - kragen 15y ago
    Why? If you wouldn't do them later in life, why would you do them in your 20s either? Unless you mean things like claiming to be 23, which would be dishonest if you weren't.
    - no-go-mojo 15y ago
      No man, partying 6 nights in a row, hanging out being care free, living for the moment etc. So if someone asks you, how were your 20s, you smile and say wooh, they were good, and off record. :-) Basically I'm saying party it up, learn a bit about everything and everyone, back pack across a continent or two, and don't be in such a rush to jump in the rat race. When you're in your late 20s, dropping everything and rolling out will most likely be near impossible. You will be more rooted like an older tree. Right now just see and feel the world you have come into and just play with it. My 2 cents. P.S. to me a Michael Jackson or Mark Zuckerberg are not a great life, because they were/are unidimensional. They are what they are and not much outside of it. In technology, a rounded and balanced figure I can think of Steve Jobs. He got the fuck out, then got back in. In is always there, you can always get back in, but you can't always get out. Good luck!
      - kragen 15y ago
        > partying 6 nights in a row, hanging out being care free, living for the moment etc. If those are good things to do, why are they not good when you're not in your 20s? If they're not good things to do, why would they be good in your 20s? They sound kind of like stupid, boring wastes of time to me. But if they genuinely make you happy, why would they stop genuinely making you happy because your hair fell out and you got fat? > When you're in your late 20s, dropping everything and rolling out will most likely be near impossible. When I was 29 I quit my job, and then digitized the Oxford English Dictionary, published my first peer-reviewed paper, moved into a Volkswagen bus, drove all over the country with my wife (having to learn to rebuild the van's engine in the process), and moved to Argentina. You can live a cliché, but you don't have to. > P.S. to me a Michael Jackson or Mark Zuckerberg are not a great life, because they were/are unidimensional. They are what they are and not much outside of it. Given that statement, I'd bet money you don't know Zuck personally.
tansey 15y ago
Thanks! Keep working hard and you'll be just fine. We all feel that we need to play catch-up to someone. My boss had like 25 publications by the time he was my age, so I know the feeling. Like others have said, use it to your advantage as a way to push yourself harder. There are a few competitors, but generally they're celeb fashion/gossip blogs. We're the only site that I'm aware of which is focused on actually being more like a search engine. It's been tried a few times throughout the last 15 years, and even Liz Lemon mentions it at the end of a 30 Rock episode. The problem is that costume designers are very busy and in general Hollywood does not want to work with you, so you need to do all the legwork yourself. Additionally, it's only in recent years that crowdsourcing has become a viable solution, both in terms of paid (e.g., Mechanical Turk) and organic (e.g., StackOverflow) platforms. We rely heavily on crowdsourcing to help us generate some of our data and it's so far worked out really well in private testing. The key is really about getting an efficient, organized workflow that you can repeat and scale out. It wasn't easy to find, but I think we have it down now and are looking forward to launching in November! :D
cdavid 15y ago
Don't worry too much about it. I know it is often said that good programmers start early, but it is not an absolute rule. Not that I consider myself great or anything, but I start to program when I was around 24-25. Now, 5 years later I am making a quite decent living of it doing interesting stuff. Lars Bak is a much more interesting example of someone who started late (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/03775904-177c-11de-8c9d-0000779fd2ac.html#axzz1bOvm3RHK http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/03775904-177c-11de-8c9d-0000779fd2...)
chris_dcosta 15y ago
you're never too old to do anything in technology.
anand_nalya 15y ago
Not being a mathematician have its own perks :) http://xkcd.com/447/ http://xkcd.com/447/

by cgag 15y ago

dustinupdyke 15y ago

Feeling behind is a great motivator, use it for good.

sounds 15y ago

I remember being 22 and feeling hopelessly behind. Keep at it!

no-go-mojo 15y ago
How do you feel behind at 22? Your 20s should mostly be blown away on things you'd not do later in life. I think.
- kragen 15y ago
  Why? If you wouldn't do them later in life, why would you do them in your 20s either? Unless you mean things like claiming to be 23, which would be dishonest if you weren't.
  - no-go-mojo 15y ago
    No man, partying 6 nights in a row, hanging out being care free, living for the moment etc. So if someone asks you, how were your 20s, you smile and say wooh, they were good, and off record. :-) Basically I'm saying party it up, learn a bit about everything and everyone, back pack across a continent or two, and don't be in such a rush to jump in the rat race. When you're in your late 20s, dropping everything and rolling out will most likely be near impossible. You will be more rooted like an older tree. Right now just see and feel the world you have come into and just play with it. My 2 cents. P.S. to me a Michael Jackson or Mark Zuckerberg are not a great life, because they were/are unidimensional. They are what they are and not much outside of it. In technology, a rounded and balanced figure I can think of Steve Jobs. He got the fuck out, then got back in. In is always there, you can always get back in, but you can't always get out. Good luck!
    - kragen 15y ago
      > partying 6 nights in a row, hanging out being care free, living for the moment etc. If those are good things to do, why are they not good when you're not in your 20s? If they're not good things to do, why would they be good in your 20s? They sound kind of like stupid, boring wastes of time to me. But if they genuinely make you happy, why would they stop genuinely making you happy because your hair fell out and you got fat? > When you're in your late 20s, dropping everything and rolling out will most likely be near impossible. When I was 29 I quit my job, and then digitized the Oxford English Dictionary, published my first peer-reviewed paper, moved into a Volkswagen bus, drove all over the country with my wife (having to learn to rebuild the van's engine in the process), and moved to Argentina. You can live a cliché, but you don't have to. > P.S. to me a Michael Jackson or Mark Zuckerberg are not a great life, because they were/are unidimensional. They are what they are and not much outside of it. Given that statement, I'd bet money you don't know Zuck personally.

tansey 15y ago

Thanks! Keep working hard and you'll be just fine. We all feel that we need to play catch-up to someone. My boss had like 25 publications by the time he was my age, so I know the feeling. Like others have said, use it to your advantage as a way to push yourself harder. There are a few competitors, but generally they're celeb fashion/gossip blogs. We're the only site that I'm aware of which is focused on actually being more like a search engine. It's been tried a few times throughout the last 15 years, and even Liz Lemon mentions it at the end of a 30 Rock episode. The problem is that costume designers are very busy and in general Hollywood does not want to work with you, so you need to do all the legwork yourself. Additionally, it's only in recent years that crowdsourcing has become a viable solution, both in terms of paid (e.g., Mechanical Turk) and organic (e.g., StackOverflow) platforms. We rely heavily on crowdsourcing to help us generate some of our data and it's so far worked out really well in private testing. The key is really about getting an efficient, organized workflow that you can repeat and scale out. It wasn't easy to find, but I think we have it down now and are looking forward to launching in November! :D

cdavid 15y ago

Don't worry too much about it. I know it is often said that good programmers start early, but it is not an absolute rule. Not that I consider myself great or anything, but I start to program when I was around 24-25. Now, 5 years later I am making a quite decent living of it doing interesting stuff. Lars Bak is a much more interesting example of someone who started late (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/03775904-177c-11de-8c9d-0000779fd2ac.html#axzz1bOvm3RHK http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/03775904-177c-11de-8c9d-0000779fd2...)

chris_dcosta 15y ago

you're never too old to do anything in technology.

anand_nalya 15y ago

Not being a mathematician have its own perks :) http://xkcd.com/447/ http://xkcd.com/447/