I'm going to refrain from commenting on her abilities. One problem I have with "X accomplished person passed away" on the internet is that a free-for-all seems

I'm going to refrain from commenting on her abilities. One problem I have with "X accomplished person passed away" on the internet is that a free-for-all seems to start, wherein everyone feels qualified to judge that person's accomplishments from behind a monitor. Steve Jobs, whoever, it might seem unfair that just because someone died that the "unworthy" things they did get celebrated. I disagree. What did strike me as particularly relevant for HN and the drive to succeed was the following quotation from an earlier article on her life, where the author so kindly informed her that she was no longer the "youngest MCP in the world": “This is the first time I’ve seen this story. But I must say that I’m really happy to have read it. This is exactly what I had been wishing for ever since I got to bring laurels for my country. I am very glad to see that people are following what I did and have succeeded in beating me. I don’t know whether you’ve heard or not but a boy, named Bilal, from Gujranwala in Pakistan also became a Microsoft Certified Professional at the age of nine. I would say that the other youngsters should follow suit, thereby convincing the people to take us kids seriously. Our generation is very talented and so should be promoted.”[1] A lot of people are brought here by the will to do Something Great, so much so that we get caught up in whether or not credit is given rightly, whether we'll get it, whether the whole world of doing Great Things is fair (it's not). It was this perspective of humility in the face of eventually being passed up, which is so rare in externally validated precocious children, that I found inspiring. [1] http://www.geekwire.com/2011/arfa http://www.geekwire.com/2011/arfa