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She might be unusually gifted. The article states that she has a fairly excellent memory. And it is conceivable that she has a fairly high IQ. We wouldn't have

by wynand 18y ago

She might be unusually gifted. The article states that she has a fairly excellent memory. And it is conceivable that she has a fairly high IQ. We wouldn't have scoffed as much if she mastered a branch of Mathematics instead.

mechanical_fish 18y ago
We also wouldn't have scoffed as much if she were merely three years older, and a boy, and working in PHP and Javascript instead of Microsoft technologies: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=156863 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=156863 Can't we just congratulate the kid and move on? I mean, vital as it is to teach her that credentials are bullshit, can't we let her turn ten before breaking the bad news? She's already much closer to figuring it out for herself than I was at that age.
- blasdel 18y ago
  He did something creative, she just passed a helpdesk test.
  - mechanical_fish 18y ago
    Perhaps when she is thirty-three percent older she'll be more creative, too! Or, instead of showing off her chops, perhaps she'll prefer to quietly rake in the cash as a Windows programmer. It's not like she'd be the only one to make that choice.
    - tome 18y ago
      So your first argument is that he's "merely three years older", and then your response to a rebuttal is that he's as much as "thirty-three percent older".
      - mechanical_fish 18y ago
        The sad thing is, I actually noticed this inconsistency. But I decided to leave it in just to see who noticed. ;) But if you want to be more serious about it: Sure, I concede the rebuttal. Gaskin's a very creative programmer. He also works on stuff that I actually care about. I agree that passing a Microsoft certification is not in the same league as the least thing that the guy has done. And I agree that cramming for Microsoft tests is not an especially great activity to encourage a nine-year-old to do. None of which alters my initial reaction: Congratulate the girl and move on. Just because she's no Gaskin doesn't mean she deserves to be the scapegoat for things that are not her fault (the purported meaninglessness of her prized credential; the bureaucratic, credentialist nature of the Microsoft IT consulting ecosystem; the existence of cram schools and dominating parents; the insecurity of Western IT folks about the rise of the Indian software industry; and the fact that she is nine years old and can't necessarily be expected to understand any of this). She's a living, breathing kid who may be reading this thread right now -- a kid with the potential to become creative and talented, who may already be creative and talented when she's not being paraded in front of news cameras. She's not a hypothetical pawn in our intellectual game.

by wynand 18y ago

mechanical_fish 18y ago

We also wouldn't have scoffed as much if she were merely three years older, and a boy, and working in PHP and Javascript instead of Microsoft technologies: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=156863 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=156863 Can't we just congratulate the kid and move on? I mean, vital as it is to teach her that credentials are bullshit, can't we let her turn ten before breaking the bad news? She's already much closer to figuring it out for herself than I was at that age.

blasdel 18y ago
He did something creative, she just passed a helpdesk test.
- mechanical_fish 18y ago
  Perhaps when she is thirty-three percent older she'll be more creative, too! Or, instead of showing off her chops, perhaps she'll prefer to quietly rake in the cash as a Windows programmer. It's not like she'd be the only one to make that choice.
  - tome 18y ago
    So your first argument is that he's "merely three years older", and then your response to a rebuttal is that he's as much as "thirty-three percent older".
    - mechanical_fish 18y ago
      The sad thing is, I actually noticed this inconsistency. But I decided to leave it in just to see who noticed. ;) But if you want to be more serious about it: Sure, I concede the rebuttal. Gaskin's a very creative programmer. He also works on stuff that I actually care about. I agree that passing a Microsoft certification is not in the same league as the least thing that the guy has done. And I agree that cramming for Microsoft tests is not an especially great activity to encourage a nine-year-old to do. None of which alters my initial reaction: Congratulate the girl and move on. Just because she's no Gaskin doesn't mean she deserves to be the scapegoat for things that are not her fault (the purported meaninglessness of her prized credential; the bureaucratic, credentialist nature of the Microsoft IT consulting ecosystem; the existence of cram schools and dominating parents; the insecurity of Western IT folks about the rise of the Indian software industry; and the fact that she is nine years old and can't necessarily be expected to understand any of this). She's a living, breathing kid who may be reading this thread right now -- a kid with the potential to become creative and talented, who may already be creative and talented when she's not being paraded in front of news cameras. She's not a hypothetical pawn in our intellectual game.