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I'm a 16-Year-Old Self-Taught Developer – Built 700 Projects

4 points by RajGuruYadav 1y ago

Hi HN, I’m Raj Guru Yadav, a 16-year-old self-taught programmer from India . Over the past 3 years, I’ve built over 700+ projects — mostly small to mid-level apps, tools, games, AI bots, voice assistants, logic experiments, and UI systems. I never attended a course or bootcamp — I learned everything from YouTube, documentation, and experimenting on my own. I use: Languages: Python, JavaScript, C++, Java, HTML/CSS, Ruby Tools: Firebase, GitHub, ChatGPT, Replit, VS Code Recently, I developed something called Blob AI – a glowing, voice-reactive digital assistant with smart responses and visual effects (I’ll share it soon in a Show HN post). Why I’m Here I’ve been silently reading Hacker News for a while, and now I want to: Join the dev/startup conversation Learn from experienced builders Get feedback on my journey and ideas Ask questions and maybe help others too If you're a dev, founder, educator, or just curious – I’d love to connect. Ask me anything: about learning to code young, building fast, staying consistent, or how I come up with ideas. Thanks for reading. — Raj Guru Yadav GitHub: coming soon @rajguruyadav_official

herbst 1y ago
700? Not bad. How many of them saw kind of success and are still running?
- RajGuruYadav 1y ago
  Thanks for asking! Out of the 700+ projects I’ve built (mostly for learning, experimenting, and exploring new ideas): About 4–5 projects are still live, mostly on CodePen, and I also upload my work regularly on GitHub. Around 10–12 projects got real user engagement — through local communities, developer groups, or niche forums. A few tools (like my AI Blob app and some Firebase-based student tools) are still used by friends and classmates. Most of the projects were quick experiments — 1–2 day builds that helped me understand and master new technologies. The goal wasn’t to make each project viral — it was to build, learn, and improve with every iteration. Right now, I’m shifting focus toward quality and scalability, refining the best ideas into open-source tools that can actually help others.
bionsystem 1y ago
Very impressive. What is your idea generation process, if you have any, to find so many ideas ?
- RajGuruYadav 1y ago
  Thank you! Honestly, my ideas come from observing problems around me — whether it's something annoying online or a missing feature in a tool I use. I also like building things for fun, so sometimes I just mix random technologies or trends and see what comes out of it.

4 points by RajGuruYadav 1y ago

herbst 1y ago

700? Not bad. How many of them saw kind of success and are still running?

RajGuruYadav 1y ago
Thanks for asking! Out of the 700+ projects I’ve built (mostly for learning, experimenting, and exploring new ideas): About 4–5 projects are still live, mostly on CodePen, and I also upload my work regularly on GitHub. Around 10–12 projects got real user engagement — through local communities, developer groups, or niche forums. A few tools (like my AI Blob app and some Firebase-based student tools) are still used by friends and classmates. Most of the projects were quick experiments — 1–2 day builds that helped me understand and master new technologies. The goal wasn’t to make each project viral — it was to build, learn, and improve with every iteration. Right now, I’m shifting focus toward quality and scalability, refining the best ideas into open-source tools that can actually help others.

bionsystem 1y ago

Very impressive. What is your idea generation process, if you have any, to find so many ideas ?

RajGuruYadav 1y ago
Thank you! Honestly, my ideas come from observing problems around me — whether it's something annoying online or a missing feature in a tool I use. I also like building things for fun, so sometimes I just mix random technologies or trends and see what comes out of it.