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Show HN: I'm 15 years old, and I released my first NPM module: Wizardry
- ryanbraganza 14y agoYou know how I know you're 15? Light grey text on a white background. I remember when I was younger and discovering ImageMagick - a perennial favourite for building little tools on top of.
- FuzzyDunlop 14y agoIt's a standard Github Pages template.
- ComputerGuru 14y agoSorry, I don't see that your age is relevant.
- tylermac1 14y agoI think that it's a great achievement for someone his/her age to do. I wish I could've had the determination and knowledge required to write and publish a module at that age.
- lclarkmichalek 14y agoSure it is, but it makes this submission less about the module, and more about the writer. As someone who was publishing code at a similar age to the OP, I would avoid ever mentioning my age online for that very reason.
- Dove 14y agoI agree, it's good to get in the habit of letting your accomplishments speak for themselves. Your work is stronger for it, and you don't feel like you've lost anything when you grow up and your age is no longer special.
- danso 14y agoYes, this. I would love to read a post about why the OP developed this module and how he got inspired/mentored towards it, but when evaluating the usefulness of the module itself, the age mention kind of throws me off. The OP wants an honest critique, I have to fight against the inner urge that thinks: "eh, why even bring up this issue, the dev is only 15 years old and is just trying things out. Good for the OP"
- remixz 14y agoAlrighty, here's a bit on development/inspiration. It started a couple weeks ago with me working on some internal projects. Talking with my bosses (I intern at a company called DIY), we figured the best solution would be to use GraphicsMagick. However, looking at the libraries available, they were a bit weak for what we wanted. So, I got to work. After some toying around with concepts, I decided on the task-based system. It kept things clean, but still allowed for extensibility. My bosses really helped me out to keep it clean and make sure my code was optimal. Fast forward to now, and there's wizardry! If you (or anyone!) has any questions, feel free to ask them.
- rymith 14y agoAnd I don't see why this comment is relevant.
- rymith 14y agoSeriously, I'm down voted to obscurity because I don't see the relevance in some asshole picking a fight with a 15 year old kid? Releasing your own node module (or any code fo that matter) is something most developers never do, they are consumers of these packages, never contributors. You can look at the stats, it's pathetic. But a kid who can't legally dive a car releases a module. That's great, and whatever head up the ass mentality that brought hacker news to dump on this kid is simply ignorance if not pure jealousy. Way to go kid, don't let these dipshits discourage you. You're a better developer than the two late twenties, college graduates, that I have working for me.
- mememememememe 14y agoI upvoted you. HN has a lot of haters. I got downvoted too before.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- fernandezpablo 14y agobitches gonna bitch
- guiomie 14y agoHis age is totally relevant. I wish that at 15 I could have known just to code, he actually published code! It's great that we see youth influenced and impacted by HN.
- chris_p 14y ago> It's great that we see youth influenced and impacted by HN. So this is the HN version of "We did it, reddit!".
- guiomie 14y agoI don't use reddit, nor do I understand your point.
- rxooo 14y agoAs a 16 year old, telling someone something is good because of their age is very detrimental to their learning later in life. I wish people didn't treat me differently when i programmed when I was younger. It creates a fixed mindset.
- bdcravens 14y agoThe "HN" ethos tends to reward those who go against the odds: founders who jumped off a cliff financially, teams working crazy hours with too few employees, working a full time job while bootstrapping, trying to have a family life, etc. In the end, none of that matters: you either ship good stuff, or you don't. However, whether you have a full-time job or are dealing with the time-suck that is high school, we're here to support, sympathize, and empathize, so it's all relevant.
- bashzor 14y agoI don't see how being 15 years old requires any empathy by default.
- saebekassebil 14y agoI think this is very suitable description of today's HN - I'd just love this to emphasized more clearly, since it seems like a common mistake to believe that HN is about actual ground-breaking stuff. It's not even if it were ment to be just that. I must say that I agree with people stating that people should present their creative works here, with the intention of getting feedback of the product - How is it any relevant for any other HN reader (than OP), that we praise him/her as a person, rather than the product? The FAQ states, that relevant information is "anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity" - Of course that's a quite vague definition, but still this is hardly intellectually stimulating.
- eertami 14y ago>time-suck that is high school I don't follow, high school allows you the most spare time you will ever have.
- chill1 14y ago"Wizardry is a task-based library for GraphicsMagick / ImageMagick that focuses on simplicity and getting one thing done right: processing images." Why I like these words: It's not enough to be able to write code, or even to package up a module for a framework. Knowing that you can't do everything, and that you should not try to do everything, with a single module, is a promising sign in and of itself. Having a clear goal to reach makes getting there all the more possible.
- remixz 14y agoThank you! This is something my bosses really helped me out with. I've been pretty lucky to have them mentor me. :)
- kellishaver 14y agoThat's great. Surround yourself with as many good mentors as you can and take full advantage of their experience. I've probably learned more over the years from great bosses than I did in school. Congrats on publishing the module. :)
- webmech 14y agoKids these days lol
- smoyer 14y agoHmmm ... when I was 15, I spent all my time playing ultimate frisbee and riding my bicycle. Except when I was poring over the schematics and ROM code for the 1802-based COSMAC Elf.
- josephagoss 14y agoWhoa quite a few comments here seem a bit negative, remixz you shipped something, that is good, power on! :)
- lewisflude 14y agoHere we go with another one of these "I'm (under 18) and I did x" posts and an equal amount of people complaining why that isn't relevant. But yeah, this is a really cool little module, congrats.
- thejosh 14y agoYou see the same thing everywhere in regards to tech. I am X years old, please show me validation that I am doing good.
- mkr-hn 14y agoSeeking validation isn't a bad thing, and it's not unique to young people. Older people are more subtle about it.
- lclarkmichalek 14y agoAnd an equal amount of people who are outraged that anyone is discussing that it's relevant.
- kmfrk 14y agoThe font-weight on your link is very close to being too small to be legible - in Opera on Windows - hello to edge case asshats like me!) And my vision is pretty decent. I know you're probably using a default or something, but it's really bothersome to someone like me to read it. Great job on the project itself, though.
- remixz 14y agoHi all! Thanks for the great feedback. I did realize the title might have been controversial, but I have a small argument for it. A few weeks ago, there was the 14 year old who posted their rad iPhone game on HN. Their post did inspire me to post my own work. I have a tiny hope that someone else who's doing something like I am will see this and post their own work. I doubt it, but you never know! :D
- loceng 14y agoThis is a perfect reason to have sub-communities. There's nothing inherently wrong with stating your situation, and some people will love this. Others will be grumpy and feel the title is being manipulative. If this had a specific sub-HN (category) to post it into then people could simply unsubscribe to it if they didn't like it. It would be a place for different groups to gather around and feel apart of, welcome to, and then if a post is mis-categorized then it can be properly categorized to avoid all of the negative and non-constructive commentary. Glad you followed up on here. Your reasoning I imagine is what many people figured was happening.
- drpancake 14y agoIgnore the obligatory haters. These kinds of posts are inspiring for younger HN readers and a collective kick up the arse for those of us burning a few more candles.
- tylermauthe 14y agoI'm currently in University studying Comp Sci; I can say with confidence that the level of competence demonstrated by you doing this surpasses the majority of my peers and your work-ethic is certainly much higher than those of us who have skills. Good show dude! Keep up the awesome stuff and you'll have money & praise showered on you.
- bashzor 14y agoIt's commonly known, especially on HN, that self education works much better than any school. I too surpass pretty much everyone at school because I started programming much earlier.
- homakov 14y agoI am 19 years old and I don't give a fuck
- taras_v 14y agoI am 25. Same shit.
- loceng 14y agoI'm 29, and I care, though this particular topic is not important to me - and I think this is a good reason for categories to exist.
- homakov 14y agoit's again me, i meant "and i dont give a f about anybody's age" if he would be 10 years old or 90 it WOULD be relevant. In 15 I was makin good money selling porn online, but this is the thing nobody gives a f about xD
- tonywok 14y agoThat's rad man. Haters gonna hate. Keep shippin'
- orangethirty 14y agoOn behalf of all the idiots that decided to rain on your parade, I would like to apologize. All of you should be ashamed. How dare you insult this young person whose only wish is to share his work with us? In terms of the module, can't really comment much on your code. It looks clean and well written. I'll try and run it during my free time to get a good feel for it. Well done. Now go back and build something bigger. PS. Shoot me an email (in profile). You might enjoy hanging out with the Nuuton team.
- donpark 14y agoHere, here. Courage can be shared without making the giver poorer. It can also be stripped away but that won't make the pillager any richer. Why discourage without gain when you can encourage without loss? Well done, @remixz!
- chris_p 14y agoWho is insulting him? People are just saying that his age is not relavent to what he did, and I agree. His post should describe the project. It should be about how awesome his project is, not about how awesome he is.
- astrodust 14y agoIt looks like a good module that stands on its own merits. Adding irrelevant demographic information weakens that. If this headline was "I'm black, and I released my first NPM module" or "I'm a Republican, and I released my first NPM module" would it be appropriate? It's as if anyone who's not 20-40, white and male needs to somehow draw attention to that fact. Shouldn't this be an inclusive community rather than one that needs to tag its members?
- Jare 14y agoI find the age bit interesting because most young people are not interested in creating, and I enjoy celebrating those that do.
- KaoruAoiShiho 14y agoWhy this instead of gm? https://github.com/aheckmann/gm https://github.com/aheckmann/gm
- tferris 14y agoI used this one few times and though it's good it doesn't offer the full API to the underlying libraries. So, I appreciate any new NPM and if it's just for the sake of competition pushing the boundaries of the entire Node ecosystem.
- remixz 14y agoAs tferris said, gm is a bit restrictive. I wanted something a lot more open and extensible.
- mkr-hn 14y agoThis thread is an early lesson in how age often makes people focus too much on little things and miss what's important.
- nkohari 14y agoAlready at 15 you've done more than (I would wager) most of the people on this site -- you've shipped open source. Congratulations, and ignore the haters. Remember that it doesn't matter what you think or say, it matters what you do. Creating software is more important than talking about it.
- bdcravens 14y agoMaybe a good rule of thumb: When someone complains about a Show HN that links to Github, post their own Github profile, or STFU? :-)
- shaunxcode 14y agoThis is rad, keep it up! Seriously when others detract remember minor threat: "what the fuck have you done?"
- bdcravens 14y agoMany didn't like posting the age in the title. Yeah, no one ever words their HN submissions to be inflammatory and get to front page, right? I'll take a million hackers showing their projects and trying to win brownie points with their age than a single freakin smart phone troll blog post any day of the week.
- tylermauthe 14y agoAgreed! But personally I found it inspiring so perhaps I misunderstand their rage. Seems like they drank too much haterade.
- ianstallings 14y agoYeah no doubt. And this kid is miles ahead of the SEO goons as far as I'm concerned. Besides I always assume that means "I don't have experience so I'm just putting that out there before you stone me for something I did wrong". And as harsh as some of these comments are you can see why. I guess we all have to be tempered by the flames.
- vaidik 14y agoGood one! Seriously! For the work you have done according to your age is tremendous. I certainly was not able to do anything even close to it when I was 15. So I'd say, hats off!!
- geuis 14y agoGuess I'll leave one of the few comments about the project itself. I'm going to evaluate this when I get home. If it works as described, I think I'll be integrating this into an imaging service we're building. The interface looks great. Keep coding man. This looks really good.
- remixz 14y agoWow, that's really cool! Thanks! :D
- robertli 14y agoI'm 12 and what is this
- bashzor 14y agoOh a 15 year old, how cute. So, what about that module? Why is it special enough to be posted to HN? The age is not relevant. Imagine someone of 36 made this module and included his age. If he had gotten into programming at 35 and this was some kick-ass thing, then yeah that would be kinda neat. Now you could have been programming for five years or so, which gives you a big advantage. If you had been twelve or so, then I'd say it rocks. But fifteen is a fine age to develop something. I don't mean to discourage you at all, just let the product speak and not your age.
- cdmoyer 14y ago> Oh a 15 year old, how cute. > I don't mean to discourage you at all, just let the product speak and not your age. C'mon, really? I'm much more interested in the story of a 15-year old developer creating and publishing something, than I am in yet another node module. > Imagine someone of 36 made this module and included his age. Yes, that would probably be dumb. But 15 is not 36. Lots of people write programs at a young age. Not many publish them on the internet, at least historically. I was writing programs at that age, but I wasn't publishing them. Heck, even just from the "hack the social system of hacker news by including age" angle this fits with many posts we see here regularly.
- danilocampos 14y agoWe're top-voting this comment, folks? Really? That's how we want to encourage the next generation? Age is entirely relevant. In having youth, OP is sitting on a one-shot mass of potential energy that can be channeled in a multitude of ways. Among other things, by including age, OP is perhaps asking to be encouraged that yes, this is a valid and worthy combination of talents and ambitions. That this work shows potential and can lead somewhere. The prosperity of my country, and of the human race altogether, absolutely depends upon swelling the ranks of STEM professionals. Our future requires we encourage our youth down the very challenging road of developing their minds. So when one of those indescribably valuable minds comes to town seeking the support of the elders, we say fuck yeah, good job. You're doing it right. How can I be helpful on your journey? OP, I know nothing about Node, but I nonetheless encourage you to continue your quest. We need you to keep loving this, even though it's hard. Keep it up. You'll get to help define the future.
- joshbrody 14y agoYou've got one hell of a future.
- Skywing 14y agoOne thing to notice about this module is that it's spawning a sub-process out to imagemagic itself. I'm not saying this is good or bad, I'm just pointing it out. There are also other modules that wrap the imagemagic libraries themselves and do not spawn sub-processes. Just be mindful about the different implementations.
- SoftwareMaven 14y agoWell done. One question, though: Shouldn't the commands be a list instead of an object? I would think you would want to be sure to keep order for image processing. For instance, I don't want my image down-sized for the web until after all the processing is done to it. The Ecmascript spec leaves the object attribute iteration order undefined (though it appears most implementations iterate in the order attributes are added).
- measure2xcut1x 14y agoImageMagick FTW Go buddy go!
- gtmtg 14y agoLooks great - nice job! I'm 13 and I've created a node.js command line app (http://gtmtg.github.com/view-test http://gtmtg.github.com/view-test) and an iOS control (http://gtmtg.github.com/MGDrawingSlate http://gtmtg.github.com/MGDrawingSlate) among other things, but none of them are nearly this advanced... Again - looks really cool...
- wilfra 14y agoYou didn't need to give your age, it was obvious from the name you chose for the module ;)
- tacoboye 14y agoHey dumbasses, look how smart I already am! I think I'll just go fuck someone my own age, don't you wish you could??? HAHAHAHAHA GET FUCKED!
- mnicole 14y agoThis post is a few days old, but I think it would have really limited the amount of criticism if you'd also noted that you work at DIY (a company that is promoting kids and teens to make all sorts of things - programming or otherwise) in the post somewhere (even though technically people can see the name in the URL). It makes a lot more sense to note his age when the company he's working for is specifically trying to help younger generations. Great work regardless, I love everything DIY is doing and it's fantastic they have their target audience in the office!