Except you know that this is an age-old rhetorical technique, right? Examples of Apophasis: "It would be superfluous in me to point out to your lordship that t

Except you know that this is an age-old rhetorical technique, right? Examples of Apophasis: "It would be superfluous in me to point out to your lordship that this is war." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophasis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophasis I'm trying not to be harsh with this, because I think the blog post was quite nice, but the only reason to say, "I am never going to play the 'I'm-a-kid' card" is to project a sense of superiority in comparison to kids who "played the card." I think it's fine if you want your work to be judged on "adult" standards -- it's quite admirable. But if I was 14 and wanted advice on how a 14 year old should proceed, the advice could be very different from the advice you would give to someone you presume to be an adult. This is not an ideal situation, but it's a simple fact that being 14 puts you in a very different position than someone who is 24 -- it's impossible to show up at a bar to attend a meetup, it's harder to find other hackers (depending on location), and there are also a completely different set of life-related priorities that may factor in. To put it simply: it's not the kid's fault for saying that he or she is 14. It's the community's fault for voting it up just because of the kid's age (if that's what's happening -- in many cases, the upvotes can also be well-earned).