Ah yes, eschew Microsoft, the company that has literally thousands of employees devoted purely to research (a number of whom have won Turing awards) to work for

Ah yes, eschew Microsoft, the company that has literally thousands of employees devoted purely to research (a number of whom have won Turing awards) to work for a startup which is more likely than not to be in the business of producing a Rails CRUD app. After all, you need to be surrounded by (people who call themselves) hackers. My advice for ambitious 19 year olds: ask your parents for advice, because they likely know you better than anyone on the internet. (I say this as someone two years your senior)