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Jimmy Wales: This is super cool. "I started to learn python..."
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- dschep 13y agoClick through. He's commenting on a 13 yr old learning Python.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- xr09 13y agoJimmy Wales is a role model, you must have modesty and defined objectives to build that humongous platform and refuse to monetize, his quotations of "The Fountainhead" made me read it, awesome, the man really is a Howard Roark.
- ig1 13y agoNot to take away from his achievements but like Sal Khan (who has done similarly with Khan Academy) he'd already made his money in investment banking before entering the tech world. It makes a huge difference when choosing to go the non-profit vs profit route when you're already personally well off.
- pdog 13y agoEh, Sal Khan was a 30-something hedge fund analyst when he started Khan Academy. He's intelligent, hard-working, and could find work somewhere else, but he wasn't exactly "set for life" if the Khan Academy thing didn't work out. So don't let that stop you going the non-profit route!
- gnosis 13y agoJimmy Wales did not build Wikipedia. Thousands upon thousands of unpaid volunteers did. As for Howard Roark, who is supposed to epitomize Ayn Rand's "virtue of selfishness" ideal, I don't remember him being any kind of philanthropist. If anything, he (like Rand) has nothing but contempt for the masses. Wikipedia would be the antithesis of what Roark would want to build. The Encyclopedia Britannica would be more to his liking, except that even it would require too much cooperation and would be made to help others and instead of himself. Rand's ideal is the lone visionary designing his brilliant artwork for his own pleasure, and to the gnashing of teeth of the ignorant horde who are jealous of his genius.
- wslh 13y agoI also think the Marxist concept of owing "something" to the historic process is missing in a lot of extreme selfish philosophies.
- hobs 13y agoYou could say the same about any business owner if you said thousands of paid employees built their business. Almost nobody builds something that lasts by themselves.
- wslh 13y agoI don't think that's the same. A business needs a lot of coordination that is not (currently) possible with a crowdsourcing approach and people work for money. Founders of a crowdsourcing endeavor have its merits but at the end is the community working hard (many times harder than in a business) who owe the praise.
- AdamN 13y agoHmm, I don't know. Seems like much of Wikipedia is by smart people for smart people (like NPR). We all think of Wikipedia as the commons but it's far from it. Most people are on perezhilton.com all day. Anyway, Ayn Rand was more against the falseness around giving and the betrayal of the recipient when he is given something he could never earn.
- Caketh 13y agoFor the commenter's applauding Jimmy Wales' new language skills, he's referring to the story of Amy Mather and her adventures with python and the Raspberry Pi. Linked video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a35XINnYFtA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a35XINnYFtA
- dade_ 13y agoI suggest reading the article before making a comment. Jimmy Wales tweeted, "This is super cool!" about a girl presenting her Raspberry Pi story, "I started to learn Python...".
- mathattack 13y agoThis is even more cool. His encouragement will go a long way for her.
- Cthulhu_ 13y agoWhich makes me wonder, why is Wales' tweet linked here as the news, whilst it's the original article that should be linked and upvoted?
- vacri 13y agoIt should still be flagged for not linking to actual content. It is, effectively, blogspam.
- booop 13y agoI don't share his enthusiasm about this. Doesn't everyone interested in computers/computing start programming things that are actually useful at roughly that age? Also, is an early start a guarantee that someone will choose a career in computing?
- netcan 13y agono.
- speedyrev 13y agoWell, since the Commodore 64 wasn't released until I was 18 yrs old, my answer is no.
- scrabble 13y agoNo, and no. A fair percentage of people who start developing software early end up being passed by people who started later. A seemingly large factor of this is kids learning bad habits on their own and not being able to correct them later, or having a much more difficult time correcting them. (I'm not saying that is the case here, just generally.)
- 14113 13y agoI hear this a lot, but I've never seen actual evidence of it. Everyone who started early that I've seen in computer science classes has been better than people who started later.
- throwit1979 13y agoI concur. And it's not just mere ability that's at issue, here. Kids who enter computing at a young age are typically motivated more by genuine interest/passion than the later entrants who are more likely just picking a career. Caveat: we're both dealing purely anecdotal evidence and a fair bit of conjecture. We could easily be wrong.
- scrabble 13y agoI started myself when I was in grade 6. I've always been ahead of others that started later as well when I've been in the same class. But I've also spent a lot of time correcting bad habits, reading on good habits, and relearning a lot of things I did as a child -- and most of the code I wrote as a child was pretty awful. Still, it's something that I've heard often and I can understand the logic behind it.
- progx 13y agoReally important Hacker News. I started to learn node.