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Our Newest Developer Is Ten Years Old
- beachstartup 12y agoour newest developer is 45 years old. i'm not sure which one is more rare these days.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- squirrel 12y agoI imagine both are. At TIM Group I regularly hired grey beards and they made a huge contribution - but it was definitely bucking a trend.
- wwwwwwwwww 12y agoI'm stuck here trying to figure out if this is a satire article promoting that silicon valley show.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- twic 12y agoI used to work for the Squirrel who Max mentions. This seems like a 100% plausible Squirrel move. Whether Squirrel is a satire on Silicon Valley is, i believe, an open question.
- smacktoward 12y agoChild Labor: It's Not Just For the Garment Industry Anymore!™
- eglover 12y agoIt's a shame children can't work more often. I think people are smart enough to tell the difference between abuse and an awesome opportunity for experience.
- Igglyboo 12y agoPeople may be smart enough to tell the difference but I don't think they're smart enough to write an ironclad law that won't allow for abuse. It's the letter of the law, not the spirit, that we have to worry about.
- eglover 12y agoYou don't need an "ironclad law" no such thing exists. You just need to recognize that it's wrong to abuse children. That's like saying you need an "ironclad law" to determine how wrong it is to be drunk when you've killed someone in traffic. ...What? It's manslaughter, wtf are you talking about?
- Igglyboo 12y agoYes because everyone has the same morals and follows them exactly. You're basically arguing that we don't need laws if everyone just recognized wrong from right.
- eglover 12y agoNo, I'm not. Pay attention. I'm saying you don't need to pack on unnecessary arbitrary laws because you think you're smarter than everybody else. There are universals, for the times when there is not, you MUST recognize that by forcing them you ONLY cause harm. There's no arguing that.
- ceejayoz 12y agoSo, uh, child labor laws?
- atom-morgan 12y agoAs a child, I used to voluntarily go around my neighborhood asking people if I could mow their lawn during the summer. In the fall, I'd offer to rake their leaves. Should I have been stopped?
- ceejayoz 12y ago"Should" is a value judgement. Legally, if it's not an agricultural job, age 14 is the lower bound.
- atom-morgan 12y agoWhich makes child labor issues almost entirely subjective and driven by emotion.
- ceejayoz 12y agoKids losing limbs/lives in sweatshops certainly gives rise to emotions, yes.
- atom-morgan 12y agoI thought we were talking about a 10 year old developer?
- ceejayoz 12y agoWe are, as well as the fairly strict rules in place on employing said 10 year old because of extensive historical abuses of child labor. I'm sure there are plenty of situations where children can conceivably work in a positive, safe manner. This looks to be one of them. It is generally illegal, though, because leaving it as a judgement call between employer and child opens a lot of holes in the system.
- tombot 12y agoIt's a bit of a clickbait headline, bit of backstory. Osper is a product which allows kids to use a debt card, funds are controlled via parents and kids can see the balance via a smartphone.
- squirrel 12y agoFair cop on the headline, I was mostly just excited to share the story of Max who I think is incredible. He really did contribute to our code and is better than at least half the developers I interview, so we plan to have him back regularly to continue coding with us.
- bleakcabal 12y agoShouldn't he rather be playing with his friends doing normal stuff 10 years old do. He's gonna be able to do this kind of work for decades starting in his twenties. What he won't be able to do his reclaim his lost childhood years.
- ephemeralgomi 12y agoShouldn't he do whatever he likes?
- bleakcabal 12y agoYou don't have kids do you?
- EGreg 12y agoYay! Actually this is only legal if the child is voluntarily contributing. Which means, of course, than instead of child labor you should let the kids contribute to open source projects and run their own business. If the kid is running their own business then I don't think it's considered child labor. Although IANAL. So, you see, lemonade stands may still be legal in this country :-P
- ceejayoz 12y agoA number of kids' lemonade stands have wound up closed by police/health inspectors in the US for lack of permitting. Heh.
- kelukelugames 12y agoWe hired a 17 year old intern and she was smarter than me. I felt bad. :(