Ask HN: Female hacker-founder AMA • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Female hacker-founder AMA

#71

Post by dzink » Thu, Jan 02, 2014, 6:19 PM UTC

wsc981 wrote: post #62

What books (if any) did you read that you find particularly inspiring? Why?

In the first few years this is the stuff that helped:

- W3Schools + A List Apart + CSSZenGarden (on WebDev)

- Code Complete (on Software Engineering best practices)

- JavaScript: The Definitive Guide

- A Bulgarian niche forum and community on flash/web development called FlashBG (Similar to HN in some ways)

- Flash to the Core by Joshua Davis (he was taking regular photographs, breaking them down by color fragments in ActionScript then reassembling them to form abstract designs) http://www.amazon.com/Flash-Core-Joshua-Davis/dp/0735712883

Re: Ask HN: Female hacker-founder AMA

#72

Post by dzink » Thu, Jan 02, 2014, 6:49 PM UTC

dimitar wrote: post #67

Wait.. you started working professionally in IT when you were 13? Very impressive! Especially since in that time and place the most computers at homes were Apple II clones and most people didn't have them. Do you feel your location matters for your start-up and for you as a founder?

I started building websites and getting paid to code at 13. In 1998 building web sites was only possible if you were self-taught via the web, so market in Bulgaria and Europe (UK, Belgium) was quite lucrative. Not sure if that qualifies as professional.

Re: Ask HN: Female hacker-founder AMA

#73

Post by dzink » Thu, Jan 02, 2014, 7:00 PM UTC

adrianhoward wrote: post #66

dzink wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried to aggregate those as a sub-thread. You make a great point with the MySpace example. Legos with built in robotics might be fun as well. I never had a lego (too expensive) and I only saw the $200 robotic kits in college in the US. In Chicago, a state organization is trying to create a programable robot with LED lights to get kids interested in coding and putting together simple hardware hacks. I think that is…

Sorry - missed that sub-thread. Good stuff. I'm interested that some of those seem more social than how I got into coding. I was the cliche fat-nerdy kid who spent many, many hours with the computer rather than interacting with humans ;-) It's one of the things I noticed from the MySpace folk - they were very much more oriented towards sharing/showing their stuff with others.

The checklist I mention comes from conversations I've had with young girls in the US (seeing what resonates with them). I thing I would attribute the social stuff to a lesson I got from a KPCB guy at F8: Major startup innovation happens every 14 or so years because it takes that long for a new generation to grow up with the existing technology (today that's social) as second nature. Then (frequently) some tw/teen kid (Jobs/Gates, Zuckerberg) stepping on that invents the next big thing while tinkering. You can see that process evolving tech from hardware, to PC, to browser, to web, to social, to mobile.

Re: Ask HN: Female hacker-founder AMA

#74

Post by dzink » Thu, Jan 02, 2014, 7:02 PM UTC

tuzemec wrote: post #54

dzink wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love these questions! Yes, I started on "Pravets" 8 and 16 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pravetz_computers ) with BASIC and Pascal. We also had these robot hands you could maneuver with the Pravets machines. I would travel 250 miles to get the huge sheet-sized disk with a plumber game on it from my cousin in Sofia to show it off to classmates in Tutrakan. Karateka was also huge. For reference, my hometown had no t…

I remember the local "pioneers home" (what's the translation of "пионерски дом" actaully?) not having floppy disc controllers for their Pravetz 82 machines. So we had to type small BASIC games found in magazines in order to play. Typing to play ratio was usually 1/1. Good luck with the project!

Small world, isn't it? I grew up right across the street from the one in my hometown (twin story house with a grey garage fence).

Re: Ask HN: Female hacker-founder AMA

#75

Post by dzink » Thu, Jan 02, 2014, 7:09 PM UTC

scurioni wrote: post #61

Name: Silvia Startup: http://www.allthecooks.com Role: Founder, wrote the iOS app and some server stuff. How did you start: HTML Blogging when I was 13. Why did I start: The internet is a really cool thing. Proof of cred: http://www.linkedin.com/in/silviacurioni Has your gender made any of this hard?: no

Hi Silvia, thank you for jumping in! Feel free to add your answers to the AMA questions. It would be helpful to have multiple perspectives.

Re: Ask HN: Female hacker-founder AMA

#76

Post by dzink » Thu, Jan 02, 2014, 7:14 PM UTC

tootie wrote: post #58

dzink wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I liked math and physics because they allowed me to predict or affect future events. I also loved design because it allowed me create things that might have never existed otherwise. CS was the perfect combination of both - you can create things, solve problems, and distribute them to the rest of the world for free (I couldn't afford to buy even books at that time). I started with HTML and flash because the computer m…

Have you read any of the Foundation series by Asimov? The action is driven by a group of scientists who are able to predict the future using mathematical models.

Of his work, I think the The Last Question has stuck with me the most http://filer.case.edu/dts8/thelastq.htm

Re: Ask HN: Female hacker-founder AMA

#77

Post by dzink » Thu, Jan 02, 2014, 7:30 PM UTC

spiderPig wrote: post #68

What was your greatest hack and what did you enjoy most about going it?

On the code side, I love what I'm doing right now with Neo4J and the DoerHub badges and topics. I am trying to use graph database searches to surface people who are strong in areas you are weak in and weak in areas you are strong in when you do a search for a topic. Also trying to apply NLP to ensure the system recognizes related topics (cancer and healthcare for example). My latest work is usually my favorite.

On the non-code product side I hypnotized NBA.com users with the Social Spotlight product you can see on its homepage now. It used to generate higher duration of stay than any page on the site including video. I did it by re-created the "Monument to Change" Stanford GSB flipping tiles effect with an unending river of the most interesting images and tweets from the NBA conversation on social media. There was some FOMO mixed with good content, mixed with a mesmerizing effect.

On the brick and mortar side I created a forge-detecting technique for printing coupons for a bakery in Bulgaria by mixing Inks with different reactions to water. Had to do it because competitors were trying to forge the coupons and put the bakery out of business. In the end though, the hack ended up getting an employee of 10 years arrested, because, as it turned out, he was swapping cash for his own home-printed version of the coupons.

Re: Ask HN: Female hacker-founder AMA

#78

Post by kofq » Fri, Jan 03, 2014, 2:08 AM UTC

Why you want to ruin a good and nice site by making discussions look gender specific ? So you have vagina, how does that change that you are great or not ? Ever heard of country called India ? 10MM female engineers pass out every year ( forget other issues country is having, those are solely due to different reasons) No one would believe that there are no girl programmers. All such news is created for increasing traffic. You can be inspiration but don't rant about it. PLEASE GO now.

Re: Ask HN: Female hacker-founder AMA

#79

Post by namelezz » Fri, Jan 03, 2014, 3:11 PM UTC

jaseemabid wrote: post #59

dzink wrote: post #22

These are the selling points for CS that worked really well in my conversations with 10-18 year-old girls so far (Aggregated so you can use them for your niece if you find the opportunity) : - You can do this really cool thing you wanted to do (ex: build a cringe Justin Bieber /cringe fan app ) and it's easy, let me show you how. - This girl who was just like you is now heading Yahoo/building the top fan site for XYZ…

> - (When all else fails) Hacker girls get hit on quite frequently. Amen! Brain power is indeed a beautiful thing.

> - (When all else fails) Hacker girls get hit on quite frequently.

Not sure about that but "Single" hacker girls get hit on quite

Re: Ask HN: Female hacker-founder AMA

#80

Post by dzink » Fri, Jan 03, 2014, 5:46 PM UTC

kelvin0 wrote: post #51

I Respect all entrepreneurs, and it seems to me the 'attention' the 'mythical' female hackers gets perpetuates the stereotypes we are trying to break. It is fairly obvious it draws attention on the fact that generally we don't 'expect' this type of person? Please explain why this fine young person is getting any attention besides her gender?

Hi Kelvin0,

I respect your opinion and I think those who want attention usually go to the press with some sobbing story about the tech world's insensitivities towards them. They don't expose themselves and their work to the full scrutiny of one of the best hacker groups in the world (its gut-wrenching enough to do that just to your startup). If this thread is any good the people who read it should go from debating stereotypes about women to spending 30 minutes to teach a teen girl they know the love of hacking by showing them something cool they can do on their own.