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Ask HN: What is the best way to spend my time as a 17-year-old who can code?

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11–20 of 199 posts

Re: Ask HN: What is the best way to spend my time as a 17-year-old who can code?

#11
Learn data structures and algorithms really well.

Code a lot. Understand non-blocking I/O, memory management, parallelism.

Learn everything about networking you possibly can. At every level.

Hone that skill set over a few years and you’ll be invaluable.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best way to spend my time as a 17-year-old who can code?

#13
find the highest paid workers on upwork, find out their stack or specialty, learn that, bid on work like that for relatively cheap, do an good job plus throw in extra effort. be resourceful. get five 5 stars, up your rate. Use that as a resume in 18 months for a 120k+ job with benefits. live as cheap as possible with no debt and invest as an entrepreneur, and only use debt as an investment strategy, take and know your risks. live every moment and strive to be the best at whatever it is you do.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best way to spend my time as a 17-year-old who can code?

#14
What I did at your age: find local companies that need small gigs. Forget about trying to use those gig sites, you’re just competing with countries with super low wages - not worth your time. Get some experience under your belt then get a salary job somewhere, pay won’t be great at the start but you’ll learn a lot real fast.

You can study a ton and learn all the algorithms in the world but you have a lot easier time learning on the job in a position where you wouldn’t need them. If you’re still in high school ask if they have any local business connections that might need your assistance. I did mostly websites but I also never turned down general it help for people that had a computer that didn’t work right. I also did real invoicing and tried to treat it as a business.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best way to spend my time as a 17-year-old who can code?

#15
Build a portfolio, whether it be stuff you did on Upwork for poor pay or websites and apps for local businesses or non-profits. Or do Coursera/EdX/Udacity courses. Hell, do both. Once you turn 18 you can be sued for breach of contract so you're worth hiring. Build things, write about building things, help other people build things. Get to know people who are into the same stuff you are and hang out with them.

Getting a degree is highly recommended. If you don't want to go to a full time on campus uni the University of London's International Programme is great and cheap.

http://www.londoninternational.ac.uk/usa

Re: Ask HN: What is the best way to spend my time as a 17-year-old who can code?

#16
You've already received good information at the coding part, so let's talk about the 17-year-old part.

Do sports! One that doesn't involve hitting your head on stuff. Read some of the philosophy greats. Appreciate art at museums. Go to social events like school ski trips, meet friends and ladies (or guys if that's your thing). Make a couple minor bad decisions so you know how to handle the consequences. Go to concerts. Show your parents gratitude if they've done a lot for you (protip: they have). Don't take these years for granted.

You can be a successful coder and still have time for these things. Don't railroad yourself into workaholism, maintain a healthy balance. It'll do you good!

Re: Ask HN: What is the best way to spend my time as a 17-year-old who can code?

#17
Hackers "call" {Offer_fb_name_back};

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a:D are your can get hack games for free Pro

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Re: Ask HN: What is the best way to spend my time as a 17-year-old who can code?

#20
You might enjoy doing some work for a charity such as AgileVentures (http://www.agileventures.org) to learn about real world programming. If you are interested in a job (or internship) at Google or Microsoft, you can never study enough discrete maths, and datastructures + algorithms.
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