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

#191

Post by lordCarbonFiber »

mehrdada wrote: post #119
bittermang wrote: post #22

I was 17 once. I could code once. What's the best way to spend your time? Basking in the sun. Finding a scam to score some schnapps or beer or weed. Telling somebody you love them, and just going for it. Recklessly driving a car at a high rate of speed down an old country road. Learn how to play a bass guitar. Spend your waning hours getting your hands dirty while there's still time, and before the world judges you t…

Wish I could downvote this twice. This post builds on the Hollywood portrayal that’s widespread and assumes what’s fun and fulfilling is basically beer, weed, and recklessly driving, etc. I assume if a 17 year old finds doing these all the time fun enough, they would not need any helpful advice in execution. To the OP: if you don’t like becoming an average older person, avoid following average older people’s advice.…

I think the idea is to use the flexibility of youth to build social connections rather than academic ones. The code you did in high school, or even college, won't (typically) get you a job nor a fulfilling life; the friends you make (typically) will.

This profession, more than any other I think, can allow you to disappear from society chasing knowledge for its own sake and it's pretty easy to wind up 30 with a fat stack of cash and glowing career but no friends, no family and no way to efficiently bootstrap any change.

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

#192

Post by whichdan »

I was in a similar position, and even skipped college in lieu of coding. It was the right choice for me at the time, but in retrospect I'm not significantly farther ahead of my peers - our coding ability has leveled out, and they have CS degrees while I have a few more years of experience.

The one difference (compared to 17) is that I have a lot less free time now - I wake up at 7am, I'm at work by 9:30am, leave around 5:30pm, and I'm home at 6:30pm. I end up with maybe three free hours after dinner. When I was younger I spent that time tinkering with side projects or working, while now I prioritize doing things that are fundamentally different than my day-to-day work :)

My biased opinion is -- if you don't absolutely need the money -- spend the time on fun side projects with cool technology or practice an instrument or something else fun. You'll have years and years to code 40 hours a week for money!

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

#193

Post by gilbetron »

johnpython wrote: post #190
wai1234 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Make mistakes, they are cheaper to correct at your age." No, no they're not. The "be stupid early" plan is a major fail IRL. The idea that society will forgive you for it is proven wrong every day. When employers look for anything to disqualify you, that old FB post with you being stupid is made to order, or the arrest for DUI, or any of those early mistakes, are very handy. It's actually much harder to overcome ear…

I'm not surprised by people here offering 'life ends at 30' advice here. No wonder there is so much rampant ageism in this industry.

I didn't say anything about life ending at 30, in fact I'd say it is often the opposite. But it at least changes. I'm just recommending taking advantage of the things that easier when you are 18 than when you are 50.

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

#194

Post by auganov »

Well, if you want to build a company, the advice I'd really want to understand at that age - is it won't get much easier. At that age, I'd often assume difficulties I encountered were due to uneducation or lack of experience. Turns out many things are hard regardless and it's okay.

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

#197

Post by bishgupp »

Depends.what do you enjoy? What is your passion?who or what motivates, concerns, scares you? Spend time with that - see how it functions - can it be improved - does code play a part in that improvement - study - contribute to that via business understanding and process improvement using code. Get feedback, confirm growth, and repeat.

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

#198

Post by alagalah »

My advice? Don't ask, just do. At this point it's not necessarily an area that matters because if any of us could predict the future we wouldn't be commenting on Reddit. :)

Having said that you have one major attribute going for you, and don't take this as a pejorative, and that's naivety. You don't know what isn't possible cos you haven't been beaten down by experience (a double edged sword).

Take that naivety, think of something crazy that floats your goat. Can you write an AI for gaming? Can you make a filesystem faster? Whatever it is, set a goal, double it (ie an AI for gaming that can beat the top 10% in the world, a filesystem 5x faster than exists today)

You'll learn something far more valuable than a coding skill... You'll learn you are capable of much much more than you ever believed.

Just don't procrastinate, think big, fail big, and beat fear.

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