16 year old app developer: Plagiarist or Prodigy? • Hacker News Board

Re: 16 year old app developer: Plagiarist or Prodigy?

#81

Post by dudul » Mon, Feb 05, 2018, 2:25 PM UTC

throwaway2016a wrote: post #77

I have a related question. Since when is a 16 year old who makes an app a prodigy? Even if she did write it all by herself? I was getting paid to make back office software for local businesses at 13 in 1998 with absolutely no help from anyone and no one called me a prodigy. I'm sure tons of NH people have similar stories. I seem to remember a survey at one point that the average person on HN who actually codes starte…

I would say that it depends on the maturity of the app. If it's 2 or 3 screens with a couple buttons yeah, nothing extraordinary. If it can handle a massive load and do actual complicated calculation then it's more impressive.

I was also making websites for business at the beginning of the Internet when I was a teen. But back then anybody who could understand HTML was seen as a freaking wizard :) But I also recognize that the complexity of what I was building was nowhere near what I do today for example.

Re: 16 year old app developer: Plagiarist or Prodigy?

#82

Post by yetanother1980 » Mon, Feb 05, 2018, 2:29 PM UTC

astura wrote: post #68

Waterluvian wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, "sweetie" is a word older women use condescendingly towards younger men or women.

My experience is different, the only people I've ever heard use "Sweetie," besides towards children, is older men being condescending towards younger women, making sure they know their place, and older men who use it towards younger women as a term of endearment unaware that it's usually used in a condescending manner. I've literally never heard an woman say it outside of speaking to children, however, I think it mig…

I've literally never heard a man use it. Or a woman. On the other hand many anecdotes does not equal data...

Re: 16 year old app developer: Plagiarist or Prodigy?

#83

Post by astura » Mon, Feb 05, 2018, 2:30 PM UTC

petagonoral wrote: post #57

tomaskafka wrote: post #15

> But after reading her blogpost, her stackoverflow/github history in an attempt to understand her struggles as a self-taught programmer; I figured that there was no struggle at all! Self taught programmers are full of numerous questions, but she didn’t seem to have any! Neither is there any progression of all the tasks she did. This is just one of possible approaches. For example, I actively ask very rarely, the mos…

Well, after a couple years of development, you have the vocabulary & terminology to search for & find your answers. Starting out, you wouldn't have that.

That doesn't necessarily mean you're going to have a digital footprint of all your activity online.

I'm withholding judgment on if she did or did not code most of the app herself.

Re: 16 year old app developer: Plagiarist or Prodigy?

#84

Post by malmsteen » Mon, Feb 05, 2018, 2:32 PM UTC

That post looks so immature.. who the f* cares who created an app at the end of the day ?

If you think it's the fact that she's young that made the app famous, then create a false young persona and the same with your own app instead. Only stupid people would care about who built it instead of the actual quality of the app.

I've lost time even reading even the title of this post.

#firstworldproblems

Re: 16 year old app developer: Plagiarist or Prodigy?

#85

Post by EnderMB » Mon, Feb 05, 2018, 2:35 PM UTC

throwaway2016a wrote: post #77

I have a related question. Since when is a 16 year old who makes an app a prodigy? Even if she did write it all by herself? I was getting paid to make back office software for local businesses at 13 in 1998 with absolutely no help from anyone and no one called me a prodigy. I'm sure tons of NH people have similar stories. I seem to remember a survey at one point that the average person on HN who actually codes starte…

It's easy enough to write code when you're young, but to write something that is being actively used is impressive.

With that being said, I do find the worship of young people in tech a bit worrying. Over the years I've worked with a handful of talented developers that have started from a very young age, and over the years they become very good at a relatively young age. By the time they reach 20, they're senior-level developers.

That's all well and good, but these youngsters have been praised for years. Once they reach their twenties, they go from being young to being an adult, like everyone else. All of a sudden, the slack they were given to build their career up is gone, and many of them struggle from here onwards. It can be a mixture of being treated differently, or from essentially being jaded about dedicating that many years of their youth to a skill to be building the same old CRUD shit year after year.

Re: 16 year old app developer: Plagiarist or Prodigy?

#86

Post by geodel » Mon, Feb 05, 2018, 2:36 PM UTC

arno_app wrote: post #72

I‘m sorry but the author is indeed a bully. I get the point why it may be unethical to copy and claim it’s someone’s own work but afaik the “real” coders were alright with this. The author tries with all effort to proof that this kid can’t Code by saying how experienced he is and that he was also smart when he was her age. For me this sounds like being very jealous and frustrated.

The author is women. And this just seems to be case where family 'helps' kid to chart their independent path. It is pretty common and I have known many people who would hire some contractors to write some mobile apps that can be used to garnish resume for college admissions etc.

People have been doing it forever but with help of social media they can generate lot of support and sympathy also if they fit in right slot of identity politics.

Re: 16 year old app developer: Plagiarist or Prodigy?

#87

Post by gameswithgo » Mon, Feb 05, 2018, 2:36 PM UTC

throwaway2016a wrote: post #77

I have a related question. Since when is a 16 year old who makes an app a prodigy? Even if she did write it all by herself? I was getting paid to make back office software for local businesses at 13 in 1998 with absolutely no help from anyone and no one called me a prodigy. I'm sure tons of NH people have similar stories. I seem to remember a survey at one point that the average person on HN who actually codes starte…

Obviously the fact that she was a woman made the story more appealing, which would be fine if it was a true story, it is nice for people to have role models they can identify with and be inspired by. Everyone loves an underdog story...well I do.

I sometimes find the fact that women are successfully being high profile scam artists (Elizabeth Holmes etc) encouraging in a twisted way. Plenty of men have made a bunch of money by cheating and lying in the business world, women are now making their mark too (and likely always have of course)! why not? =)

Re: 16 year old app developer: Plagiarist or Prodigy?

#88

Post by dvfjsdhgfv » Mon, Feb 05, 2018, 2:37 PM UTC

aiCeivi9 wrote: post #56

dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #50

Why is this story flagged? It somehow proves the author's point.

It feels a bit like witch hunting and it is probably the reason it got removed from reddit. Anyway "X got removed so X is true" is a slippery slope if not outright false.

It was enough to answer just like she did here: https://imgur.com/0ihzIzy Personally I believe her explanations, but then it doesn't look like she was really writing everything on her own.

Re: 16 year old app developer: Plagiarist or Prodigy?

#89

Post by yorwba » Mon, Feb 05, 2018, 2:37 PM UTC

MarkCole wrote: post #17

This reads a lot like an attack. Yes its clear they did not program their app 100% themselves. I fail to see how it's such a big deal. Especially one that requires posts on multiple platforms targeting her. The other developers seem happy for her to take the credit, presumably as its good for marketing. Who is this really hurting?

It appears that the author originally reached out to her because she wanted to offer mentorship. Then she realized that the code wasn't the work of someone who'd need a mentor, but an experienced developer who'd done the actual coding. And the girl had the gall to downplay the level of "help" she received.

Instead of the talented and hard-working individual she expected, the author found someone who'd take credit for the work of others to gain internet fame. I don't think this article is the best reaction to that (hurling insults usually doesn't help anyone), but I can understand how she'd get pissed about that kind of behavior.

Re: 16 year old app developer: Plagiarist or Prodigy?

#90

Post by astura » Mon, Feb 05, 2018, 2:39 PM UTC

yetanother1980 wrote: post #82

astura wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience is different, the only people I've ever heard use "Sweetie," besides towards children, is older men being condescending towards younger women, making sure they know their place, and older men who use it towards younger women as a term of endearment unaware that it's usually used in a condescending manner. I've literally never heard an woman say it outside of speaking to children, however, I think it mig…

I've literally never heard a man use it. Or a woman. On the other hand many anecdotes does not equal data...

I think it's one of those words that's usage depends on your culture, it can be either relativity benign or inflammatory.