How I Made $200k When I Was 16 Years Old Through Coding (2018) • Hacker News Board

Re: How I Made $200k When I Was 16 Years Old Through Coding (2018)

#131

Post by Moter8 » Wed, Jun 05, 2019, 10:42 AM UTC

connor4312 wrote: post #29

rococode wrote: post #14

Games with strong user-hosted server ecosystems seem to be a great way for kids to start gaining serious coding experience. I went a similar path with Minecraft servers (and also first started with Runescape, both are in Java) - making a server in highschool and grossing ~$150k in a year and a half. Before making a server, I thought coding was cool, but had never done much beyond running some basic programs. Making a…

A similar story here. I was into the game and started running a Minecraft server hosting company in high school (selling VPS'es with a Minecraft control panel, effectively). I ended up learning and doing the operations, maintenance, support, marketing, taxes--the usual jack-of-all trades of being a startup. My connections and experience there led directly to me joining another company, which has subsequently been acq…

I've almost finished with my cooperative work/university CS degree, and I always disliked programming "games" there.

Creating the 10000th Conways Game of Life? Developing some crappy game on my own? No, thanks.

Developing something for an existing game? That would have been great! I'm all with you.

Re: How I Made $200k When I Was 16 Years Old Through Coding (2018)

#132

Post by UweSchmidt » Wed, Jun 05, 2019, 10:45 AM UTC

justsoamazing wrote: post #85

It's eerie how similar my own introduction to programming and business matches the author's. I started playing Runescape in elementary school (I logged many thousands of hours on the game) and eventually started programming because I desperately needed to automate some aspects of the game (my parents restricted video games to weekends only, which made it extremely difficult to meet my in-game goals). After teaching m…

The vast majority of people "lost in the gaming world" is not going into programming or learning anything useful. Socially, it's a lot of "GG" and insults to each others mothers. Connections in "clans" or "squads" are mostly incredibly shallow and abstract, compared to hiking or playing sports in a team or otherwise engaging in groups irl. Kids are physically underdeveloped [1], programming MMORPGs is mostly treated as cheating and not encouraged. Sure, in a billion life-years spent in games good things can happen, but compared to the time invested? Not much imo.

It's absolutely understandable why kids gravitate to these online worlds but I regret the time lost in games and if I could go back I'd really limit my gaming to brief, enjoyable sessions, and invest my energy to more challenging and ultimately rewarding things. Building skills, building real relationships.

[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/education-46019429

Re: How I Made $200k When I Was 16 Years Old Through Coding (2018)

#133

Post by mdpopescu » Wed, Jun 05, 2019, 10:46 AM UTC

anextomp wrote: post #98

Moru wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that is pretty common in the west. A social job does not pay as well, you should be doing it for the greater good. Today's society does not value the future

A person taking a job in teaching benefits society as a whole but disadvantages them individually. We should transfer some of that benefit to them to make it an attractive option by increasing taxes and salary.

Or, you know, you could send them some of your own money before you volunteer other people's.

Re: How I Made $200k When I Was 16 Years Old Through Coding (2018)

#134

Post by mdpopescu » Wed, Jun 05, 2019, 10:48 AM UTC

teddyh wrote: post #105

tjbiddle wrote: post #41

The Runescape "blackmarket" was a fun world to play in! Like the author, I got into creating Runescape bots for a bit - but never works to sell them, just made my own for fun and (in-game) profit. As I dove deeper into the world, I came across people who would purchase a monthly VPS and install botting software on it. There were plenty of guides on how to go through - but no easy solutions for those who weren't techn…

It’s when people admit to doing things like this without any hint of remorse, and no-one calls them out on it , that it becomes evident that this is really “Y Combinator News”, and not really “Hacker News”.

Confusing Imaginary Property with real property is an insidious disease.

Re: How I Made $200k When I Was 16 Years Old Through Coding (2018)

#135

Post by astura » Wed, Jun 05, 2019, 10:49 AM UTC

world32 wrote: post #116

A key take-away from this is that the author learned to code because he had a real incentive to do so - in order to create bots to get better at runescape and make lots of money as a side-effect of that. He quickly saw how knowing how to code gave him abilities that his peers didn't have. Now imagine if he tried to learn java by attending a class for it - i.e. sitting there for an hour listening to some guy explain h…

This is a really, really ignorant comment. I learned to code in the classroom with no other motivation besides paid employment and wasn't "bored silly." I've made a very successful career for myself in the many years since.

Programmers are not different from other professions no matter how special you may feel.

Re: How I Made $200k When I Was 16 Years Old Through Coding (2018)

#136

Post by world32 » Wed, Jun 05, 2019, 10:59 AM UTC

astura wrote: post #135

world32 wrote: post #116

A key take-away from this is that the author learned to code because he had a real incentive to do so - in order to create bots to get better at runescape and make lots of money as a side-effect of that. He quickly saw how knowing how to code gave him abilities that his peers didn't have. Now imagine if he tried to learn java by attending a class for it - i.e. sitting there for an hour listening to some guy explain h…

This is a really, really ignorant comment. I learned to code in the classroom with no other motivation besides paid employment and wasn't "bored silly." I've made a very successful career for myself in the many years since. Programmers are not different from other professions no matter how special you may feel.

Hence why I said "Chances are" - meaning "there is a high probably that".

Re: How I Made $200k When I Was 16 Years Old Through Coding (2018)

#137

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jun 05, 2019, 11:02 AM UTC

world32 wrote: post #136

astura wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a really, really ignorant comment. I learned to code in the classroom with no other motivation besides paid employment and wasn't "bored silly." I've made a very successful career for myself in the many years since. Programmers are not different from other professions no matter how special you may feel.

Hence why I said "Chances are" - meaning "there is a high probably that".

[deleted]

Re: How I Made $200k When I Was 16 Years Old Through Coding (2018)

#138

Post by ajiang » Wed, Jun 05, 2019, 11:04 AM UTC

astura wrote: post #135

world32 wrote: post #116

A key take-away from this is that the author learned to code because he had a real incentive to do so - in order to create bots to get better at runescape and make lots of money as a side-effect of that. He quickly saw how knowing how to code gave him abilities that his peers didn't have. Now imagine if he tried to learn java by attending a class for it - i.e. sitting there for an hour listening to some guy explain h…

This is a really, really ignorant comment. I learned to code in the classroom with no other motivation besides paid employment and wasn't "bored silly." I've made a very successful career for myself in the many years since. Programmers are not different from other professions no matter how special you may feel.

There is absolutely a better way you could have phrased this. In fact, the easiest is to entirely remove your first sentence. You could make a counter-point, stating that not everyone is driven by external motivation, providing yourself as an anecdotal example.

Instead you provided an insult and then gave anecdotal evidence.

Re: How I Made $200k When I Was 16 Years Old Through Coding (2018)

#139

Post by world32 » Wed, Jun 05, 2019, 11:19 AM UTC

astura wrote: post #135

world32 wrote: post #116

A key take-away from this is that the author learned to code because he had a real incentive to do so - in order to create bots to get better at runescape and make lots of money as a side-effect of that. He quickly saw how knowing how to code gave him abilities that his peers didn't have. Now imagine if he tried to learn java by attending a class for it - i.e. sitting there for an hour listening to some guy explain h…

This is a really, really ignorant comment. I learned to code in the classroom with no other motivation besides paid employment and wasn't "bored silly." I've made a very successful career for myself in the many years since. Programmers are not different from other professions no matter how special you may feel.

> Programmers are not different from other professions no matter how special you may feel.

I find it odd how offended you seem by my post.

I don't think that programmers are any different from other professions in this sense. But the subject of this thread is about programming which is why I commented about that. It is just like other STEM subjects in that - a lot of people study them at university, but only a few people actually go on to work in the field they studied. Some studies find that only around 25% of STEM graduates actually go on to work in the field they studied.

http://shortsleeveandtieclub.com/what-percentage-of-engineer...

Re: How I Made $200k When I Was 16 Years Old Through Coding (2018)

#140

Post by ellius » Wed, Jun 05, 2019, 11:24 AM UTC

randomdata wrote: post #129

sitkack wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish people were transition _to_ math teachers. I understand things change, income is different between jobs. I am not passing judgement on the fact that you transitioned away. It would be awesome if teachers were paid as well as a web dev.

While I am sure there are local variances, a high school teacher in my neck of the woods will easily out earn the typical web developer by a sizeable margin. I cannot begrudge someone for doing well in their career, but there is a sentiment found in this thread, and I am under the impression that you are alluding to the same, that higher paid teachers will produce better outcomes for the students. I am not sure there…

Purely anecdotal, but I was a tutor for two years out of college and planned to be a teacher (originally college, then high school). I went into a different field for 3 reasons:

1. Pay

2. Professionalism - all of the teachers I saw and talked to under 65 were treated like dirt, and were micromanaged instead of being treated like professionals

3. Barriers to entry. By the time I got my Master's and decided I'd rather teach high school than spend several more years getting a PhD, it was financially impractical for me to go back for more years to get a teaching degree. It was also very difficult to find internships and open positions. One guy I know who did a straight teaching degree interviewed almost a HUNDRED TIMES despite doing incredibly well in his program and student teaching at a prestigious high school.

I'm sure the kids are doing fine without me, but I had stellar reviews from every kid and parent I ever worked with, and from professors I TA'd for. People have told me my whole life I should be a teacher (came up again just the other day with the guy I was pair programming with). I'd happily take less money to be a teacher, but when you add in factors 3 and especially 2, it just isn't worth it to me. I'm not going to suffer a bunch of professional abuse and take a financial hit to boot to do something that my society doesn't seem to genuinely value.