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22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

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Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#321

Post by emteycz »

bradlys wrote: post #210
astura wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, It's not. I was a poor kid and didn't get financial support from my parents in young adulthood/college. I couldn't even fathom spending $1,000 on non-essential expenses during college. I was living entirely on student loans and minimum wage summer jobs - When that's your life you can't think about anything but pure survival. It's an entirely different mindset that I have now as a financially secure person. If I g…

Sorry. Posters here don’t understand. Why didn’t you have FAANG internships? Why didn’t you have an incredible scholarship that overpaid you and allowed you to spend $2000+/month on non-essential expenses cause everything else was covered. Not relatable! Not relatable! Does not compute! People here are incredibly out of touch. $1000 for a poor college kid is a huge amount of fucking money. I had a full ride, monthly…

Not really. We all know poor people couldn't really do it, just as they couldn't do expensive sports and other expensive but still usual hobbies, for example.

But this guy is not the only upper middle class person in the world - he's from a country with the largest, richest middle class of all countries; and so discussing the money here is IMHO the more out of touch thing - there is more people in the US with enough money for this stunt than there is poor people.

Can't we just celebrate the incredible achievement that literally not a single other not-poor kid was able to do (compare to the number of semi-pro hockey players - hockey is notoriously expensive)?

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#322

Post by hnthrowaway0315 »

erosenbe0 wrote: post #247
hnthrowaway0315 wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm very interested in his childhood education. I want my kid to start early on something he is interested in too but I don't really know how to do that. I know the general rules (expose him to a lot of stuffs, watch him do things, etc.) but don't know how to implement them properly. I myself wasted a lot of time in my childhood so I guess that's why I don't know how to do it properly.

You can't really force it and there isn't a formula. I'm just a journeyman software jockey but my brother got into Harvard, Yale, and Stanford even after skipping a year of high school.

I totally agree. But I believe there is a process to explore his interests, pinpoint something, and then spend some money to further it.

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#323

Post by moritonal »

futharkshill wrote: post #25

> Zeloof’s family was supportive but also cautious. His father asked a semiconductor engineer he knew to offer some safety advice. As impressive and independent as this is, you have to wonder if any other gifted child could have done the same feat. The article seems to skip over this point, how many people know a "semiconductor engineer"?

Would also add the fact his blog links to a brother who seems to be involved in Electronics and Photography, both critical for this project. Not taking away from his focus, but being surrounded by domain knowledge over a dinner table is a huge advantage.

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#324

Post by JohnBooty »

0xedd wrote: post #288
quickthrower2 wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other factor is access to youtube to find likeminded people and have things explained and see what is possible. When I was young I loved computers but even install Linux or learn machine code seemed like this impenetrable world that was “for adults”. I think the modern internet is great for people sharing knowhow. That said this man is a genius!

Disagree. Didn't have YouTube, Google, etc and still cracked video game protections when i was 10.

Nobody is saying that Youtube/Google/etc are necessary. Clearly people managed to do cool and clever things before those resources were available.

It's beyond obvious, though, that having good resources is helpful and opens this kind of thing up to a larger number of participants.

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#325

Post by [deleted] »

sennight wrote: post #155
quantumwannabe wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think what he is arguing is that someone with a negative attitude ("he can only do that because he's rich!") won't accomplish anything even if they were granted unlimited funding because they are focused on coming up with excuses instead of thinking about what they can do. There are plenty of poor people in third-world countries who have far less than the original commentator (who presumably lives in the first worl…

Put more bluntly than I was willing, but pretty much. I think this would be the case for the majority of the envious complaints, and the remainder would be a laughably unrealistic over-estimation of the power of money. As in: it doesn't suddenly make you smarter, more industrious, or gift you the ability to perform complex project management involving large organizations.

[deleted]

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#326

Post by jeegsy »

JohnBooty wrote: post #167
hnthrowaway0315 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For sure, but I bet not all kids with support from their family do cool things. Or put it in the other way, you have to prove yourself worthy before getting any fund (even from parents).

Yeah, absolutely. I think the best way to understand this kid is that he is definitely at the intersection of privilege and talent. That is not to take anything away from his achievements. This kid's kicking ass.

> That is not to take anything away from his achievements

The entire purpose of mentioning his privilege at all is to take away from his achievements. Otherwise, why mention it. Surely it is obvious to all who read the article that you would have had to have access to capital to do what he did?

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#327

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

hnthrowaway0315 wrote: post #322
erosenbe0 wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't really force it and there isn't a formula. I'm just a journeyman software jockey but my brother got into Harvard, Yale, and Stanford even after skipping a year of high school.

I totally agree. But I believe there is a process to explore his interests, pinpoint something, and then spend some money to further it.

Just remain flexible when his interests completely change six months in...

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#328

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

dqpb wrote: post #242
hnthrowaway0315 wrote: post #106

I'm more interested how he managed to master the knowledge of chip manufacturing plus a ton of electronics repairs (see his microscope and other equipment) at such an early age. Very admirable. Look at what he did: > Photolithography machines are expensive—up to $150 million—and so Zeloof made his own by bolting a modified conference room projector bought on Amazon onto a microscope. It projects his designs at tiny s…

Where does one find broken electron microscopes from the 90s?

eBay: https://www.ebay.com/b/Scanning-Electron-Microscopes/185223/...

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#329

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

nicoburns wrote: post #96
TrackerFF wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard to compete with FAANG, Finance, and Consulting. Unfortunately, that's where a lot of people end up.

Yes, and that's why we should be taxing the hell out of these companies. It's not just about raising revenue. It's about allowing other companies to compete with them.

So... you let them grow big, then throw on the hobbles to get them poorer?

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#330

Post by bradlys »

emteycz wrote: post #321
bradlys wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry. Posters here don’t understand. Why didn’t you have FAANG internships? Why didn’t you have an incredible scholarship that overpaid you and allowed you to spend $2000+/month on non-essential expenses cause everything else was covered. Not relatable! Not relatable! Does not compute! People here are incredibly out of touch. $1000 for a poor college kid is a huge amount of fucking money. I had a full ride, monthly…

Not really. We all know poor people couldn't really do it, just as they couldn't do expensive sports and other expensive but still usual hobbies, for example. But this guy is not the only upper middle class person in the world - he's from a country with the largest, richest middle class of all countries; and so discussing the money here is IMHO the more out of touch thing - there is more people in the US with enough…

If you think your average American family can do this for their 22 year old, you’re out of touch.
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