Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Pixels don’t care

warpspire.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 141 posts

Re: Pixels don’t care

#81

Post by [deleted] »

geon wrote: post #58
dhaivatpandya wrote: post #25

I totally agree with the "too young" thing. I'm 15 and been freelancing since I was 12, and this gets in the way all the time . People try to take advantage of you once they realize that you're young(er) than most in the field.

Unless you are a prodigy, you simply haven't had the time yet to become really good at anything. Supposedly it takes 10.000 hours or so of exercise, which would be 9 years at 3 hours daily. I'm not trying to push you down, and anyone not paying you what your work is worth is definitely taking advantage of you.

[deleted]

Re: Pixels don’t care

#82

Post by ycuser »

sometimes age is on your side and sometimes not. If one thinks they are worth more than what they are getting they should go get their worth, period. You have to trust your ability and back it up with unflinching guts. We live in fabulous times where showcasing your work is easier and the reach global.

Re: Pixels don’t care

#83

Post by jwarkentin »

I've felt the same way for years. When I was younger I was on IRC all the time. I remember spending a bunch of time helping people out with Gentoo, and occasionally other code issues. It was funny one day after I helped a 35 year old guy out with a Javascript problem he was having for work, when he found out that I was 14. Haha, age has always felt like my biggest hurdle with my career, but it's not too bad, I'm far better off than others my age. I have always wished people would judge me more for my knowledge and abilities than for my age.

Re: Pixels don’t care

#84

Post by bm98 »

graeme wrote: post #59
kneath wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be a great argument if my peers had formal education or experience with big clients. None of them did. There is no "point" to be made by my post, rather a description of two vastly different ways I was treated for the same work I was doing during the same point in my life — one online, one in person.

As an anecdote: I'm 5'6", and I don't think this has been a barrier to anything. I've had to be more careful about my appearance, of course. My clothes fit well, I'm lean, and I work out. Despite my diminutive stature, men get out of my way, because I look strong and I walk confidently. Men didn't do this until I got strong. I get looks from girls all the time. They don't seem to care that I'm in about the 2nd percen…

Agreed, but I think you're selling yourself short on your percentile: http://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts/data/set1clinical/cj41l021.p...

Re: Pixels don’t care

#85

Post by kysol »

Being self-taught, I too have had to deal with the lower than everyone else wage. It's hard work on a daily basis when you spend a portion of your time helping out other "learned" members of the team by fixing mistakes that you /facepalm at.

What is worse are the ones that use your lack of a degree as evidence that you don't know what you're talking about... it usually comes back to bite them in the ass when their systems collapse due to the issues raised months prior, you know the ones they never listened to you about.

If and when I get around to hiring my own staff, I will be doing it based on what they have done, not what they can do (on paper).

Re: Pixels don’t care

#86

Post by cheapsteak »

chimeracoder wrote: post #80
austenallred wrote: post #66

I started out as a 13-year-old entrepreneur selling stuff on eBay (which was pretty new at the time). There was a loophole when they first opened where you could sign up under someone else's name and switch all of the records over to your name; that way you didn't have to be 18 to register. I first grew to love the Internet as the only real meritocracy I experienced in life. No one knew I was 13. When I talked to peo…

> While the Internet is no longer as anonymous > You don't know who I am from this comment (unless you stalk my bio and find me on Twitter). If you like it you'll upvote it. That's exactly (one of the many reasons) why I love the Internet. That's the one sad thing, though: as you yourself point out, the Internet is moving in a direction where this concept of an anonymous meritocracy is already becoming more and more…

The internet was a much smaller place.

Instead of seeing the change in the way most of the web is used as invading this anonymous meritocracy, perhaps it would be more reasonable to say that the meritocracy is now surrounded by settlers who are using the land in a different way.

Re: Pixels don’t care

#87

Post by kysol »

kneath wrote: post #74

(Author here) Just wanted to clarify, since it seems a lot of people seem to think I'm frustrated with being discriminated against. I'm not. It's a fact of life. I got over it pretty early in life. I love being short, it's fucking awesome. If ever you meet me, you'd probably agree I don't have an issue with it. I wrote this article to illustrate the power of the internet and this industry we work in. I used two examp…

> I discriminate against people every day, and I'm discriminated against every day.

First thing I thought of when I read that line was: Well yes, dropping support for older IE versions could be called discrimination, but its needed, and justified :)

Re: Pixels don’t care

#88

Post by hexonexxon »

This is not news to me as I've had jobs offered by simply posting to debian and *bsd mailing lists from out of the blue once they read my posts on hunting kernel bugs. Mailing lists are still a secret gold mine for employment. I also didn't have to send a resume or anything was hired right away each time

Also +1 for IRC. Thankfully something social still exists where you don't have forced real identities, a whole profile of bullshit musical interests nobody cares about (i don't care that you love obscure hipster sweater and beard acoustic), or forum circle jerking and post count worshipping.

Plus it isn't monitored by your employers looking to fire somebody for slight twitter or fb breaches of conduct, and best of all the media and oprah have no idea what IRC is

Re: Pixels don’t care

#89

Post by yuhong »

cheapsteak wrote: post #86
chimeracoder wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> While the Internet is no longer as anonymous > You don't know who I am from this comment (unless you stalk my bio and find me on Twitter). If you like it you'll upvote it. That's exactly (one of the many reasons) why I love the Internet. That's the one sad thing, though: as you yourself point out, the Internet is moving in a direction where this concept of an anonymous meritocracy is already becoming more and more…

The internet was a much smaller place. Instead of seeing the change in the way most of the web is used as invading this anonymous meritocracy, perhaps it would be more reasonable to say that the meritocracy is now surrounded by settlers who are using the land in a different way.

In the long term, anonymity is not the real solution to the problem anyway.

Re: Pixels don’t care

#90

Post by sneak »

kneath wrote: post #74

(Author here) Just wanted to clarify, since it seems a lot of people seem to think I'm frustrated with being discriminated against. I'm not. It's a fact of life. I got over it pretty early in life. I love being short, it's fucking awesome. If ever you meet me, you'd probably agree I don't have an issue with it. I wrote this article to illustrate the power of the internet and this industry we work in. I used two examp…

I secretly cringed after that time we were in Berlin and I told that terrible "Have you guys... SEEN KYLE??! (He's about this tall.)" joke.

(For those that don't know it, you extend your right arm out, palm down, horizontally, while saying the last part loudly.)

It wasn't until after I'd said it that a) I realized that it was totally and absolutely illegal to tell there and b) that I was calling attention to the height of someone named Kyle.

Herpity derp.

Post reply on HN