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Ask HN: I'm 15, won a grant to develop a suicide prevention app, what next?

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Re: Ask HN: I'm 15, won a grant to develop a suicide prevention app, what next?

#51

Post by throwsaway »

saturdayplace wrote: post #46
throwsaway wrote: post #38

Suicide prevention /app/? You don't stop suicide with an app. You're 15 and you have a grant for a gimmick. I'm 22 and I'm unemployed. I'm already depressed but this makes me angry, too, so I just made an account to let you know that this disgusts me. Empty words. At least your resume looks better with this.

I find your reaction... odd? He's won a grant to develop a tool that has the potential to help out people with a real problem. Why should that disgust anyone?

Suggesting to anyone serious about suicide that an app will help is insulting. You have to be naive and unwilling to understand or a megalomaniac to think an app will help.

Re: Ask HN: I'm 15, won a grant to develop a suicide prevention app, what next?

#52

Post by simonw »

This is a likely to be a very challenging project. A few things to consider:

* Anonymity is vitally important, especially since you are an inexperienced programmer with a high risk of introducing security holes. Don't collect any personal details (including email addresses) that could cause problems for people if they were leaked. Don't implement Facebook or Google signin!

* If there are any social components at all, consider the potential impact of trolls. This project may require 24/7 moderation.

* This is a major emotional commitment. Talking down suicidal strangers is not something to go in to lightly! Make sure you have a professional advisory network in place.

Since lots of people have offered to help, I suggest getting them added to a mailing list ASAP while they are interested.

You could consider building the project in public on GitHub - that would allow technical advisors to review your code for you and use the issue tracker to discuss features.

Re: Ask HN: I'm 15, won a grant to develop a suicide prevention app, what next?

#53

Post by thom »

A company local to me worked[1] on a similar idea[2] for Mind, a mental health charity in the UK. Might be some inspiration there. As for the technical side, you'll only learn by doing, and other posters have provided some fine ideas.

[1] http://www.yoomee.com/elefriends

[2] http://elefriends.org.uk/

Re: Ask HN: I'm 15, won a grant to develop a suicide prevention app, what next?

#54

Post by ancarda »

saturdayplace wrote: post #46
throwsaway wrote: post #38

Suicide prevention /app/? You don't stop suicide with an app. You're 15 and you have a grant for a gimmick. I'm 22 and I'm unemployed. I'm already depressed but this makes me angry, too, so I just made an account to let you know that this disgusts me. Empty words. At least your resume looks better with this.

I find your reaction... odd? He's won a grant to develop a tool that has the potential to help out people with a real problem. Why should that disgust anyone?

Does he have any experience with suicides? Has he lost anyone or felt suicidal himself? People who have know how difficult it is.

The app was described as a "social network". As someone who has experience with suicide (both from my perspective and from losing people), I have to question what a difference that will make. How exactly does it work? If he can't explain, perhaps a mockup of the UI might answer a lot of questions.

Of course it has the potential to help someone. Everything has potential but how realistic is that? The chance that this will make a difference seems really low to me.

I hate to be the negative guy on HN but suicide is a serious matter and I can't see why anybody would give grants to 15 year olds to build 'apps' to 'prevent it'.

Re: Ask HN: I'm 15, won a grant to develop a suicide prevention app, what next?

#56

Post by dutchblacksmith »

Hello, I would try to write the entire app myself. You will learn so much from it. That will benifit you forever. If you get stuck, just put another ask at hacker news. If you just help one person who is depressed, its worth ten times the effort.I have been there. Thanks for taking part in the competition and good luck to you.

Re: Ask HN: I'm 15, won a grant to develop a suicide prevention app, what next?

#57

Post by rajivm »

leoedin wrote: post #32

liyanchang's suggestion is bang on. Even if you never touch on it again, if you actually force yourself (by working on an interesting project) to touch on the full stack of an app you will benefit from it for years. So many of the little hobby projects I've worked on over the years (long since abandoned) have provided a fantastic base for something else. A website I managed when I was a teenager taught me all sorts o…

Seriously -- every project I had the opportunity to work on during my teen years has formed the basis for so much of my later "real" career as a developer. Each experience has provided me with invaluable skills.

Re: Ask HN: I'm 15, won a grant to develop a suicide prevention app, what next?

#58

Post by lojack »

liyanchang wrote: post #21

I would encourage you to write the entire thing, frontend, backend, content, PR releases, etc. Two reasons: 1. You're young and still figuring out what you love doing; no better time to experiment and learn. I still have fond memories over the php site I wrote in high school. You could visible tell which functions were written at the beginning of the project versus the end because you'll improve drastically. [1] 2. T…

Additionally if he's looking for assistance in the backend front I'm more than willing to help out. I can't necessarily pick up a new project, but I do know how invaluable it is to have someone to bounce ideas and questions off of.

I work primarily with Python and Angular at the moment, but I can provide assistance in other areas as well. OP, if you'd like to take me up on this offer just connect with me on GitHub (link in profile) and I'll shoot you a message.

Re: Ask HN: I'm 15, won a grant to develop a suicide prevention app, what next?

#59

Post by cliftonk »

You should try using a backend-as-a-service if you aren't comfortable with databases/scaling/etc and would like to get the app out. Parse (parse.com) would probably work great for you. It wouldn't be a bad idea to get them to sponsor your application / company (assuming you create a non-profit).

Best of luck.

Re: Ask HN: I'm 15, won a grant to develop a suicide prevention app, what next?

#60

Post by vdaniuk »

Congratulations! This is an absolutely great opportunity for you to learn useful skills, make the world better and significantly improve your resume.

I think you should spend a grant on your education and skills related to the app. This is a sustainable approach given that the grant is not really large and you are in the exploratory phase of your project.

Do everything yourself while consulting with the community non-stop, lots of people will be eager to help you.

Btw, I consult startups on marketing and I think your story is straight techcrunch/mashable/thenextweb material, ready to inspire other young people to learn programming. If you need any help spreading your mission, this app or teen2geek, for the greater good, just drop me an note, I'll be eager to help you pro bono. My e-mail is in the profile.

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