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Programming prodigy passes away at 16

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Re: Programming prodigy passes away at 16

#111

Post by harichinnan »

jacquesm wrote: post #86

This thread and a the story make me equally sad. The thread because this is one of the most hateful and ugly threads I've ever seen on HN. A thread like this would be literally unthinkable a year or more ago, and now I'm not even surprised it is here. The story because it is about the death of a person that could easily be a role model for a large number of young children, but females especially in third world - and…

I feel really sorry for her parents. However your sympathy stems from ignorance of the Indian sub-continent. Middle class kids in India, and I assume Pakistan have the opposite problem of what you say. They are pressured into achieving academic success come what may. The Indian IITs select .5% of the applicants. Delhi university sometimes rejects applicants getting 98% in school because there are many who get even more. Many of them go through multiple "coaching/tuition" classes in addition to going to school. Celebrating someone for obtaining an MCP certificate in addition to grueling coursework actually has a negative effect on already over-burdened kids.

Re: Programming prodigy passes away at 16

#112

Post by zak_mc_kracken »

pbsd wrote: post #70
sp332 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was young (8-9 years old) everyone - peers, teachers, and parents - told me to stop being so outspoken. "Think before you speak" was drilled into me for years, continuously. It was probably the worst advice I have ever received.

"Think before you speak" is always good advice. The "confidence of the mind" referred above does not mean that you should shit out everything that pops in your head.

> "Think before you speak" is always good advice.

It certainly depends on the age and the personality of the receiver.

It's a terrible advice to give to a kid or a teenager, or to someone who is trying to overcome their lack of confidence.

"Think before you give an answer" is a much more sensitive and universal advice.

Re: Programming prodigy passes away at 16

#113

Post by larve »

jacquesm wrote: post #86

This thread and a the story make me equally sad. The thread because this is one of the most hateful and ugly threads I've ever seen on HN. A thread like this would be literally unthinkable a year or more ago, and now I'm not even surprised it is here. The story because it is about the death of a person that could easily be a role model for a large number of young children, but females especially in third world - and…

HN is a community, so this site is mostly about communication between humans, and empathy is an important part of that. People telling that it is not a big deal, and that the story is hyped, are I think jealous of not having been featured in the same way. It's the media, so things usually get a bit distorted. But then we have stories about panda bears dying that make headlines as well.

Even if you were a nine year old girl in Pakistan having written something that people here would recognize as valuable, something like writing a url parsing module in node.js, would you post a comment questioning her achievements? Think back when you were nine, wouldn't you have loved to hear about her? I remember that when I was nine and starting programming, I had heard a terrible hard time grasping simple BASIC programs. I went on to become a fairly capable developer, and event got my share of overblown headlines at 16. Nothing bugs me about a girl getting the same, and being so incredibly much wiser and inspirational than I was. Writing a calculator in C# at 9, studying for an exam that adults take, and then being incredibly intelligent and sensible about it is a big achievement.

There are all these threads about CS education, codeacademy, etc... on here. Well that is what they are all about.

What bothers me even more is people going all free speech when someone is questioning their post. Seriously? In their place, I would start questioning what compelled me to write such a post, and why this story caught my interest so much as to write a comment saying that earning an MCP is not worth mentioning.

Re: Programming prodigy passes away at 16

#114

Post by redthrowaway »

bitops wrote: post #100
jacquesm wrote: post #86

This thread and a the story make me equally sad. The thread because this is one of the most hateful and ugly threads I've ever seen on HN. A thread like this would be literally unthinkable a year or more ago, and now I'm not even surprised it is here. The story because it is about the death of a person that could easily be a role model for a large number of young children, but females especially in third world - and…

> The thread because this is one of the most hateful and ugly threads I've ever seen on HN. A thread like this would be literally unthinkable a year or more ago, and now I'm not even surprised it is here. I agree with you on this point a thousand times. What is going on with this community? In general I like HN, but there's a real trend brewing when it comes to gender-related articles. And it's not pretty. HN regular…

>HN regularly churns out some of the most biased, vitriolic and short-sighted commentary when it comes to women that I've ever seen in any online community.

I really don't see that at all. There might be some implied sexism, and perhaps occasionally overt sexism, but it's nothing like what you see on other parts of the Internet. I've seldom read a top-rated comment on HN and thought, "wow, that's really sexist." Sure, they exist at the bottom of the page, but there isn't much we can do about that.

Do you have a discussion in mind that makes you feel that way? I'd like to see an example of what you consider "biased, vitriolic, and short-sighted commentary when it comes to women."

Re: Programming prodigy passes away at 16

#115

Post by bermanoid »

bitops wrote: post #100
jacquesm wrote: post #86

This thread and a the story make me equally sad. The thread because this is one of the most hateful and ugly threads I've ever seen on HN. A thread like this would be literally unthinkable a year or more ago, and now I'm not even surprised it is here. The story because it is about the death of a person that could easily be a role model for a large number of young children, but females especially in third world - and…

> The thread because this is one of the most hateful and ugly threads I've ever seen on HN. A thread like this would be literally unthinkable a year or more ago, and now I'm not even surprised it is here. I agree with you on this point a thousand times. What is going on with this community? In general I like HN, but there's a real trend brewing when it comes to gender-related articles. And it's not pretty. HN regular…

In general I like HN, but there's a real trend brewing when it comes to gender-related articles. And it's not pretty.

I didn't notice any gender-related comments on this article (I'm late to the party, so maybe I missed some that were higher up earlier), but HN does tend to be a place where people tend to post statements of disagreement far more often than they agree with whatever is posted. I'm certainly guilty of this myself on many (most?) occasions.

To some extent this is good and fosters a spirit of healthy debate, but in this case, it's out of place. This is an extremely sad event, and we don't need to be picking apart this girl's achievements while we should be mourning her passing, whatever her gender may be. Whether or not a Microsoft certification is a fantastic achievement at whatever age, this girl represents all the qualities that we should be encouraging in young people everywhere, and it's horrifying to see people try to diminish that.

It's always a tragedy when a 16 year old dies; it's even more upsetting when they were on such a promising trajectory. We should be sad about this without reservation, not questioning whether her path was provably remarkable enough to be worth talking about.

Re: Programming prodigy passes away at 16

#116

Post by beachgeek »

rolypoly wrote: post #72
beachgeek wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does seem like they are over doing it a bit. But this is a country with a serious shortage of real heroes. If other Pakistani kids are motivated and inspired by her life I think its worth the renaming, adulation etc.

Did you ever heard about what they did with Abdus Salam? and motivating your kids to do MCP is nonsense? yea she was great but still i think she dont worth to have things named after her. It would be better if they promote real giants (Alan Turing, Dennis Ritchie etc), most of Pakistanis are unaware of them. They think computer science is just Microsoft and Bill gates. http://www.dawn.com/2011/11/21/salaam-abdus-sala…

I'm from India. Abdus Salam was MY hero while growing up in the 80s. I kind of understand the weird religio-politics in Pakistan, which seems to have led to Dr.Salam being marginalized.

I'm starting to see where you are coming from, but I really think its OK to celebrate this girl's success and recognition.

Re: Programming prodigy passes away at 16

#117

Post by chacham15 »

protomyth wrote: post #107
habitatforus wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Found my old password and logged in just to upvote this comment. Any child driven enough to do all this at a young age would have accomplished much more down the road. This is one of those negative sum situations where we all loose.

Pretty much did the same thing myself (stopped feeling good about commenting on anything). Her drive and humble demeanor were evident from the interviews she gave. Her death is a loss.

Death in general is a loss. I know that this view is a bit simple-minded, but I believe that everyone has a part to play in the world and it is unfortunate that her part stops here. On the positive side, I hope that her life inspired others so that she may live on in them.

Re: Programming prodigy passes away at 16

#118

Post by potatolicious »

sp332 wrote: post #92
pbsd wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Think before you speak" is always good advice. The "confidence of the mind" referred above does not mean that you should shit out everything that pops in your head.

"Think before you speak" makes it very difficult to hold a normal conversation. Of course I'm not anti-thinking but it's very difficult to express yourself (in most media, but especially talking) if you hesitate constantly. If you're having trouble speaking well, the solution probably isn't to speak slower, but to learn over time how to speak better at-speed.

> "Of course I'm not anti-thinking but it's very difficult to express yourself (in most media, but especially talking) if you hesitate constantly."

I vehemently disagree - some of my most respected people in life pause frequently while speaking, and will directly ask for a moment when questioned about something, to collect their thoughts. I give these people's words incredible weight in my life not just because I respect them as people, but knowing that what they're telling me is well considered instead of knee-jerk.

I think the social expectation of having an answer at the drop of a hat on anything is pretty unfortunate, and makes us all a little bit dumber.

Re: Programming prodigy passes away at 16

#119

Post by [deleted] »

bitops wrote: post #100
jacquesm wrote: post #86

This thread and a the story make me equally sad. The thread because this is one of the most hateful and ugly threads I've ever seen on HN. A thread like this would be literally unthinkable a year or more ago, and now I'm not even surprised it is here. The story because it is about the death of a person that could easily be a role model for a large number of young children, but females especially in third world - and…

> The thread because this is one of the most hateful and ugly threads I've ever seen on HN. A thread like this would be literally unthinkable a year or more ago, and now I'm not even surprised it is here. I agree with you on this point a thousand times. What is going on with this community? In general I like HN, but there's a real trend brewing when it comes to gender-related articles. And it's not pretty. HN regular…

[deleted]

Re: Programming prodigy passes away at 16

#120

Post by [deleted] »

EponymousCoward wrote: post #94

Totally shocked that a community full of Aspies is having a hard time mustering sympathy for this girl and instead have to pedantically inform the Internet that that's not really programming and what's the big deal anyway I did this when I was 12 in between stimming sessions and telling my parents every species of dinosaur.

[deleted]
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