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)

#211

Post by quickthrower2 » Thu, Jun 06, 2019, 12:06 AM UTC

WalterBright wrote: post #24

quickthrower2 wrote: post #13

These stories are entertaining but one must always remember there is some element of luck when things like this happen, and plenty of people coding side projects and not making a dime. So don't feel bad if you didn't make enough money top buy a house while you were are school!

You've got to give luck an opportunity to find you, by getting involved in things. Once the author saw the opportunity, he then pivoted to exploit it through a lot of time and effort. It's pretty clear that other bot makers did not see that opportunity, or saw it and did little.

My perspective is you make your own luck - and really you are making a lottery ticket with probably much better odds than a real lottery ticket, and other upsides (if you fail you gain experience). But it's still a lottery ticket so it is not always useful to disect someone else success and say "oh they woke up at 4am every day, so I'll do that to be successful" etc.

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

#212

Post by ValleyOfTheMtns » Thu, Jun 06, 2019, 12:29 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…

"If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea." -Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

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

#213

Post by tastygreenapple » Thu, Jun 06, 2019, 1:05 AM UTC

Bekwnn wrote: post #196

wayfarer2s wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm graduating with my master's in CS now and still haven't been taught in class many of the things I had to figure out to make what I wanted to make. Maybe the fact that you figured it out is an indication that it doesn't have to be taught in a CS curriculum. Most of the things that you mentioned have great documentation and tutorials outside of the classroom. The fact that so many people use them without them bei…

I often receive flak for expressing a similar opinion when people express disappointment at CS not teaching them "how to code". Your tuition is best spent on conceptually difficult material, not stuff you can easily pick up on your own.

Whenever I talk to people about data science I repeat the old adage:

A data scientist is a statistician who can program or a programmer who understands statistics at a high level.

It's amazing how few CS people become data scientists, I think physics and economics degrees are the most common degrees among elite DSs I know.

but it actually makes a lot of sense - it's relatively easy to pick up coding. In fact, it could be the best-taught skill on the internet, there's no shortage of material for a person who wants to learn to code. I think that most CS people don't learn enough statistics to really pursue DS and a ton of people with advanced stats knowledge can pickup coding relatively easily.

Now when I talk to kids, I tell them that if they want to go to college, they should try to learn something they can't learn on their own.

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

#214

Post by wyclif » Thu, Jun 06, 2019, 2:45 AM UTC

A couple of quick questions I wanted to ask the author (if he sees this):

How did you manage to hide the money from your family and friends when you were still keeping your programming secret, before you told your parents? Did you have any problems getting certain bank accounts or cards because of age restrictions?

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

#215

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jun 06, 2019, 3:46 AM UTC

methyl wrote: post #175

rczhang wrote: post #40

Holy shit! This is literally my story too. Playing runescape and writing scripts for botting programs was literally how I learned to program. I ended up becoming a moderator on the RsBot forums and I remember Autofighter Pro when it came out. Super popular, and I didn't even realize it was made by someone the same age as me back then! Anyways, even though I didn't make any money (I gave my scripts away for free!), I…

Exactly the same story here. When I was 12 or 13 I tried to use bots in Tibia to make some money on selling gold, eventually leading me to the path of trying to write my own bots for different games. I had one of the first proof of concept bot for Path of Exile which I reverse engineered myself. I think it's really a great way to get into programming, since it's SUPER rewarding to make the computer game work for you…

[deleted]

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

#216

Post by s_y_n_t_a_x » Thu, Jun 06, 2019, 3:55 AM UTC

methyl wrote: post #175

rczhang wrote: post #40

Holy shit! This is literally my story too. Playing runescape and writing scripts for botting programs was literally how I learned to program. I ended up becoming a moderator on the RsBot forums and I remember Autofighter Pro when it came out. Super popular, and I didn't even realize it was made by someone the same age as me back then! Anyways, even though I didn't make any money (I gave my scripts away for free!), I…

Exactly the same story here. When I was 12 or 13 I tried to use bots in Tibia to make some money on selling gold, eventually leading me to the path of trying to write my own bots for different games. I had one of the first proof of concept bot for Path of Exile which I reverse engineered myself. I think it's really a great way to get into programming, since it's SUPER rewarding to make the computer game work for you…

Tibia bot developer checking in as well. Started in 8th grade with Open Tibia and have been at it since.

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

#217

Post by javabird » Thu, Jun 06, 2019, 9:03 AM UTC

tastygreenapple wrote: post #213

Bekwnn wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I often receive flak for expressing a similar opinion when people express disappointment at CS not teaching them "how to code". Your tuition is best spent on conceptually difficult material, not stuff you can easily pick up on your own.

Whenever I talk to people about data science I repeat the old adage: A data scientist is a statistician who can program or a programmer who understands statistics at a high level. It's amazing how few CS people become data scientists, I think physics and economics degrees are the most common degrees among elite DSs I know. but it actually makes a lot of sense - it's relatively easy to pick up coding. In fact, it coul…

great words

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

#218

Post by webninja » Thu, Jun 06, 2019, 11:34 AM UTC

gjs278 wrote: post #49

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…

how did they break the bots? I made a very basic runescape autoclicker at https://www.garyshood.com/rsclient/ I wonder if it gets banned in game now.

Wow! I used your tools! I received a few black marks for using the mouse recorder to auto-cast curse on the lesser demon on the south Draynor wizard tower. The other Garyhood tools were fine though. Thanks!

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

#219

Post by teddyh » Thu, Jun 06, 2019, 1:43 PM UTC

Bakary wrote: post #161

teddyh wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. As criticizing and nitpicking which HN can be, it’s amazing how uncritical many people here are as long as something simply makes money . Doesn’t matter what it is – if it involves technology and makes money, then it gets nothing but heaps of praise from the HN crowd.

Whenever a post about privacy or freedom or some other unethical practice of a tech company surfaces, I always wonder if people are critical for direct reasons or because they can't have a piece of the pie. There are white-hat hackers out there and people driven by passion, but even Richard Stallman has enough income or social capital to lead a decent life. Being a paragon of virtue is a luxury predicated on meeting…

Are you accusing me, and/or any critique of something making money, of simply saying “sour grapes”¹? It’s always a theoretical possibility, but I don’t think this possibility allows you, or anyone, to dismiss all criticism that easily. It’s too easy; it’s like saying “a wizard did it” – sure, it’s possible, but unlikely, and this argument doesn’t help the discussion, since it doesn’t lead anywhere.

You make a similar dismissal of people being virtuous, saying that they can only be virtuous since they otherwise can afford it, thereby implicitly excusing anyone else’s non-virtuous behavior if they aren’t feeling rich enough at the moment. This is similarly seductive argument, but it has real practical limits. If you are stealing bread because you are starving, that’s one thing, but as soon as you go a little beyond that, it’s certainly on you to live up to your own ethical standards.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fox_and_the_Grapes

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

#220

Post by Unknoob » Thu, Jun 06, 2019, 5:22 PM UTC

Tepix wrote: post #157

sean-duffy wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, it's kind of concerning that an article about essentially black-hat behavior is earning so much praise in the comments. You have to remember that this kind of thing put a huge strain on Jagex when they had to (and still do) spend resources fighting against bots and gold sellers rather than development of the game. And in fact the difficulty of dealing with this problem led to the update which restricted free tr…

Aren't the MMORPGs also at fault? By requiring a long, boring "grind", they are encouraging players to automate their gaming hours. After all, we play games to be entertained, not to repeat boring tasks. That's a good reason why this activity (writing bots) is not seen in a negative light even if it may cause problems for the company running the game and/or other players and the game economy.

The repetitive tasks are the fun aspect for many people. If it isn't fun for you, you have two choices: Either quit the game and find something you actually like, or use bots and ruin the fun for other people that like the game.