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The first person to hack the iPhone is building a self-driving car

bloomberg.com

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Re: The first person to hack the iPhone is building a self-driving car

#71

Post by mikeg8 »

josefresco wrote: post #61
thedz wrote: post #4

> “I understand the state-of-the-art papers,” he says. “The math is simple. For the first time in my life, I’m like, ‘I know everything there is to know.’ ” Yep, he's still in his twenties.

I wish I could upvote this more. A person in their 20's knows nothing, but thinks they've outsmarted the world. It's not until your 30's that you realize how big of an idiot you were/are and how much of the world you actually understand (read: little).

This whole: "Twenty year olds don't know shit but 30 year olds are so enlightened" sentiment needs to stop. I agree that many younger people think they understand more than they do but that's just part of growing up and we all go through it.

Re: The first person to hack the iPhone is building a self-driving car

#72

Post by Aleman360 »

wdmeldon wrote: post #67
Aleman360 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because this article reinforces our bizarre cultural notion that one person deserves all the credit for some innovation. Nevermind the ridiculous amount of engineering that was required to build all the tools he's using and the order of magnitude more engineering required to make this a safe, mass producible product. But nah, let's just praise the founder, allow him to get rich while we all do the dirty work.

This comment is depressingly cynical. This is probably the single best definition of "hacking", as the community often refers to it, that I've seen in a very long time. One guy starts working on something only the biggest companies in the world dare attempt, throws together a minimal prototype built on top of existing technology. Just look at the picture of it. Claims of commercial viability or beating Tesla are a bi…

If this is the "hacker ethos" then I want nothing to do with it:

> “I live by morals, I don’t live by laws,” Hotz declared in the story. “Laws are something made by assholes.”

> “ ‘If’ statements kill.”

> “I want power. Not power over people, but power over nature and the destiny of technology. I just want to know how it all works.”

Re: The first person to hack the iPhone is building a self-driving car

#73

Post by Dylan16807 »

thedz wrote: post #4

> “I understand the state-of-the-art papers,” he says. “The math is simple. For the first time in my life, I’m like, ‘I know everything there is to know.’ ” Yep, he's still in his twenties.

That statement is clearly tongue-in-cheek, come on. "I well-understand the cutting edge of this narrow research area" is less fun to say, but that's the meaning.

Re: The first person to hack the iPhone is building a self-driving car

#74

Post by kamaal »

buro9 wrote: post #9
thedz wrote: post #4

> “I understand the state-of-the-art papers,” he says. “The math is simple. For the first time in my life, I’m like, ‘I know everything there is to know.’ ” Yep, he's still in his twenties.

But that belief is enough to attempt something that more experienced people would hesitate to start. Naivety is a very good thing at times. I've seen average people achieve incredible things, and not because what they did was incredible... but just because they started work on things that no-one else thought they could complete. Some way into it, when enough progress has been made, people have rushed to give support…

>>I've seen average people achieve incredible things

In my opinion, we must never underestimate people.

>>but just because they started work on things that no-one else thought they could complete.

Nothing fails like smartness. The reason why a few people achieve the impossible while far more intelligent and smart people don't is because of the curse of intelligence makes them believe certain things are impossible.

The fool didn't know it was impossible, so he did it.

Re: The first person to hack the iPhone is building a self-driving car

#75

Post by ishanr »

buro9 wrote: post #9
thedz wrote: post #4

> “I understand the state-of-the-art papers,” he says. “The math is simple. For the first time in my life, I’m like, ‘I know everything there is to know.’ ” Yep, he's still in his twenties.

But that belief is enough to attempt something that more experienced people would hesitate to start. Naivety is a very good thing at times. I've seen average people achieve incredible things, and not because what they did was incredible... but just because they started work on things that no-one else thought they could complete. Some way into it, when enough progress has been made, people have rushed to give support…

"Naivety is a very good thing at times."

He might not be naive.

Re: The first person to hack the iPhone is building a self-driving car

#76

Post by mikeg8 »

peckrob wrote: post #10
buro9 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that belief is enough to attempt something that more experienced people would hesitate to start. Naivety is a very good thing at times. I've seen average people achieve incredible things, and not because what they did was incredible... but just because they started work on things that no-one else thought they could complete. Some way into it, when enough progress has been made, people have rushed to give support…

A friend of mine in college had a very good saying about this that I always keep in mind: "There's nothing like succeeding at something you weren't even qualified to attempt."

I like this.

Re: The first person to hack the iPhone is building a self-driving car

#77

Post by paragpatelone »

"His self-funded experiment could end with Hotz humbly going back to knock on Google’s door for a job."

The biggest thing here IMO is this is self-funded. Any startup trying to do what he is doing in this environment would have raised $50 Million, hired 100's of engineers from top notch schools, become accepted in YC, and have Marc Andreessen, Paul Graham, Sam Altman and all singing their praises.

Kudos to him for being self-funded.

Re: The first person to hack the iPhone is building a self-driving car

#78

Post by ishanr »

thedz wrote: post #4

> “I understand the state-of-the-art papers,” he says. “The math is simple. For the first time in my life, I’m like, ‘I know everything there is to know.’ ” Yep, he's still in his twenties.

Its so much fun to see people who crossed their 20s doing nothing close to great, get so jealous.

Re: The first person to hack the iPhone is building a self-driving car

#79

Post by mikeg8 »

lintiness wrote: post #51
untog wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. But that belief is a genuine worry when you are talking about creating something that'll move a hulk of metal down a road at 70mph.

if we don't have laws currently, we sure as hell need them. i can't imagine letting everybody try their own self-driving software.

I don't think this would help at all because 1) most people are not interested in making their own self-driving car and 2) the small niche who is interested isn't going to worry about following the laws, as Hotz states in the piece.

Re: The first person to hack the iPhone is building a self-driving car

#80

Post by sangnoir »

sixQuarks wrote: post #39
thedz wrote: post #4

> “I understand the state-of-the-art papers,” he says. “The math is simple. For the first time in my life, I’m like, ‘I know everything there is to know.’ ” Yep, he's still in his twenties.

I would totally agree with you IF this kid hadn't proven his chops with iPhone and PS3 hacks, not to mention building a self-driving car in his garage. I also realize this kid probably won't end up making a huge dent in the universe.... but.... statistically speaking, there should be several "Leonardo da Vinci"- level humans alive right now. Why not this kid?

> I would totally agree with you IF this kid hadn't proven his chops with iPhone and PS3 hacks, not to mention building a self-driving car in his garage.

Impressive as they are, his chops still don't support his claim to "know everything there is to know". The Dunning-Kruger effect is in full swing.

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