Lots of people were doing these same things ("I don't need school—I know HTML!") in 2000/2001. Then all the funding dried up over night and all the acquiring companies went away. Then the people who decided to go to school and learn fundamentals and grow themselves over time instead of turing startup tricks ended up winning.
That 5.7Billion dollars got many people set for life, inculding HN hero Mark Cuban. It's not an argument against diving into the frat for a piece of the pie.
These kids are going to hit a wall in their careers without a degree behind them. I hate that I'm saying this, but the more time I spend in the "real world", the more I see the value in a university education.
Seems these kids are going into sedentary lifestyle pretty soon and taking on stress early on in their lives. I would imagine that there would be some negative effects due to that. But some kids might be just right for it.
You should follow some of these guys on Periscope. You'll see that their lives are very non-sedentary :) Sure they spend most of their weekdays coding, but it would be no different if they were in high school or college.
Lots of teenagers are under stress in high school to get into the "right" college. Knowing of paths to interesting and well-paying jobs that don't require college, much less an Ivy League college, should reduce stress.
That said, I do wonder what the success rate of the youngster is. Would I let my son go to a hacker house (or whatever you want to call it) instead of college?
Honestly, what would really reduce stress is being told "a state school is fine too". Encouraging kids to grow up early and jump right into careers and leadership positions just sounds like a recipe for burnout. Some people can thrive in that kind of lifestyle, but others will just crack after a few years.
I wonder how many of them will still be working in tech at 35.
(My uncle was kinda like that... got into the industry at an early age, was a big name on the Internet in the early 90s -- he was even listed in some of those old "Internet directories" and owned [our last name].com for the rest of his life -- and then he burned out, quit the tech industry, and became a cab driver... he ultimately became an alcoholic and died in his fifties)
While many teenagers feel stress to get into the right college, these teenagers will probably be under tremendous pressure to develop a successful app. If the tech economy contracts or Silicon Valley's fetishization of youth subsides, being an unknown programmer without a degree might not be the best position.
I do have to say it's really weird to read an article where I know most of the people in it. Does this become more common as you get older in the tech community? This is the second time this year I've experienced this.
Any small town HN readers like me see articles like this and can't relate at all? I used to be envious and longed to be part of this type of community, but now I just feel indifferent to it. It's a very strange world you Silly Valley kids live in.
I've lived here for 3 decades. No one here calls it that, and the google hits are (1) fairly few and (2) mostly google treating it as a synonym for "silicon valley" and (3) actual hits are for a not-well-known recent comedy news show.
I certainly did not deserve downvotes for speaking the truth. It's not a thing, it's not widely used, it's a recent one-off joke -- and if you want to make fun of silicon valley (which of course has many faults), "silly" is simply not what this place is like.
On top of that, it has the wrong number of syllables, so it's not a very good joke, even considering that "clever" renaming is one of the lowest forms of humor.
The fact you've become so offended at an online message board comment word joke supports the entire point of your environment being ridiculous, out of touch, and, dare we say, silly.
A factual correction is not being offended. But now I'm offended that you are calling me offended because it's offensive to read fault into factual statements; is that offensive to you?
> supports the entire point of your environment being ridiculous,
"Ridiculous" is in fact a much better word for it.
> > "silly" is simply not what this place is like.
> what.
Silly implies things like light-heartedness. Silicon Valley's faults are not light-hearted. At its worst it can feel like a dungeon, not something amusing.
OMG! You think we're doing "Comedy"?! Thank you sooo much. That's the nicest compliment we've received since my parents said: "We'll love you no matter what you do."
Not from a small town (I'm from suburban North Texas), but I can't relate either. I had a fairly normal upbringing, and the lifestyle described in this article is just totally alien to me.
I'm honestly glad I got to go to college. Those were the best years of my life, and I can't imagine voluntarily missing out on them, not even for a six-figure sum. I'm also introverted enough that the idea of having eight roommates just horrifies me...
I can't imagine having college be the best years of my life. That implies a downhill slope post-college that's just plain depressing on the face of it.
Fortunately, I didn't bother going. Had all the fun, none of the responsibilities, and my life has only gotten better in the decades since that time.
Personally, I wouldn't say "the best years," but certainly it was a very unique time that stands out from everything before it, and everything after it.
Perhaps this is partly from the excitement of being out on your own for the first time in life, so it's less about college than being "college aged." Then again, the real-life network effect of being surrounded by thousands of other exuberant young people can't be discredited entirely.
College was definitely the best years of my life up to that point.
The big reason that I'm glad I went to college is because I went through so many changes as a person in terms of my goals and interests, and so many of those changes were informed by the people around me (including the woman who would later become my wife). If I hadn't gone to college (or even if I had just gone to a different college), then I'd be a very different person than I am today.
And obviously, that can't be generalized into anything meaningful; if I had gone to a different college, then I'd be a very different person but that different person might be perfectly happy doing whatever they do, possibly even happier than I am. But if I hadn't gone to college at all, I wouldn't have had that exposure to different people and I wouldn't have decided to explore a number of hobbies that ended up defining who I would become. I wasn't happy with I was out of high school, and the idea of never being shaken out of that is terrifying.
If you have a way to change up your environment and expose yourself to new things outside the structure of college, then I can easily believe you can get all the benefits that I got without the responsibilities or the cost. College just happens to provide an easy framework for that happen.
I agree that anybody who says "college was the best years of my life", similar to people who say "high school was the best years of my life" to be profoundly sad; I had a total blast in college and while there were some low points immediately after graduation, I'm very excited about where my life has gone and where I can see it going in the future.
As time has gone on, my appreciation for college has only grown. Particularly, it exposed me to non-technical subjects I wouldn't have otherwise studied, and it exposed me to people with interests and backgrounds much different than my own, both which greatly enriched my life. I wouldn't swap that for extra years of hacking away on a laptop -- I can do that for the rest of my life, if I choose.
Also, I had eight roommates one year in college (technically, seven roommates, plus one guy crashing on our couch), and it was truly horrifying.
If you live in a small town and are thinking of coming here, still do it! As crazy as it sounds, if you possess a respectful, honest, candid/cool attitude and can speak at a regular tempo and look people in the eye etc. etc., (things I thank a small town upbringing for), then you will do well here.
I always thought the competition would be overwhelming, but if you know what's up, it is actually easier to find a job here since SF is drowning in this 'fresh talent' that is so dangerous to companies not looking for a quick buck, but rather to establish a viable business model.
Posted elsewhere in this thread as well, but believe it or not, coffee! You can't see it in the picture, but I keep my aeropress and grinder in my room as well.
At least some of these folks seem pretty self-aware.
> “One thing I’m really bothered by is the insularity of tech — it’s narrowing,” he said. “It’s pretty much all white dudes. It’s a fake bubble with a bunch of money, and we just go with it.”
That might be the most cringey opening quote I've ever read for an article. Straight out of Silicon Valley (the show). The only explanation I can come up with is that the reporter knows nothing about tech and the kid was trolling her.
This is, by far and away, the most accurate representation of our day to day life. A lot of people featured in the article aren't taking to well to it either, but for pretty obvious reasons.
Personally, I think this kind of transparency is necessary. We might live in a fairy tale, but there are truths to be found in the harsher realities.
Perhaps the 19-year-old, like many 19-year-olds, doesn't have much in the way of self-awareness.
The reporter (Nellie Bowles) has been covering Silicon Valley for a number of years, most recently for Recode (she wrote a great series of articles about Zappos' attempt to revitalise Las Vegas). She knows whereof she speaks.
As far as I can tell this whole article is about San Francisco not Silicon Valley. Granted, the startup scene has migrated north over time but that doesn't make it Silicon Valley even if that's where the VC funds are coming from.
I think this is a very curious way to go about things. Some of these kids are undoubtedly successful early on, but dropping out at high-school is something that seems a bit weird to me--and I say this as someone who was consistently bored in highschool, nevermind college. I think I'm a fundamentally different person thanks to my college education, and I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.
Some people have gotten incredibly wealthy following dropping out (Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Larry Page [Phd dropout], Steve Jobs)--and I think there may some sort of category mistake in equating that smart + dropout = success. That said, each of these people were well educated to begin with. There is likely a fair bit of truth in that the education experience isn't for everyone, and I would support those individuals in doing their own things--though I would caution against short-circuiting a growth process.
I'm still a student finishing my B.Sc., so I'm not free of bias. It appears as though these guys are doing something right given their successes so far. I'd be curious to sit down and share a beer with a few of them to better understand what makes it all tick.
> “Teens have a greater risk tolerance. They can live in conditions we would find inhospitable. They have a fresh mind; they have so much optionality, youth, and stamina.”
Sounds like the same reasons we send young people to fight in wars. No spouse or kids to care for, easy to get excited about "the adventure," and, as a result, easy to exploit.
People fighting in wars get killed. People doing this at worst come away feeling like they've wasted/lost a few years of their life - life goes on - and at best come away feeling fulfilled and/or wealthier (what more can you ask for?).
I totally agree. It is an imperfect comparison, and by no means did I intend to directly compare the horrors of war with a few years spent in a hacker house. But it is interesting that the reasons quoted above can be used to justify so many levels of exploitation.
They used to call it "paying your dues". The fact is some of them will be exploited and get nothing, some of them will make a huge name for themselves and learn how to build businesses instead of following a traditional career path.
Personally if I had it to do over I would take my chances at being exploited in SV over the career prospects of doing things by the book in middle America; and fwiw I'm saying this as a college-educated late-comer to Silicon Valley (8 years ago at 28).
I know a few of the people here. Before going to college I was definitely tempted to work at a startup and not to go to college. The tech industry in SF is overflowing with money, so I'm not surprised these people are making this choice (unexpectedly, it's often the small-but-VC-funded startup desperate for talent that pays more $$$ the bigcorps, often run by founders unable to qualify the talent). Also, in my experience studying CS (at least at Berkeley) is definitely harder than working in tech (compare doing psets and pulling all-nighters to doing working on things you're pretty good at, surrounded by every perk imaginable).
I did end up making the judgment that deeply studying CS in my 4 years at Berkeley would help me in the long run.
I think this is amazing. Having a third choice beyond "go to college" or "go to work" has been sorely needed for many people. When I was a teenager (late 1990s) I wasn't able to go to college (had no family support, did a trade school for 1 1/2 years, ended in several types of disaster), so I went straight to work. If I had something like this as an option, I probably would have jumped on it.
A big plus is that even if they fail, many still have family support so they can just go back home and go to school a little later. Even if this is just another gold rush, this is a great opportunity for them with little to no downside risk.
Edit: about the Thiel money: it'd be nice to see a lot more people with the means doing this. 20 people isn't exactly scaling.
It certainly reads that way, though the bands that played at Woodstock were already successful. The way I see it: more like youngsters rushing to Hollywood to get into films except this time with a bit of luck, talent and product have a better chance at making to the top.
A positive article.
Deepak Jeevan Kumar: "a principal at General Catalyst Partners, led sessions at Interact, encouraging attendees to work in unsexy enterprise industries like cloud computing, which he thinks need new ideas. “The way that I would sum it up is that the intellectual curiosity of humans goes down as we start aging,” he told me. “Intellectual curiosity is correlated with imagination and ability to take risk. So that, combined with the fact that experience is mattering less and less to be an entrepreneur”"
77 comments
[ 5.4 ms ] story [ 177 ms ] threadNever forget: $5.7 billion dollars just burnt for fun. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast.com
What does that even mean? Watch them work? Watch their wacky bro antics after work? Watch them work while bro'ing down?
That said, I do wonder what the success rate of the youngster is. Would I let my son go to a hacker house (or whatever you want to call it) instead of college?
I wonder how many of them will still be working in tech at 35.
(My uncle was kinda like that... got into the industry at an early age, was a big name on the Internet in the early 90s -- he was even listed in some of those old "Internet directories" and owned [our last name].com for the rest of his life -- and then he burned out, quit the tech industry, and became a cab driver... he ultimately became an alcoholic and died in his fifties)
That's not a thing. Don't believe everything that random comedians make up.
Sure is! Lived there for a year and a half. First saw Rachel (of rachelbythebay.com) use it and was like "holy crap, that's a perfect description!"
I certainly did not deserve downvotes for speaking the truth. It's not a thing, it's not widely used, it's a recent one-off joke -- and if you want to make fun of silicon valley (which of course has many faults), "silly" is simply not what this place is like.
The fact you've become so offended at an online message board comment word joke supports the entire point of your environment being ridiculous, out of touch, and, dare we say, silly.
> "silly" is simply not what this place is like.
what.
> supports the entire point of your environment being ridiculous,
"Ridiculous" is in fact a much better word for it.
> > "silly" is simply not what this place is like.
> what.
Silly implies things like light-heartedness. Silicon Valley's faults are not light-hearted. At its worst it can feel like a dungeon, not something amusing.
;)
Which is why I called bullshit in the first place. Now take your ego elsewhere.
I'm honestly glad I got to go to college. Those were the best years of my life, and I can't imagine voluntarily missing out on them, not even for a six-figure sum. I'm also introverted enough that the idea of having eight roommates just horrifies me...
Fortunately, I didn't bother going. Had all the fun, none of the responsibilities, and my life has only gotten better in the decades since that time.
Perhaps this is partly from the excitement of being out on your own for the first time in life, so it's less about college than being "college aged." Then again, the real-life network effect of being surrounded by thousands of other exuberant young people can't be discredited entirely.
The big reason that I'm glad I went to college is because I went through so many changes as a person in terms of my goals and interests, and so many of those changes were informed by the people around me (including the woman who would later become my wife). If I hadn't gone to college (or even if I had just gone to a different college), then I'd be a very different person than I am today.
And obviously, that can't be generalized into anything meaningful; if I had gone to a different college, then I'd be a very different person but that different person might be perfectly happy doing whatever they do, possibly even happier than I am. But if I hadn't gone to college at all, I wouldn't have had that exposure to different people and I wouldn't have decided to explore a number of hobbies that ended up defining who I would become. I wasn't happy with I was out of high school, and the idea of never being shaken out of that is terrifying.
If you have a way to change up your environment and expose yourself to new things outside the structure of college, then I can easily believe you can get all the benefits that I got without the responsibilities or the cost. College just happens to provide an easy framework for that happen.
I agree that anybody who says "college was the best years of my life", similar to people who say "high school was the best years of my life" to be profoundly sad; I had a total blast in college and while there were some low points immediately after graduation, I'm very excited about where my life has gone and where I can see it going in the future.
Also, I had eight roommates one year in college (technically, seven roommates, plus one guy crashing on our couch), and it was truly horrifying.
I always thought the competition would be overwhelming, but if you know what's up, it is actually easier to find a job here since SF is drowning in this 'fresh talent' that is so dangerous to companies not looking for a quick buck, but rather to establish a viable business model.
Thank you so much.
> “One thing I’m really bothered by is the insularity of tech — it’s narrowing,” he said. “It’s pretty much all white dudes. It’s a fake bubble with a bunch of money, and we just go with it.”
That might be the most cringey opening quote I've ever read for an article. Straight out of Silicon Valley (the show). The only explanation I can come up with is that the reporter knows nothing about tech and the kid was trolling her.
What's great is that the show doesn't need to make anything up. I'm not surprised if teens in the area speak like that.
Personally, I think this kind of transparency is necessary. We might live in a fairy tale, but there are truths to be found in the harsher realities.
Edit: better english
The reporter (Nellie Bowles) has been covering Silicon Valley for a number of years, most recently for Recode (she wrote a great series of articles about Zappos' attempt to revitalise Las Vegas). She knows whereof she speaks.
I wonder what he did with the other 23.5 hours that day...
Only at a few points in history are there opportunities like this. Do it while you can. It may not come around again in a lifetime.
[0] https://stories.californiasunday.com/data/files/organization...
"Hey I wanna get a photo of you doing hacker shit! Open some terminals"
"oh shit, oh shit, uhh, I guess I can apt-get update, that will look cool."
edit: that might be pacman, not sure.
Some people have gotten incredibly wealthy following dropping out (Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Larry Page [Phd dropout], Steve Jobs)--and I think there may some sort of category mistake in equating that smart + dropout = success. That said, each of these people were well educated to begin with. There is likely a fair bit of truth in that the education experience isn't for everyone, and I would support those individuals in doing their own things--though I would caution against short-circuiting a growth process.
I'm still a student finishing my B.Sc., so I'm not free of bias. It appears as though these guys are doing something right given their successes so far. I'd be curious to sit down and share a beer with a few of them to better understand what makes it all tick.
This just feels right.
Sounds like the same reasons we send young people to fight in wars. No spouse or kids to care for, easy to get excited about "the adventure," and, as a result, easy to exploit.
<\cynic-hat>
Personally if I had it to do over I would take my chances at being exploited in SV over the career prospects of doing things by the book in middle America; and fwiw I'm saying this as a college-educated late-comer to Silicon Valley (8 years ago at 28).
I did end up making the judgment that deeply studying CS in my 4 years at Berkeley would help me in the long run.
A big plus is that even if they fail, many still have family support so they can just go back home and go to school a little later. Even if this is just another gold rush, this is a great opportunity for them with little to no downside risk.
Edit: about the Thiel money: it'd be nice to see a lot more people with the means doing this. 20 people isn't exactly scaling.
It certainly reads that way, though the bands that played at Woodstock were already successful. The way I see it: more like youngsters rushing to Hollywood to get into films except this time with a bit of luck, talent and product have a better chance at making to the top.
A positive article.
Deepak Jeevan Kumar: "a principal at General Catalyst Partners, led sessions at Interact, encouraging attendees to work in unsexy enterprise industries like cloud computing, which he thinks need new ideas. “The way that I would sum it up is that the intellectual curiosity of humans goes down as we start aging,” he told me. “Intellectual curiosity is correlated with imagination and ability to take risk. So that, combined with the fact that experience is mattering less and less to be an entrepreneur”"
Shite VC's say.