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    #184331 03/09/14 05:47 AM
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    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/technology/the-youngest-technorati.html
    The Youngest Technorati
    By MATT RICHTEL
    New York Times
    MARCH 8, 2014

    ...

    Ryan is now 17, a senior at Boulder High. He is among the many entrepreneurially minded, technologically skilled teenagers who are striving to do serious business. Their work is enabled by low-cost or free tools to make apps or to design games, and they are encouraged by tech companies and grown-ups in the field who urge them, sometimes with financial support, to accelerate their transition into “the real world.” This surge in youthful innovation and entrepreneurship looks “unprecedented,” said Gary Becker, a University of Chicago economist and a Nobel laureate.

    Dr. Becker is assessing this subject from a particularly intimate vantage point. His grandson, Louis Harboe, 18, is a friend of Ryan’s, a technological teenager who makes Ryan look like a late bloomer. Louis, pronounced Louie, got his first freelance gig at the age of 12, designing the interface for an iPhone game. At 16, Louis, who lives with his parents in Chicago, took a summer design internship at Square, an online and mobile payment company in San Francisco, earning $1,000 a week plus a $1,000 housing stipend.

    Ryan and Louis, who met online in the informal network of young developers, are hanging out this weekend in Austin at South by Southwest. They are also waiting to hear from the colleges to which they applied last fall — part of the parallel universe they also live in, the traditional one with grades and SATs and teenage responsibilities. But unlike their peers for whom college is the singular focus, they have pondered whether to go at all. It’s a good kind of problem, the kind faced by great high-school athletes or child actors who can try going pro, along with all the risk that entails.

    ************************************************

    Contrary to the last sentence above, I think the risks are lower for aspiring technorati. If you are a very good basketball player but not good enough to play in the NBA, your playing skills are not of much economic value. If your programming and business abilities are very good but your start-up fails, you should still be able to get a job in tech.

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    Agree with your ideas on risk being lower for these technical kids. I had this discussion with my son's pediatrician when discussing my son's interests, screen time, etc.

    I mentioned he was interested in game development (he was taking a programming course at the time, has taken a couple of other courses since, and done some interesting things in animation using various tools including flash., and so on...)

    He brought up limiting screen time, 'internet addiction', etc., also saying that 'game dev' was like 'rock star' as far as careers go...which maybe it used to be, but I think with smart phones, ouya, steam and other such platforms it is much easier to get into game design and development.
    More importantly (to me) the skills one uses to develop a game are pretty portable to other areas of information technology.


    As an aside, I think this is an pretty healthy interest which he expresses and learns about in different ways:
    watching online videos regarding video game history, technique, criticism, story development, etc.
    playing video games, of course.
    taking classes, making games
    learning about robotics/electronics/more programming with us at home
    reading magazine articles and books and watching videos about game marketing, video game industry info, etc.
    drawing and animation (on the computer and on paper)


    Well I am not sure it was our conversation about the skills being transferable, but I came to find out a few months later that the doctor's oldest son is very interested in video game development as well and taking a course at school. The dr. is allowing him more screen time because as his son has told him 'you can work on and develop the projects as much as you want'...It is nice to hear he is giving him more latitude with that.

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    DD has a close friend who is one of these kids-- certification is still pretty important, as he discovered upon graduating from high school at 16. BUT-- he was also able to skip over many prerequisite courses, even in his tech-oriented major.

    He's doing very well in college, and knows WHY he's there, just as importantly. He's also continuing to run his own business on the side. It isn't making him "rich" by any means-- but it is allowing him to pay for tuition. smile


    Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.
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    I got into IT 30 years ago without going to university. I just had absolutely no clue of what I was going to do at university when I finished school because too many things interested me AND I was SO sick of school by that time.

    With too many interests in just about everything, like Balaam's Ass, I did nothing. I drifted around doing all manner of low skilled work living the underachiever's dream. Eventually, I ended up taking some aptitude tests and doing well enough to out perform university graduates and get a graduate trainee position in IT.

    I started to notice that a) I was pretty good at this b) I enjoyed it because it was like being paid to do puzzles c) I was being passed over for promotions because I 'had not been through the Mill'. It was at that point that I went to university and good a jolly good thing it was too because I met my wife there ;-)


    Become what you are
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    madeinuk, my path to IT was pretty similar; bachelors in fine art which amounted to just about nothing career wise, so drifted around a bit, working in galleries in a city NOT known for galleries, and doing other odd art-related jobs, and coffee bar/book store jobs. I would still enjoy a bookstore job, actually. After getting into technical writing, systems training and that sort of thing I finally realized I was pretty good at understanding systems and decided to go whole hog and got an entry level job in IT working with the system I had formerly been training folks on, and my company trained me up for programming (and beyond). I was really glad to find a career where a certificate to even walk in the door was not required, although I think a lot of people go about it that way as well.


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    I think the beauty of technology is that it is ever-changing. I'm not a coder/developer/engineer, but I work in the design and strategy of creating systems. I received a degree in 3D animation, but I've always been on a leading edge of what can be done with the web. I did not go to school to learn what I know because there wasn't a school that existed at the time. I've just learned through trial and error and have been fortunate enough to make more right decisions than wrong ones.

    There are now schools that teach basics, but it's still a life-long learning experience. Things change, often by leaps and bounds. Tech will always be chasing the hot new thing. It has catered to the young, innovative people that immediately want to start a business. As a biz-owner, it is easy to start a biz and hard to run one. $30k is impressive when you live at home and don't have employees. In Silicon Valley, that will pay for 3-4 months of living. They better have another solid idea ready. Most of them will fail, but some get purchased by larger companies. If they fail, then they can try again. They will learn along the way. There's no reason to get an MBA and a computer science degree.

    As long as they network, they can get another job. I worked with 17 year old at his first real job. He's now the head of the tech department of an agency. He didn't go to school either. I was 20 when I got my first tech job too. Age means little in tech. Talent and passion are worth more than a formal education in 4 years ago best tech. It's awesome these teens are go-getters. That's the "grit"!

    Lastly, SXSW is a joke. I've been there enough to know that is not a good place to go for a teen. Deals are not made, the panels are weak more often than not, and everyone is competing for attention. It is all noise, so only the big startups with money will stick out.


    Mom to DS9 and DD6

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