
Ambitious teenagers are flooding into San Francisco - wpietri
https://stories.californiasunday.com/2015-06-07/real-teenagers-silicon-valley
======
dmamills
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.

~~~
DougMerritt
> Silly Valley

That's not a thing. Don't believe everything that random comedians make up.

~~~
Blackthorn
> That's not a thing.

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!"

~~~
DougMerritt
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.

~~~
seiji
> It's not a thing

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.

~~~
DougMerritt
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.

------
gshakir
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.

~~~
Bostonian
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?

~~~
amyjess
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)

------
MAGZine
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.

------
travjones
There's a scale on the corner of Latta's desk. What's that for? [0]

[0]
[https://stories.californiasunday.com/data/files/organization...](https://stories.californiasunday.com/data/files/organization/2343/image/derivative/scale~1300x5000~0607ffteen-1431555236-0.jpg)

~~~
zachlatta
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.

~~~
jacksonfall
Fantastic catch. Sure it is, Zach.

------
brianchu
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.

------
svachalek
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.

~~~
Animats
Some of the same crowd is at Hacker Dojo in Mountain View. It's not all teens
there, but there's some of the same mentality.

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.

------
dblarons
> “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.

<\cynic-hat>

~~~
comex
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?).

~~~
dblarons
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.

------
bootload
_“Hackathons are technological Woodstock,”_

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.

------
Futurebot
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.

------
Blackthorn
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.”

------
josephpmay
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.

~~~
gohrt
It happens more the tighter you move into the echo chamber of startupland

------
Torgo
It's nice to see an article for a change about young people in tech that's not
about how entitled/nerdy/unfuckable they are.

~~~
jacksonfall
Entitled and nerdy, sure.

~~~
Noelkd
If you are going to program I would make sure I understood negation.

------
akhilcacharya
Its always interesting to read about people like this - what led these people
to have this sort of skill level and confidence?

~~~
jacksonfall
I think the reason we're here is simply because we've never known any
alternative. It's been in my blood for longer than I can remember.

This just feels right.

------
inmyunix
god, I'm old.

~~~
seiji
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.

Never forget: $5.7 _billion_ dollars just burnt for fun.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast.com](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast.com)

~~~
gohrt
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.

------
sebular
"...he rebuilt Yo's backend. He's baller."

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.

~~~
kra34
"...he rebuilt Yo's backend. He's baller."

I wonder what he did with the other 23.5 hours that day...

~~~
jacksonfall
#SHOTSFIRED

------
bunkydoo
I wonder what that digital scale on the kid's desk is used for, hmmmm....

~~~
fokinsean
It's actually the web scale that you get for using mongoDB.

~~~
nickysielicki
LOL wow. I needed this laugh. I genuinely teared up a bit.

Thank you so much.

