I’m a girl, aged 14, based in Northern England – working on a tech startup. | Hacker News Reader

I’m a girl, aged 14, based in Northern England – working on a tech startup.

postdesk.com

61 pointswtildesley36 comments

Woaw. Apparently you can be 14 and extremely arrogant too.

What the hell was that ? That's just an article full of bold claims "If something is physically possible then you can achieve it if you try hard enough" and self gratification.

I hate people like this who, because they have been lucky in life and because they have worked hard think they can give general lessons about life.

My gosh this article was obnoxious.

...Yes? Humility is learned through a lifetime of failure and suffering; don't hate people (your word, not mine) who haven't had the misfortune to experience that yet.

What I really hate is to see this kind of tall poppy syndrome, and I'm horrified to see it on HN of all places. Confident, ambitious people should be celebrated, not hammered down by small-minded people who are offended whenever someone tries to achieve above their station.

Seconded, and it's so very, VERY British. Perhaps when the rest of the US wakes up the tone of comments might change, but right now some of them feel like they came straight from the playground.

"If something is physically possible then you can achieve it if you try hard enough"

Personally, I think that's a pretty good attitude for a teenager to have.

My only real complaint is she says 'awesome' too much. I'm pretty sure there's an unwritten rule in these parts that prevents us from saying it. Fine for Americans and acceptable for tech conferences, but too jovial for us Brits. ;)

I find myself cringing at the excessive use of the word "awesome" round these parts. It seems a lot of people just can't articulate themselves or their product so they just slap "Awesome" into the mix and be done with it.

Sorry but what in the article reeked of arrogance? You should try commenting on the actual content of the article and not on the individual, who, truth be told, you know absolutely nothing about.

Sour grapes fella. How do you know she's been 'lucky' in life?

Well most of us have been very very lucky in life, we have won the lottery, but among other things:

* Born in a 1st world country

* Born in a wealthy enough family that can afford computers and education for their children

* Born with parents that are supportive of her actions

It's a very common misconception on Hacker News that we have started from nothing and if people don't succeed it's because they don't "try enough". If you really want to see nothing go to Africa and say you haven't been lucky in life. "Trying" for these people is way harder than YOUR trying and you have to realize that.

By the way I am in no way sour, it's just important to realize what we were given in life and stop giving lessons to everybody based on our limited experience. Just a little decency.

> Born in a wealthy enough family that can afford computers and education for their children

Well i write web apps too and i can confirm it. I have not been agle to get my hands on a smartphone. And it's been ages and i still don't have a smartphone despite of listening and talking about it for years. People usually ignore this.

Some time back, there was a kid who wrote ipad apps. I felt this that time too, he was more lucky. I haven't ever seen an ipad IRL let alone use it or own it. If i had an ipad when i was 12, i would have been very happy and probably better coder than i am today. Having access to all of this is a great help if you have it and albeit not a road blocker exactly but still a discouraging thought if you don't have them. Reading about such stuff everyday but never getting a chance to use them is not the best thing you would want for yourself.

Only i know how much i want a smart device but i am still not able to get it. So yes, being lucky definitely counts. Although i would like to point out that i am getting education and my parents are still super supportive.

Yeah, I can't echo this enough. I had to temper myself writing to my sponsor child last night.

She's in Indonesia, and likely to be stuck making cassava with her mom and helping in the fields, until she gets married off and never heard from again.

If she was able to suffer a trip on a boat, or be adopted into the 1st World she'd have a solid chance at an education, and a first world life.

Not to discount what you said, but I think in some ways she realizes this. The problems she does overcome are, in her own words: "a load of crappy excuses". I think she understands the challenges she faces aren't really challenges, and are just that: "crappy excuses."

So, you make a good point, and in some way, I think she realizes that with all she has been given, the excuses left to her are crappy.

Good for her. Young, female and coming from a tricky geographical location that's relatively distanced from the start-up scene must be incredibly tough.

Unfortunately for her, she's going to really struggle to have people heed her good advice for quite some time as it's experience and success that dictates the value of your advice.

Ah, "the" start-up scene, AKA "everything that's wrong with London-centric UK".

I hope Propelly takes off and reminds the tech-luvvies that there IS a world outside London. It might stretches as far as Scotland, if you squint hard enough and don't listen to fat Alec too much.

Whilst Propelly is struggling with the HN load, it seems to me that it's pretty much identical to Gumroad, except with that added (and very reassuring) 'a 14yo is a major contributor' factor that goes down very well in e-commerce. (Perhaps there is more to it?)

This approach to business is precisely what brings on all those 'bubble' cries. We've made innovation seem like a matter of retracing the steps of others with a minor twist, and those that want to join the profit party infer that the steps themselves create success, rather than a perfect storm of randomness. One should only re-create a wheel if it has developed a bad attitude or hired a lawyer, IMO.

There's Brighton, also. I mean it's not so start-up centric as opposed to new-media centric, but it's still a great scene!

The fact HN upvoted this straight to the number one slot based on age and gender rather than content is a little bit depressing IMHO.

Either the average HNer is less discerning than I imagined, or the system is being gamed.

Is it wrong for something to be interesting because it's unusual?

Deleted comment

You're not "bold" at all; half the top-level comments are these content-free accusations of "gaming hacker news" or "why is this on the front page", and the other half are tall poppy syndrome in action.

Maybe it's just the contrarian in me, but there's a suspiciously large number of haters crawling out of the woodwork here, even for Hacker News.

The point of the article is good, but the tone of it seems a bit immature. I don't care much about someone's age, as long as they can act in a professional and responsible manner when it comes down to it.

I can respect her doing so much at such a young age, but if she acts like this in real life, she's only perpetuating the stereotype that she's trying to denounce.

How does this article have 41 points in 25 minutes? Is someone gaming the system, or am I missing something?

I'm guessing average HNer's see "girl", and think to themselves "must stamp out any sexism by upvoting anything remotely related to females". Reverse sexism at it's misguided best...

I'm usually the first person to denounce reverse sexism, but I loved this article. It has nothing to do with this young person's gender and everything to do with her attitude.

Sexism, like evolution, has no reverse.

There is a solution to this: you can flag the article if you feel something is fishy. Gumming up the works with a pointless question doesn't help anything. I'd encourage you to continue to contribute rather than being that which we want to discourage.

This post is daft and encapsulates why people do not take young (vocal) entrepreneurs seriously. If you genuinely wanted to succeed with your product you wouldn't write folly like this and you'd just keep working.

Which is what lots of friends who are "young" do - and I am sure they would all hate to be defined by their age vs. their products.

Deleted comment

> Hell you could argue that a 14 year old has it easier than anyone else because they have absolutely zero responsibilities...

Did you read the article? I think she made the exact same point:

> Speaking of taking action, teens are in one of the best positions to do so. Being young is the single greatest advantage I can think of. Boohoo I have to go to school, boohoo I have to have a social life, boohoo I have to do homework. Damn my life is hard. All these older entrepreneurs have to do is: feed themselves, keep a roof over their/their families head, potentially hold down a job, pay bills and more. The point is you should never allow anything to get in your way of working on a project.

But don't let me interrupt you from enjoying your haterade....

No idea what she's actually working on (coding, design, pr).

1) at 14, it's a hobby. No stress, no pressure, no family, no obligations. I don't think her attitude can relate to 90% of HN readers. Her tone is ok for other 14yo, who should listen to it and get their asses moving as well.

2) programming did it! (apparently) The languages and the way of thinking is rooted deep-enough with the "cyber-generation" to consider them IT-literate at this age. Nice.

3) if startup eco-system is ripe enough for teenagers with no experience to make something valuable, I would conclude that the professionals should re-assess their position. If everybody's doing it, it's not a profitable direction, imho.

One of the things I always dislike seeing (and I can let it slide in this case) is 'Northern England'. That pretty much is used as a catch-all for everything North of Coventry in most press and misses the fact that the individual segments all have varying levels of tech scenes.

That and don't haul your arse off to London for start up events, go local, there's loads and they get better with every smart person who turns up.

I can't understand the negativity expressed towards this article. I bet if the 'I'm a girl' part had been omitted there wouldn't be half as much vitriol.

For me personally, the content of the article isn't really very interesting.

Defining yourself by your age and gender means you want to be judged based on those attributes. I'd rather judge things on their merits.

Also the post comes across as a bit "first world problems". It's someone lucky enough to be born in a first world country, with access to free schooling, free healthcare, computers, the internet etc...

I like the "get things done" attitude and let's say that the article's tone is related to age, but how this made top 1 on HN is far beyond me...just...how!?

I wonder how much of a role her parents play in her life. Not to denegrate her achievements but a 14 year old is (typically) still dependent on their parents/guardians.

Secondly, how is she 'helping' in this start up. Maybe It's just because I'm in a rather unhappy mood but this article just really irritates me. Sure this girl is in a great position and has the wonderful opportunity to work with intelligent and experienced people but how much of this is because of her own hard work. The tone comes off as if she is the master of her own fate but I wonder if she would have still authored this article had she been born in Kabul!

This is very true, however we don't choose to be privileged - and many people with privilege waste it. There's nothing wrong with taking advantage of your breaks, as long as it's not to the detriment of others.

The issue with the article was that she had this attitude that she'd come from nowhere, which is untrue, but I don't think I as a 14 year old truly appreciated the gravity of how much a person is built by their surroundings and predecessors.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com