Woah! Did not expect this to be here. I'm the 13-year-old who tweeted this out, and I really love programming. I like experimenting and creating open source projects. I'm interested in the web, servers, systems, and AI. Some of my most recent projects are:
Moon - UI library
Wing - CSS framework
Wade - 1kb JS Search Library
Slash - hash function in Assembly
You can find them on my Github[1]. I usually don't like stating my age as I love the feedback I get if you treat me as if I was an adult. People usually just compliment me after they see my age, but I'd honestly rather have some nice feedback and criticism.
Hey.. i'm 42 now, But I was also programming at 13 (at that time we were trying to convince people that computers could be useful, and teachers to allow us to be in the computer lab).
A few things I picked up over the years: Keep going, don't get too into any one technology / keep moving, expect to continue learning forever, keep your body healthy (it's not just there to carry around your brain), avoid bad habits that start to emerge early (100x red-bull ++ etc). The brain requires a LOT of energy, feed it with respect
Intelligence = Speed of the car | Smart = Good at driving it | Wisdom = Where to drive.
In a similar vein: If you need to use a tool (software or other wise), and you might use it more than once, take the time to learn it right. This will slow you down in the beginning, but it pays off in productivity later on.
Really impressive stuff, so here's some unsolicited career advice. You may get some internship offers if this post gets enough attention. They can teach you a lot, but since you seem to be able to learn on your own you should consider staying solo and continuing to market yourself with open-source projects. That said, if you get an invite from Google, that's a different story.
For me, and I suspect many (if not most) others, side projects have made all the difference. College was great, but the fact that being a student "gave me permission" to work on side projects really made me get my hands dirty. I only wish I'd started when I was 13. Keep on keepin' on!
Kabir, you've instilled some instincts about design in 13 years that some people never figure out. How did you do that? How old were you when you started programming, what did you do? Just fascinated in how you've done it.
Oh, and don't forget to enjoy being young. You only get to be a teenager once! You've got a long time to be able to wow people, don't owe anything to anyone.
Thank you so much! I started programming basic HTML when I was about 8 years old. After that, I pretty much just started making websites, and when I didn't know how to do something, I just looked it up or asked my parents to help me fix it. With that I've been able to learn a lot. Progressing from HTML to CSS, Javascript, Node, and now into Python and C.
I definitely will enjoy being young :)
I program in my free time, when I'm not playing soccer, doing homework, snowboarding, or playing guitar.
Nice array of hobbies there, and I hope you keep some of that up as well as programming.
I'd comment on your actual work, but I'm one of the non-tech folks that are sitting here reading HN. Reading this stuff helps my artwork's creativity, oddly enough, and I'm guessing for some it works the other way around as well.
In the Moon.js Repository [1], it said you've been developing Moon.js since late 2015. So that means you've been building it since 11 years old? That's really cool! I want to hear your stories sometimes. But more importantly, keep making awesome things!
I love the way you keep things really simple and to the point. It's actually great for marketing ( the hard part) and gaining attention for your projects ( eg. They'll read what you write).
I do have plans on finishing it, but I have a lot of projects right now. I'm trying to get Moon v1 out, working on my OS, Slash, and some other new projects. If you have any recommendations for what the code samples should be on, I'd be glad to try and write it based on that.
Haha if you look at my recent commits (maybe 1-2 a day), you'll see that I've been putting less effort into the amount of commits, and more effort into the quality of them. I think a year ago I was focused more on getting that graph to look good.
Back, when I was learning (I was 15 at the time) we didn't even have internet access at home, so you had to learn by downloading stuff in school, put it in a bunch of diskettes, pray none of them borked before getting home and then read for hours looking for what you needed to know. It was awesome, haha!
Now you kiddos have the internet and Github. Lucky whipper snappers! <screams at cloud>
Joking aside, great job! What other technologies outside of the JS stack are you looking into learning?
2. I started out with HTML, then slowly moved into CSS, Javascript, Python, C, and Assembly.
3. I am completely self-taught, a few people in my family program but are in different fields than what I am interested in.
4. I wouldn't say that it suffers, but it is definitely hard to keep up with both. I always keep school as my first priority when it comes to these types of things, and most of my projects are done over break or the weekend.
Awesome! The internet is extremely helpful and you can learn pretty much anything you put your mind to, and it's never too late to start :)
It's wise to appreciate those people in your family who program and give them credit, just for the fact that they exposed you to programming. I know many who grew up with parents which can't even read, let alone have more than one member in the family with a certain level of education. That said, keep up the good work!
Haha yeah, most of the credit goes to my dad. He's a Java programmer. On the other hand, I'm more interested in web development, web design, servers, and systems.
"Once you’ve followed your curiosity to several different tributaries, those tributaries will converge. Then, you’re completely, utterly, untouchable."
Thanks for releasing so many great open source projects!
On your website, you mention you use Crystal for programming on the server. What made you choose Crystal over other languages, and what do you like about it for server-side programming? Thanks :-)
I prefer Crystal because it's a really expressive language (similar to Ruby) but has the advantage of being compiled (like C). I prefer compiled languages for the server because they are usually faster, and can be deployed with a single binary.
Moon - UI library
Wing - CSS framework
Wade - 1kb JS Search Library
Slash - hash function in Assembly
You can find them on my Github[1]. I usually don't like stating my age as I love the feedback I get if you treat me as if I was an adult. People usually just compliment me after they see my age, but I'd honestly rather have some nice feedback and criticism.
I'd be glad to answer any questions :)
[1] https://github.com/kbrsh