Item — HN Reader

I was a child prodigy, now living a life that is a fairly natural extension of that experience. I started programming at 6, took college classes (mostly math and physics) from 9 to 13. I had a semi-successful software business with my dad from 14 to 22, then decided to go to grad school, which was a fantastic decision, as it both helped me sharpen my intellectual skills and develop better social skills.

These days I do independent CS research and open source development, and still enjoy learning. One of my latest projects involves programming GPU compute, and I find it very exciting to grapple with a new computing model.

I don't talk about my early experience that much, but in this thread, feel free to AMA.

3 comments

That's a very common story in software. We all started early. You're certainly not a prodigy.

A prodigy, in terms of computer science, would have contributed in a fundamental level to the field, as in invented some technology, some way of working, contributed some insight that changed the way we work, even the way we think, and this at very early age.

You, however, worked with your dad. Then you went to grad school. There's nothing prodigal about that.

Thanks for providing more detail for my answer to mindgam3's question :)

I've always wondered if it was just talent or you know how to learn really well.

Any strategies you employ when it comes to reading? Does it come down to mostly practice or can you read a whitepaper once and implement it the following day? How much of the effort is just memorization?

I've been programming since elementary school, always curious what other people do to quickly pick up engineering.

I'm of the camp who believes it stems from motivation - for whatever reason, I've found computers (and math) fascinating and have found the motivation to spend a lot of time understanding them, without it feeling like effort. I'm not sure I'd say I picked this stuff up quickly, it's been many tens of thousands of hours.

I'm not sure I have any useful advice regarding reading, other than doing quite a bit of it (though these days a lot of it is net stuff, which is varied in quality). Lately I've been reading a whole bunch of papers on GPU, both 2D rendering and how GPU's work (the Citadel stuff is a good read). A couple years ago I read a ton of stuff on CRDT's, and while it obviously grabbed my attention at the time, I look back and kinda regret the effort spent on it.

Hope this is at least interesting, if not helpful.

Oh I read plenty, currently I'm on a financial interest reading through books on technicals and options. I agree a lot of what people call "smarts" is just a lot of time spent truly understanding what interests you.

It's just interesting to hear it from another person. Reading isn't all that special just gotta do a lot of it and keep yourself engaged.

Could you provide a link or some names of the papers you've been reading about how GPUs work. Those sound like an interesting read!

Do you feel like you experienced social isolation or bullying as a result of your gifts, either in childhood or later in life?

I was a child chess prodigy from age 7-12ish before resuming something resembling normal life. I feel like there was a dark side to the prodigy label where being really good at something made me into an "other" and potentially led to resentment from other kids. Wondering if that was just me or if other early achievers ever experienced something similar.

Yes to both. The isolation was pretty bad because I grew up in a rural area and thus there just wasn't a large group of friends to draw on, much less those with similar interests and drive. So I experienced quite a bit of resentment, and strong feelings of social awkwardness.

For me, "resuming normal life" was going into the PhD program at UC Berkeley at 22. I wasn't the only former child prodigy (hi NJ if you're reading!), wasn't the smartest kid in the room. More importantly, I had peers I could bond with. I keep up with a lot of my grad school friends, not so much from the small town where I grew up.

Btw, here's some publicity from the time (there wasn't much, which I think was very wise of my parents): https://archive.org/details/marybaldwin1980mary/page/9

Okay, first of all, that news article is awesome. "he has his own computer which allows hexadecimal computations" may be the best thing I've read on HN all week.

The "not too much publicity" thing is on point.

Glad to hear you were able to find your community in grad school. Not being the smartest person in the room is really liberating and one of the reasons I keep coming back to hacker news.

Your comment makes me wish I had done grad school myself. But I struggled with pure CS and only found my intellectual passion/home base in senior year undergrad (Symbolic Systems, basically CS+psychology+linguistics+philosophy). By the time I thought it would be cool to coterm or do a masters I was already on my way into industry.

Best of luck with your current projects! Look forward to seeing some more results from a "bright young man in the right place at the right time" :-)

I took a look at your Wikipedia page. Are you actually a practicing Quaker? I know it’s none of my business. It’s just so unexpected to see from a UC Berkeley PhD, computer science prodigy, that I find it fascinating.

Yes, quite seriously - I go to worship most every week, annual session most every year, am on several committees, including the one that does memorial services. There are actually a few computer people at our meeting.

Having a spiritual practice really helps keep me grounded. Keeping it relevant to the article, it's something I would recommend.

Thanks for the reply. I will admit I live in a bit of an atheistic bubble, so it’s interesting to hear a different perspective, especially from someone as incredibly accomplished as you.