Do I have some sort of programming talent?

[Jack_11]

Hello. I'm a thirteen year old programmer. I find it strange how I can learn the core of a language in about half an hour. No joke. I've been programming for about a year, and I know about half a dozen languages. Including C/C++, Lisp, Python, Perl, SQL, Java, C#, PHP, and some others. Do I have some sort of ability? Or am I just another young programmer.

[JamesCherrill]

Either you have a truely exceptional ability or you don't really understand what it means learn or know a language.
Maybe if you post some examples of your best code people here could tell you which it is?

[Jack_11]

Ok. Should I give a list of contributions?

[Jack_11]

I've written some code for the linux kernel and Ubuntu.

[Jack_11]

I sent you some code.

[mike_2000_17]

My first inclination would be to think that these are the wonderful illusions of youth.

I just speak from experience. The kind of feeling you describe is something that I have felt far too often to count. It's sort of a case of "the sun always shines before the clouds come". You always feel like you know everything before you realize you know nothing. You can feel totally indestructible right up to the point that a bus hits you in the face. You can be wholeheartedly convinced that you're an expert, until you meet a real expert and realize how far you have yet to come.

That said, it's wonderful that you feel this way and that you are proud of what you can accomplish, that's great. Just be prepared and open-minded to the possibility that you could get a hard dose of reality some day, and probably over and over again after that. In other words, keep a little reserve of humility, it might come in handy.

But who knows... maybe you are a prodigy..

[rubberman]

@Mike2k
My grandson is a prodigy, though he has finally hit adulthood (21 this year). At 8 years old he rewired my daughter's kitchen radio in order to receive transmissions from his kid walky-talky in the back yard ("Hey mom, can you bring me some lemonade?"). He designs and builds from scatch drone aircraft (both fixed wing and rotary) and designs/builds/programs all the control systems as well so they are totally autonomous!

I have only one suggestion for this "prodigy" - get competent with formal/boolean logic. Just learning programming languages is the easy part. Making them work right is not so simple! I speak/read/write multiple human languages, and dozens of computer languages. The key is understanding the context. In Spanish, when does the english word "plate" imply "plato", and when does it imply "platillo"? Context is the issue here, and logic.

And don't hesitate to ask for help and/or advice Jack. I wish you the very best!

[mike_2000_17]

My grandson is a prodigy

Yeah, the only thing more easily impressionable than a young mind is a grand-father. ;)

designs/builds/programs all the control systems as well so they are totally autonomous!

If that's true ("totally autonomous" is a loaded term), then I know several people who would be more than happy to hire him.

[JamesCherrill]

Remember also that the programming language is by far the smallest and easiest thing a Programmer has to learn.
Much larger is the API (.net, Java SE API etc) withoiut which the language is useless. The Java API is over 4000 classes with tens of thousands of methods...
Also working with others adds a load of compexity - not just code mamnagement, but working with others, some of who will be really dumb...
Then there's designing/structuring programs - no subsitute for experience here

[Jack_11]

I know. All of this. One thing that I find, exceptional. I have an IQ of 192. I'm also in college. Sooo, am I a prodigy?

[Jack_11]

I'm also understand logic VERY well. In fact I'm a Junior at M.I.T. studying applied and computational mathematics.

[Jack_11]

And of course I know APIs! I couldn't even call myself a programmer if I didn't!

[mike_2000_17]

I know. All of this.
I'm also understand logic VERY well. In fact I'm a Junior ..

But apparently, you don't understand punctuation, sentence structure, proper vs. common nouns, and grammar. ;)

[Jack_11]

I'm sorry. I'm using my phone. It keeps autocorrecting.

[Jack_11]

You also live in a different country, and my phone won't stop autocorrecting.

[happygeek]

I know. All of this. One thing that I find, exceptional. I have an IQ of 192. I'm also in college. Sooo, am I a prodigy?

Not sure about the prodigy thing, but you sure have one large ego that seems to require a lot of massaging.

[happygeek]

You also live in a different country, and my phone won't stop autocorrecting.

A true genius would probably be able to get to grips with editing autocorrected messages. Just saying :)

[JamesCherrill]

"And of course I know APIs! "

Of course you do, all of them, 100%.
Well. you really had us all fooled for a while there.
Anyway, I'm going back to working with adults now.
Bye

[Jack_11]

I don't know all APIs. Nobody can. I just know some! It's practically impossible to know all of them.

[Traevel]

I'm a thirteen year old programmer.

From your linkedin you posted on your profile:

You "enrolled" when you were 9? You'd think there would have been something in the news about that.

Regardless of the age (and truth), why hang around here asking if you're a genius, go build a space station or something. No one will question you if you're on the news floating around in space. But they will if you run around saying "I'm a genius right?" on a forum.

[Jack_11]

I didn't mean to post this.

[David_50]

Yes, but the IT world has many varied roles. You might be a great programmer given a design or requirement, but would you be able to do the business analysis to write the requirement, design? DBA work might bore you to tears. It's a good direction, and talent is great, but it takes some hard work to round out the picture. Besides, with AI the number of jobs in low level programming may shrink. I used to fix CPUs when they were made of 200 boards of 250 chips with a wire wrap backboard and circuit board reverse, but one day I noticed the basic capabilities of the refrigerator sized CPU I was diagnosing were too close to a Pentium I chip, so I went into Software, but to get there I finished a BS in EE with a Computer Design specialization, which was easy with my experience.

[Jack_11]

There's also a great reason that I wasn't in the news. I said no. I didn't want to be recognized for getting into M.I.T. I just didn't I was nine, and really shy.

[mike_2000_17]

I think that you overestimate our credulity. Given your current geo-location (which I can trace, but won't disclose), you have a 1,000 mile commute to do everyday to get to the MIT campus. Hmm... I'm starting to think "liar, liar, pants on fire!".

[JamesCherrill]

MIT offered me a scholarship as soon as they heard my my mother was pregnant, but I was too busy correcting Einstein's mistakes in General Relativity to take it up. I was also on the Apollo 11 mission - it was me who took all the photos on the moon (which is why I'm not in any of them).

[cgeier]

"People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." -- Zig Ziglar

[cgeier]

Here's an online IQ test I found--it's 20 questions. Just something for fun.

And the Breakdown of IQ Scores

[Jack_11]

Also the reason it says i'm in chicago is because that's what I set it to be because i'm from there.

[JamesCherrill]

Admins and Mods have access to your IP address.
It's time to end this bull and move onto something productive.

[almostbob]

Semantic, grammatic, linguistic anomalies
ignorance, arrogance,
It may be that age, but for the smarts
Bullshit