TGI Almost Friday (And Where D’You Think Teens REALLY Go?)

1) The Real Teens of Silicon Valley. Teens have been found to be exceptionally creative coders with high stamina. That makes them attractive hires…

“…Most people have their parents’ support, …but every now and then… “you do hear of some runaways. One kid, maybe 15 or 16, came out here for a hackathon and didn’t book a ticket back…… His parents called up one of my roommates, and we had to convince him to go home.”…”

“…Aashna Mago, 19 years old and from Newtown, Pennsylvania …moved into Castro House in April, after leaving Stanford to work for …a VC firm with a focus on virtual reality. At the firm, she works with portfolio companies, writes code, and stitches together video to create virtual-reality scenes….”

Remember when teens dropped out of high school, packed their backpacks and went to Hollywood to wait tables until they made it as singers and movie stars? Now they miss assignments because of weekend programming projects and eventually move out to fill some of the ever-growing demand for tech labor.

This is an interesting one because when we were growing up, there was obviously no such thing.

Q: College First, or Trying To Make It Big As Movie/ Rock Star, Waiting Tables In The Meantime?

A: Well, d-uh.

These days however, it’s What Do You Do, when your teenager’s choice is between College, To Do Something They’re Ho-hum About, Or Worse, That They’ll Fight You On, And In The Case Of Tech Is Likely To Be At Least A Little Outdated By The Time They Graduate Anyway (absolutely no fault of any educators, simply the nature of the rapid-growing tech industry in general) Vs “Real-Life Education” In Tech?

Oh, and their vice isn’t weed or “fun” pills, it’s coffee, chocolate… maybe chips.

Also, they’re getting by not on waiting tables but by honing their programming skills because they can actually get respectable tech jobs. They make good money. Some of them interviewed in the article took over their parents’ utility bills. Instead of crazy frat parties, they’re socialising at entrepreneurial mixers. Think cheese platters and ski trips.

But… But….. No college degree? What d’you do as the parent, give your blessings and support unreservedly?

Oh, and the words “tech bubble” also feature.

How is this not a reality series yet 🙂

ps: My own 2 cents, given I don’t have a teenager yet (thank goodness :D) is:

1) Well, That Gap Year Would Sure Come In Useful Here (Y’know, that year some high schoolers say they want to take to go backpack and see the world, before buckling down to college – I first came across the term when one of my former bank employers had an intern from Chinese International School who very politely and honestly told us she had absolutely no interest in banking, and the deal she had made with her extremely well-connected father was that she do the several months-long internship on our derivatives and equity trading desk before being allowed to do her – yes – “Gap Year” in peace :D), and

2) This Is Also A Very Useful Niche For Kids With Mild Forms Of Mental Disability Or Trauma, Who Love Computers (One famous e.g. being Markus Persson, founder of Mojang and lead designer of Minecraft, who first learned to code aged 7 and later experienced some heavy stress and trauma in his family, growing up… )

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2) 4000 words on The Rise of “Mama”. Seriously.

Didn’t know this was a thing until someone not only wrote 4000 words on it, it got picked up on reading recommendation sites. This from the person whom Rockstar used to call “Aileen,” as a toddler. (Well, there was a time when he didn’t talk that much so I was happy to have anything 😛 I know. Sometimes really hard to imagine he was that same toddler.)

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3) More Cute Kid Quotes.

The Miss tells me she needs junk food too. “Because my mouth is really empty now.” (Mildly interesting, several friends of mine have told me it’s harder to limit their daughters from sweet foods than their sons… Jury’s still out, some articles say boys have a bigger sweet tooth, some say girls have more taste buds… I don’t have a sweet tooth and was a huge carnivore growing up, Rockstar in earlier life was vegetarian, go figure…)

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4) Caveat emptor story about selling your stuff online… Not what I was expecting when I randomly clicked the article hoping to skim for any extra tips on shopping online (almost never buy anything full-priced, and use various app functions to monitor flash sales or stalk the stuff I want and the inventory the store has, to figure how long I can “risk” waiting for it to be marked down (or further marked down) before “having” to buy it in case it sells out… Well, just because it is AMAZING how much you can save, for the exact same stuff… Why would you ever want to pay more than you have to right…)

This is about how the “woman” trying to buy the narrator’s dress appeared later to be a man… Now read the exchange below.

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5) Here’s more things technology can do: Crayon Crunch is a project recently launched on Kickstarter which mixes software engineering with traditional book printing. The entire lead character in the book is personalised to your child – not just gender, clothing, hair and eye color, they can also accommodate some physical disabilities – in a way similar to how a video game character might be customised.

USD 35 for a soft cover copy, USD 50 for a limited edition hard cover. (Easily within the “standard birthday gift” budget around here, and recently more mums I know are specifying they prefer their child be gifted books, so such a personalised book makes an even greater gift… As long as it doesn’t take too long to arrive after the project is launched… Well they do give you an expected launch date of September 2015… So just in time for Christmas 🙂

**Updated 3 June 2015: The original Kickstarter was cancelled and then restarted with a lower fund-raising target. To access the current project, click here.

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6) Miss-Skit is titled Joyride. or Cheap Thrills. HK being all high-rise, we ride up and down select mall elevators with the glass walls at odd times when it’s a little less crowded…

Have a wonderful almost-weekend, dears.