Our Newest Developer Is Ten Years Old

http://tech.osper.io/post/95466827667/our-newest-developer-is-ten-years-old

by squirrel • 12 years ago

26 47 12 years ago

tech.osper.io

beachstartup• 12 years ago

our newest developer is 45 years old.

i'm not sure which one is more rare these days.

squirrel4• 12 years ago

I imagine both are. At TIM Group I regularly hired grey beards and they made a huge contribution - but it was definitely bucking a trend.

wwwwwwwwww• 12 years ago

I'm stuck here trying to figure out if this is a satire article promoting that silicon valley show.

twic2• 12 years ago

I used to work for the Squirrel who Max mentions. This seems like a 100% plausible Squirrel move.

Whether Squirrel is a satire on Silicon Valley is, i believe, an open question.

squirrel4• 12 years ago

Nice to hear from you @twic. I can assure you I am not a satire (at least consciously) [smile].

smacktoward• 12 years ago

Child Labor: It's Not Just For the Garment Industry Anymore!™

eglover12• 12 years ago

It's a shame children can't work more often. I think people are smart enough to tell the difference between abuse and an awesome opportunity for experience.

Igglyboo2• 12 years ago

People may be smart enough to tell the difference but I don't think they're smart enough to write an ironclad law that won't allow for abuse.

It's the letter of the law, not the spirit, that we have to worry about.

hawkice• 12 years ago

So, this is a bit off topic on a super click-bait-y story, but I think the notion of child labor laws is that we specifically include child labor as statutory abuse, in the same way the basic speed limit law ("don't drive too fast to be safe") is augmented by the more specific and easily enforceable speed limit signs. It'd be great if we had the throughput to actually make wise decisions about such a broad range of potential disputes -- that way, we wouldn't discourage non-traditional calls that might suck up a lot of time -- but I think this is a fair compromise.

forgottenpass• 12 years ago

Identifying an abusive employment opportunity is necessary but not sufficient to being in a negotiation position where people are not abused.

squirrel4• 12 years ago

Just to avoid confusion - Max was with us entirely voluntarily and with his parents' blessing. Our purpose was to help him to learn and to realise his ambition to be a coder. As it happens, he's extremely bright and already knows emacs, git, and some python - so he was actually able to make a real contribution and get a feature live for customers, which was icing on the cake for all of us.

ceejayoz6• 12 years ago

I don't believe "voluntarily and with his parents' blessing" is an exemption laid out by the FLSA.

ceejayoz6• 12 years ago

So, uh, child labor laws?

atom-morgan3• 12 years ago

As a child, I used to voluntarily go around my neighborhood asking people if I could mow their lawn during the summer. In the fall, I'd offer to rake their leaves. Should I have been stopped?

ceejayoz6• 12 years ago

"Should" is a value judgement. Legally, if it's not an agricultural job, age 14 is the lower bound.

tombot• 12 years ago

It's a bit of a clickbait headline, bit of backstory. Osper is a product which allows kids to use a debt card, funds are controlled via parents and kids can see the balance via a smartphone.

squirrel4• 12 years ago

Fair cop on the headline, I was mostly just excited to share the story of Max who I think is incredible. He really did contribute to our code and is better than at least half the developers I interview, so we plan to have him back regularly to continue coding with us.

bleakcabal2• 12 years ago

Shouldn't he rather be playing with his friends doing normal stuff 10 years old do.

He's gonna be able to do this kind of work for decades starting in his twenties. What he won't be able to do his reclaim his lost childhood years.

EGreg• 12 years ago

Yay!

Actually this is only legal if the child is voluntarily contributing. Which means, of course, than instead of child labor you should let the kids contribute to open source projects and run their own business.

If the kid is running their own business then I don't think it's considered child labor. Although IANAL. So, you see, lemonade stands may still be legal in this country :-P

ceejayoz6• 12 years ago

A number of kids' lemonade stands have wound up closed by police/health inspectors in the US for lack of permitting. Heh.

kelukelugames• 12 years ago

We hired a 17 year old intern and she was smarter than me. I felt bad. :(

Our Newest Developer Is Ten Years Old

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