Ok, so yesterday I saw some Lifehacker link to this cool sounding service, Preceden, which lets you chart timelines easily in an attractive manner. It sounded like something I could use for fun and business! So I scroll down the home page to take a peek at the goods and lo and behold, was an example timeline! It looked cool and had lots of stuff that lets you scroll to see more information.
I noticed that it was called "Autobiography" and figured this must be the founders own actual timeline, lets investigate a little closer to see how I match up to this guy! I could see right off the bat he was your typical smart guy U.S.A. startup scene techie, as he lived in Boston and San Francisco, and I also saw the comp sci masters! I can see he started dating some Jennifer, then got engaged and married after graduating...how typical, seems like the story of so many people these days and days past. Let's see when he got his start and how old he is; I scroll back a few years.
WTF? This guy's just a kid who was born a year later than me!? (ok, maybe 6 months, but still 84 to 85!) ...Something doesn't seem right, he's already got his masters and he is married and he's younger than me? WTF is that? I scroll back and notice that some how this kid started University in the motherfucking year 2000! I was near the top of my class through high school but at that point I (and some way way smarter friends[top UW engineers]) were still only going into grade 11 when he started, and then he's fucking done his Masters before I'm even done my undergrad?! Then he gets married? Well, I guess we've found one of those smart super kids or something who got into MIT at a young age I guess. Now I know those people exist out there, I've never met them and I mostly try to believe they don't exist, or if I do meet them, I'd just rather not know, but this just pisses me off! And to boot, somehow in the middle of his undergrad he took almost a complete year of vacation in Poland and still finished on time? Then he stays in Netherlands for at least a month or 2 right after getting married? Man that sure would be nice!
I wouldn't care if he made this site and was the same age as me or a year younger, but knowing that he's some super whiz kid to boot who's been all over the world doesn't make me as happy to try it out. The fact that he used his own life on the home page as an example either tells us two things: he didn't think much of it and didn't realize that he might alienate early adopters who think they're pretty awesome only to find out they suck compared to him OR he knows and wants to sneak it in there in a subtle and innocent way, such as using his own life as an example, like most of us might do!
It makes me feel like despite all that I believe I've accomplished so far I'm still nowhere near where this kid's at in life and he's younger than me! Now I don't think "I'm all that", I understand there are tons of far smarter and more ambitious people out there, and I'm fairly happy with where I'm at so far, but I don't think that most people like to run into those individuals who are seemingly so far ahead in certain ways that it just seems impossible! I'm sure there are much more successful systems I use everyday made by people like this kid, but they don't usually put it out there and let me know.
I think what bothers me as well is that it's just another example of some super whiz kid in the States who gets swept into the Valley and is seemingly successful, continuing to perpetuate the mythos of how super duper the Valley is and that's where all the great people go. As 90% of the stuff I read is startup related, and 90% of that is all about people in the Valley or from the Valley, it just makes it seem even more compelling than I know it actually is. I love Waterloo and want this to be a great place for startups; our own "Valley" in Canada. I know some people like to say that it is, but others who've been there know better and say it hardly compares.
I just did a bit of research and found the founder online, and it looks like he's always been some smart hacker kid and got to go through the Y-Combinator school (which would make most young entrepreneurs very jealous!). I don't actually hate this kid or anything, he seems very successful and I just wish that I could be that far ahead as well, I just don't like the (potentially) inadvertent boasting in this autobiography on his front page that when dug into seems unrealistic at first, but turns out to actually be true! No one likes having their bubble burst, and most people wouldn't care to know that kid invented that site, but it's a reminder to me that these are the types of people who I'm going to have to compete with on a daily basis when I go into business.
I want to show people that I can be just as successful* up here in Canada, far away from the Valley, and that I can do it despite not having a comp sci masters, multi-continent experience, and a wife by the age of 22.
It's a big world out there, and there are lots of smart and successful people, you just gotta be who you are and keep pushing for the top!
* I realize this kid hasn't actually hit it big yet, but I can see that he's very firmly planted on the roadway to getting there
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