Fwiw, without naming names, I helped someone at a hackathon make their first app on something he was passionate about, later found out he had been recently homeless living on an abandoned boat, and now years later, afaict he turned that into a $10m/yr business with ~millions of users

Persistence > Intelligence , and being able to code isn't some sort of superiority thing, it's just one skill of many

Edit: being able to take risks, and doing so, does lead to higher variance outcomes, so that is something I have also come to appreciate and look for in people. It may look reckless, and attracts weirder people almost by definition, but that is what startups are ultimately about, betting you can do better than the regular path!

When I decided to code (later in life) I was determined to give it my best shot, not sweat the small stuff, just keep going. Previously I tried to learn but gave up assuming that it just wasn't my thing, but I decided this was my last shot and I was going to make it happen.

Some classmates of mine were (like everyone gets) frustrated at one point and actually complained that they were paired up "with those two". Those classmates thought that the other guy and I knew what we were doing and "just got it". Truth was we just kept our hands on the keyboard, had really not made anymore progress than anyone else in class had ... we just kept typing / trying things.

Years later I would say I'm still not a talented programmer, I just stay positive, help my coworkers, and keep gong until I make it happen, and as far as my employer is concerned that's pretty great.

Being homeless doesn't mean he's not intelligent though. He could have had some really bad luck or mental illness, while otherwise being analytically smart.

But I love the anecdote and agree with your point completely. Thanks for sharing.

pg wrote about this a while back: https://www.paulgraham.com/determination.html

Sounds a lot like a rich kid pretending they're not a rich kid.

true :)

> being able to code isn't some sort of superiority thing, it's just one skill of many

Nah, bro. You’re elite level intelligence if you can /s