Story #6
At a 24-hour workspace void of any other person, He sits at his table typing on his keyboard, code flooding his screen.
A 21-year-old living in St. Petersburg, Florida, began his experience with coding at age 11 and has simultaneously pursued it while attending school until this October when he decided to drop out to pursue programming full-time. In August, He secured a job at an app start-up called App, a calorie-tracking app.
He commented on his decision to leave college, “Things are moving too fast, and college moves too slow. There are no rules right now; they are being written as we speak. T o learn what I’m learning right now, it will take colleges 5 years to catch up.” Just a month before dropping out of school at his community college, he was accepted to transfer to Florida State University to complete its computer science degree. He was planning to move to Tallahassee in January, but after rescinding his application, he instead booked a three-month trip to Seoul, South Korea, to explore its thriving tech scene and gain new inspiration for his work.
When discussing his life motivators, he stated, “My main driving force would be to do the most interesting thing possible, something that keeps me entertained, and I feel like what I do now does that.”
He also places a high value on money. “My goal would be to make as much money as possible. I think money is an almost perfect measure of things [success]. Good art makes money, bad art also makes money, but there’s very few pieces of good art that don’t make any money at all,” he declared.
Prior to his new role at App, He worked as a valet attendant and worked on solo projects; however, none of them took off. His goal is to create an AI audio app, an experience he believes most consumers have not had yet, but this is on the backburner while he focuses on App’s success.
He details his dream for a consumer app, “I want to show the magic that current AI tech has to offer for everyone who will try it. Right now, the coolest stuff can only be used for nerds like me, but I believe once people try it, they will never want to go back to the way things were before.”
He shared that his role model is Sam Altman, the creator of OpenAI, more commonly referred to as ChatGPT . He admires Altman and other businessmen like Elon Musk and even compares them to the modern equivalent of kings. He discusses their impact in detail, “Celebrities and politicians pale in comparison to the amount of influence big tech has right now. I believe the world’s best entrepreneurs are also the world’s best gamblers.”
He addresses his wavering thoughts on big tech moguls, “While I am inspired by them, I don’t necessarily aspire to be like them. I just like doing my own thing, and that’s when I’m the happiest. I always wanna do something I’m proud of and make a lot of money while doing it. If I’m not making a lot of money, it probably isn’t good work.” For now, He is focused on App until the next big idea hits him. His time at the company has brought him new-found confidence and motivation. “The experience I’ve had working with my colleagues has expanded my mind on what’s possible and has pushed me and my abilities further than I ever thought possible,” he shared.
Original Author: Hannah Spinney