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  • I was thirteen when I first got access to a computer.

  • My parents bought me a Macintosh in 1984 when I was 8 years old.

  • I was in sixth grade.

  • I learned to code in college.

  • Freshman year, first semester of intro to computer science.

  • I wrote a program to play tic-tac-toe.

  • And it was pretty humble beginnings I think. The first program I wrote asked things like what is your favorite color, or how old are you.

  • I first learned how to make a green circle and then a red square appear on the screen.

  • The first time I actually had something come up and say "Hello World".

  • And I made the computer do that, it was just astonishing.

  • Learning to program didn't start off as wanting to learn all of computer science or trying to master this discipline or anything like that.

  • I just started off because I wanted to do this one simple thing.

  • I wanted to make something that was fun for myself and my sisters.

  • And I wrote this little program then basically just added a little bit to it.

  • And then when I needed to learn something new, I looked it up, either in a book or on the Internet.

  • And added a little bit to it.

  • It's really not unlike kind of playing an instrument or something or playing sport.

  • It starts out being very intimidating but you kind of get the hang of it over time.

  • Coding is something that can be learned and I know it can be intimidating and a lot of things are intimidating. But you know, what isn't?

  • A lot of the coding that people do is actually fairly simple.

  • It's more about the process of breaking down problems then you know sort of coming up with complicated algorithms as people traditionally think about it.

  • You don't have to be a genius to know how to code. You need to be determined.

  • Additions, subtractions. That's about it.

  • You should probably know your multiplication tables.

  • You don't have to be a genius to code. Do you have to be a genius to read?

  • Even if you want to become a race car driver, or play baseball or you know, build a house, all of these things have been turned upside down by software.

  • What it is, you know, computers are everywhere. You want to work in agriculture? Do you want to work in entertainment?

  • Do you want to work in manufacturing? It's, it's just all over.

  • Here we are 2013. We all depend on technology to communicate, to bank. Information.

  • And none of us know how to read and write code.

  • When I was in school, I was in this after school group called "The Wiz Kids".

  • And when people found out they laughed at me, you know, these things.

  • And I'm like: man, I don't care. I think it's cool and I'm learning it a lot, and some of my friends have jobs.

  • Our policy is literally to hire as many talented engineers as we can find.

  • The whole limit in the system is just that there just aren't enough people who are trained and have these skills today.

  • To get the very best people, we try to make the offices as awesome as possible.

  • We have a fantastic chef.

  • Free food

  • Breakfast, lunch and dinner

  • Free laundry

  • Snacks

  • Even places to play video games and scooters.

  • There's all this kind of interesting things around the office, places where people can play or relax or go to think or play music or be creative.

  • Whether you're trying to make a lot of money or whether you just change the world, computer programming is an incredibly empowering skill to learn.

  • I think if someone had told me that software is really about humanity.

  • It's really about helping people by using computer technology, it would have changed my outlook a lot earlier.

  • To be able to actually come up with an idea and then see it in your hands and be able to press a button and have it be in millions of people's hands.

  • I mean, I think we're the first generation in the world that's really ever had that kind of experience.

  • Just think that you can start something in your college dorm room

  • and you can have a set of people that haven't built a big company before come together and build something that

  • a billion people use as part of their daily lives. It is just crazy if you think about it.

  • And it's really, it's humbling and it's amazing.

  • The programmers of tomorrow are the wizards of the future, you know, you're gonna look like you have magic powers compared to everybody else.

  • It's amazing. It's I think it's the closest thing we have to a super power.

  • Great coders are today's rockstars. That's it.

I was thirteen when I first got access to a computer.

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