Presentation that I gave at Monktoberfest 2022. Video to come!

1. Coming of Age
Developing young technologists
without robbing them of their youth
Bryan Cantrill
Oxide Computer Company

2. OXIDE
It always starts with a tweet…

3. OXIDE
It always starts with a tweet…

4. OXIDE
It always starts with a tweet…

5. OXIDE
It always starts with a tweet…

6. OXIDE
It always starts with a tweet…

7. OXIDE
It always starts with a tweet…

8. OXIDE
Talk outline

9. OXIDE
“A version of college replacement”?
• What is the purpose of a college education?
• What is the purpose of education in the abstract?
• What exactly are we trying to replace and why?
• Are we trying to address its cost… or its purpose?

10. OXIDE
“Find the smartest”?
• What does “smartest” mean? How is this assessed?
• Is this selecting for precociousness or ultimate ability?
• How does precociousness correlate to ultimate ability, anyway?
• And is precociousness more common in well-structured domains?
• Is there a peril in telling children that they are smart?
• How are these children found? And does this process not start at a
much younger age?

11. OXIDE
“...and most driven”?
• What does “most driven” mean?
• How is this assessed?
• What does drive mean in someone so young, who is necessarily
extrinsically motivated?
• And, um, might you be in fact selecting for driven parents?

12. OXIDE
“18 year olds”?!
• As recently as the 1990s, prevailing dogma in neuroscience was that
most brain development was complete by mid-childhood (!)
• We know now that this is false; the prefrontal cortex continues to
develop into the mid-20s – it is underdeveloped in an 18-year-old!
• The limbic system – emotions and social processing – is further along…
• This means that 18-year-olds are likely to exhibit developed emotions
and heightened social rewards – but their judgement is still developing
• 18-year-olds can seem fully adult, but they remain vulnerable

13. OXIDE
“a decade+ of salary… on whatever they want”?!
• A still-developing frontal cortex means that “whatever they want” is very
likely to shift over time – and this is healthy!
• Applying a “decade+ of salary” is adding firepower to a weapon that
can’t be reliably aimed; is this wise?!

14. OXIDE
“a smart peer group”?
• This seems less controversial, but it just has subtler issues…
• Specifically: from whom do we learn?
• Do we learn from true peers, or older peers?
• Are the perils of telling a child that they are smart compounded by
isolating an entire group and telling them that they are smart?

15. OXIDE
“in exchange for small % of future earnings”
• This is just… gross: it is rapacious, manipulative, exploitative, cynical
• What happens when (say) the prefrontal cortex develops a tad and
someone wants to get out of this terrible deal?
• What happens when (say) someone wants to pursue non-profit work?
• What happens when (say) someone wants to return to school?
• This is gross because it feels predatory – it is taking advantage of the
impulsivity of a still-developing prefrontal cortex

16. OXIDE
There I fixed it?
2

17. OXIDE
The importance of childhood
• Childhood is not merely knowledge accumulation
• Focus should also be on character development: honesty, integrity,
decency, persistence, grit, resilience, teamwork
• That limbic center is really important: adolescents care a lot about their
friends – and this is healthy!
• Experimentation in youth should be encouraged – adults have a
responsibility for keeping this safe (easier said than done!)

18. OXIDE
Whither the young technologist?
• The still-developing brain is not without its strengths: risk-taking is really
important for technologists; it can be helpful to not know the impossible!
• It is incumbent upon young technologists – especially capable and
motivated ones! – to learn how little they know
• The purpose of a higher education should be to bridge the ego from the
narcissism of childhood to the collaboration of adulthood
• Older peers are essential in this process: e.g., graduate students –
humanity’s most embittered – serve a thankless but essential task

19. OXIDE
Building the foundation
• As part of their education, young technologists should seek out
opportunities that will allow them to build foundation – but that still
appeal to their risk-tasking and the sense of the possible
• An internship is a great opportunity: interns should be given projects that
are wildly speculative rather than menial tasks
• Large companies are often a better fit than a startup because they
increase the odds of an older peer group to learn from
• As the foundation is built and judgement develops hits a sweet spot…

20. OXIDE
Innovation through the years
• One’s mid-twenties to mid-thirties are a prime for individual innovation
• Innovation does not stop in one’s mid-thirties, but it does change
• Solving hard problems is a team endeavor, and as technologists age
into full adulthood, they will increasingly need to take leadership roles…
• This does not necessarily mean management! But it does mean, e.g.:
problem formulation, team formation (hiring!), conflict resolution
• The mid-thirties (and beyond!) are a sweet spot for teamwork

21. OXIDE
Coming of age
• Young technologists should temper their sense of the possible and their
desire to take risk with learning how the world works
• We should be guiding our “smartest and most driven” towards big, hard,
thorny problems – and to developing the character for those problems
• Entrepreneurialism can wait: there is a lot to be said for starting a
company in your forties!
• Life is long; let children have their childhood – let students be
students, and let young adults have their young adulthood!