A small, skinny guy leans over his computer, his fingers blazing away on his Mac computer. Running on caffeine, he’s producing hundreds of strings of code to complete his next coding task. Stopping to look over his work, he grabs his cup of Americano coffee to refuel. Pausing for another three seconds, he goes back to producing code.
Whether it be via his YouTube videos, or his coding projects, one way or another you probably know Alex L. (12). A veteran YouTube video maker, he started making his videos during freshman year. Early in middle school, he “was interested in playing games, and [he] saw a lot of people playing Minecraft online.” Jumping on the bandwagon, he decided to start playing the open-world creating game. Little did he know he would one day make viral YouTube videos.
The key to his popularity? It’s just luck, says Alex. “Usually for other people, you just need to have the videos with the right titles, so that more people will click on it. So I was lucky in that sense. Basically, I had some videos that were semi-viral, and more kids were going to click on it.”
His popularity peaked in his sophomore year when he grabbed three million views for his most-viewed video.
Popularity wasn’t just the only thing that came with the videos. He earned a lot of money! “There was a system where every thousand views you get around one to two dollars, so if you were to get around a million views per month, (which I usually got that around the time) I usually got a thousand dollars a month.”
Not only is he a popular YouTuber, he’s also known to be an amazing programmer at TAS. He made his first game in sixth grade through programming tutorials and guides. Slowly, he “grew off of that, and I think by tenth grade in AP Computer Science I truly learned Java and started to gain proficiency in code.”
Humbly, he admits that he still has a lot a to learn “in terms of the real world… at the TAS level, I guess I’m kind of proficient in programming.” Currently, he’s the teacher’s assistant to the Honors Artificial Intelligence class taught by Dr. Delgado.
He has also programmed the field day point counter for the iPads. Alex has made their lives much easier, counting points in just seconds.
For current projects, he’s “working with leap motion, a holographic sensor for your hand.” Just by programming gestures into the device, one can draw, switch windows, or do whatever one tells it to do. “I’m looking forward to integrate some cool projects with the leap motion.”
Applying for Computer Science in college, Alex hopes that he can grow and become an even better programmer in the future. While he may seem like a local legend, maybe in twenty, thirty years – he may be the next Zuckerberg, or create the next Google. We’re behind you, Alex!
My Secret Life: Legendary Youtuber turns Programmer
December 18, 2014
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