Shireen Hafeez

Founder of DEAF KIDS CODE, Believer, #a11y, The Digital Age is the Great Equalizer, Cultivating human potential.

[Big Brain Business @BigBrainBizness]

Marc Andreessen breaks down the exact personality profile that separates true innovators from everyone else:

According to him, it's a specific combination of five personality traits, each spiked toward the extreme, that almost never shows up in the same person.

He walks through each one using the Big Five framework:

The first is very high openness. Not just in one domain, but across the board.

This is why many of history's great innovators were unusually creative people outside their main field too, because the trait doesn't discriminate.

But openness alone isn't enough.

"If you're just open, you could just be curious and explore, and spend your entire life reading and talking to people and never actually create something."

The second trait is extreme conscientiousness, meaning the willingness to apply yourself to a single thing over many years.

@pmarca is pointed about how this reality gets buried under myth:

"The stories told about these people... there's this kid, this stroke of genius, this moment in time... And it's no — for most of these people it's years and years of applied effort."

Here's where the profile gets genuinely rare: openness and conscientiousness are opposing traits.

Open people drift. Conscientious people grind. Being extreme in both is vanishingly rare.

The third requirement is high disagreeableness. The innovator must be able to hold their conviction when everyone around them says the idea is stupid.

And the world will say it's stupid:

"The reaction most people have to new ideas is, 'Oh, that's dumb.'"

An agreeable person folds and stops pulling the thread. The innovator keeps going, not out of arrogance, but because they structurally don't bend to social pressure.

The fourth trait is high IQ, which Andreessen treats as the price of entry:

"It's hard to innovate in any category if you can't synthesize large amounts of information quickly."

The fifth and final trait is relatively low neuroticism. The innovator has to withstand years of hard work with no guaranteed outcome, and too much anxiety makes that simply unsustainable.

The bottleneck in innovation was never capital, or the quality of ideas — it was always the rarity of a single person carrying all five traits at once.

And on the rare occasion that person exists, that's exactly where breakthroughs come from.

[Axios @axios]

Exclusive: Labor Department launches AI literacy course https://t.co/F0TVqG2lLu

[NYSE 🏛 @NYSE]

The NYSE welcomes deaf kids CODE to ring the Closing Bell! https://t.co/PHtLl5oSCL

[Shireen Hafeez @deafkidscode]

It was an astonishing moment for us all! 🤟🏽

[NYSE 🏛 @NYSE]

The NYSE welcomes deaf kids CODE to ring the Closing Bell! https://t.co/PHtLl5oSCL

[Alex Nova @PdxNova]

Love starting the weekend with fun and inspiration! 🤩 @codewithbri 🌟 and @deafkidscode made that possible! - participating in an #accessibility hackathon, my biggest takeaway: building solutions with accessibility in mind means incorporating product features that are not only “nice to have”, but absolutely “have to have.” 💡

It was lovely sharing this experience with Zalak and Vishnu among many other #CTC friends!🙌

[Shireen Hafeez @deafkidscode]

Enjoyed our next level discussion! 🤟🏽

[Smoke Wallin @SmokeWallin]

The Smoke Trail S1 Episode 5 High Flying Dialogue with Shireen Hafeez, f... https://t.co/4oZGA4OHKD via @YouTube @deafkidscode def kids code @thesmoketrail1

[Infosys Foundation USA @InfyFoundation]

As we conclude this #CSEdWeek, we’d like to highlight our recent partnership with @deafkidscode and the strides being made everyday to make computer science more accessible for all students. To ensure your classroom can benefit from inclusive curriculum, we invite you to dive into the world of #AI / #ML with Deaf Kids Code as they take you through their exciting new course using Google's Teachable Machine! With no coding experience required, the 'Teachable Machine' course is perfect for educators and students who want to learn:

🧠 Machine learning basics
🤖 Experiment with AI models
🛠️ Solve real-world problems creatively
Join us and ensure your classroom is inclusive for ALL students: https://t.co/QaqknIJOcO

[Shireen Hafeez @deafkidscode]

Giving a talk at HCI International 2024 Conference (HCII2024) on S180: Strategies for Maximizing the Inclusion of Students with Disabilities in STEM Academic Majors and Careers. Come say hi if you’re there! 🤟🏽#hcii2024 #hcii - via #Whova event app

[Shireen Hafeez @deafkidscode]

@all_about_code @Google Great meeting you! 😎

[St. Francis de Sales School for the Deaf @sfdesales]

Coding, collaboration, and lots of creativity – that’s what SFDS is all about!

We love @DeafKidsCode and Miss Austin for inspiring our students and showing them that they can achieve anything they set their minds to.

#DeafKidsCode #SFDS #CodingCommunity #STEMinspiration

[St. Francis de Sales School for the Deaf @sfdesales]

The beauty of imagination in STEM lies in its ability to transform dreams into reality, turning every question into an adventure of discovery and every student into a creator of possibilities.

Thanks @DeafKidsCode!

[St. Francis de Sales School for the Deaf @sfdesales]

Meet Miss Austin, Deaf Kids Code national tour partner! Thank you for visiting SFDS.

@DeafKidsCode

[4201 Schools @4201Schools]

NY's 4201 schools often partner with organizations, industry leaders, or community groups to bring new opportunities to students & expand their horizons. @sfdesales recently partnered with @deafkidscode to showcase the endless opportunities available within the industry!

[St. Francis de Sales School for the Deaf @sfdesales]

What is engineering? Thanks to @DeafKidsCode, our students are on their way to being engineers!

[St. Francis de Sales School for the Deaf @sfdesales]

It's always a good day to learn how to code!

@DeafKidsCode

[St. Francis de Sales School for the Deaf @sfdesales]

What an incredible day with @DeafKidsCode! Shoutout to Miss Austin and team for giving our students fun and empowering STEM activities. Thank you for opening up a world of opportunities for them!

#DeafKidsCode #SFDS #STEMEducation #CodingForAll

[Shireen Hafeez @deafkidscode]

We just keep going! Love you @sfdesales 🤟🏽

[St. Francis de Sales School for the Deaf @sfdesales]

What an incredible day with @DeafKidsCode! Shoutout to Miss Austin and team for giving our students fun and empowering STEM activities. Thank you for opening up a world of opportunities for them!

#DeafKidsCode #SFDS #STEMEducation #CodingForAll

[St. Francis de Sales School for the Deaf @sfdesales]

Our friends at Deaf Kids Code visited SFDS for a day of coding! Happy to also welcome Miss Austin who is partnering with them for a nationwide tour to empower students with hands-on STEM and coding experiences.

@deafkidscode @rebeccagiuntoli @missaustintx

#DeafKidsCode

[Mrs. Martin @EdTechieMeg]

Thank you @RebeccaGiuntoli for telling our students about being an engineer! Ss enjoyed putting stickers on construction hats! @deafkidscode @CIT_PWCS @PWCSNews

[Mrs. Martin @EdTechieMeg]

Wow, @RebeccaGiuntoli! Thank you for sharing this amazing book about engineering! You've inspired our Ss to dream big! @deafkidscode @CIT_PWCS @PWCSNews @VAASL