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I am impressed by his determination. The Pando article says it best: "Sayman's experience is one that perhaps could only be entirely appreciated here in Silico

I am impressed by his determination. The Pando article says it best: "Sayman's experience is one that perhaps could only be entirely appreciated here in Silicon Valley, where entrepreneurship, ingenuity, and building something out of nothing, or rather, out of lines of code, still holds cult-like status, for good or ill. Sayman doesn’t even seem to understand the power of his story. He got his app where it is today not with millions or even thousands in venture capital. He didn’t get it where it is with Silicon Valley connections or hookups to the magic elves who pick what’s featured in the iOS app store. He didn’t get it with a team of developers or designers or a co-founder or even an incorporated company. He didn't even get it there with natural technical talent. Instead, it took sheer force of will and a refusal to back down to any of the obstacles he faced. That, and an unholy faith in the power of Google to answer his questions." "“I watch my son, every night and every single day, staying up until 4 or 5 am, working on the app, doing his homework, sleeping two or three hours, and then going to school,” Cristina Sayman says. " I'm sad to say, I don't do this :( , I struggle to find that much willpower, even though I believe in what I'm building.

degenerate 11y ago
Don't fall into the trap of thinking that insane productivity == success though. Remember this article that was posted last week on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10423455 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10423455
thirdsun 11y ago
> > “I watch my son, every night and every single day, staying up until 4 or 5 am, working on the app, doing his homework, sleeping two or three hours, and then going to school,” Cristina Sayman says. " > I'm sad to say, I don't do this :( , I struggle to find that much willpower, even though I believe in what I'm building. It's great to have ambition and follow through with a project but staying up all night, sleeping 3 hours and going to school completely tired isn't the way to do it, not healthy at all and it shouldn't be encouraged. No reason to be sad - save your willpower for reasonable hours.
- badllama 11y ago
  Totally agree, this South Korean style of task management should be occasional. I mean, Facebook still does the all-night Hackathon, and that's once a year I believe.
fweespeech 11y ago
> He didn't even get it there with natural technical talent. Being able to make a professional-grade app at 17 is natural technical talent. Most people at 17 can't even pass the AP test or build an application that is truly useful.
- Reedx 11y ago
  I bet they could if they put the time into it and had the same level of interest. Being able to do that stuff isn't a magical attribute you're born with... He worked hard at it. The innate aspect is that he has a natural interest and drive to make apps, and put his time into that as opposed to other things. Which I think a lot of us here can relate to. :)
  - fweespeech 11y ago
    Yeah, that is a popular meme. > Being able to do that stuff isn't a magical attribute you're born with... > The innate aspect is that he has a natural interest and drive to make apps, and put his time into that as opposed to other things. Sure, many people fail due to a lack of effort but pretending everyone is equally intelligent is little more than an easily perpetuated self deception. Genetics and early development [i.e. the first few years of a child's life] play a very large role in a person's ability to achieve things by the age of 20.

degenerate 11y ago

Don't fall into the trap of thinking that insane productivity == success though. Remember this article that was posted last week on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10423455 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10423455

thirdsun 11y ago

> > “I watch my son, every night and every single day, staying up until 4 or 5 am, working on the app, doing his homework, sleeping two or three hours, and then going to school,” Cristina Sayman says. " > I'm sad to say, I don't do this :( , I struggle to find that much willpower, even though I believe in what I'm building. It's great to have ambition and follow through with a project but staying up all night, sleeping 3 hours and going to school completely tired isn't the way to do it, not healthy at all and it shouldn't be encouraged. No reason to be sad - save your willpower for reasonable hours.

badllama 11y ago
Totally agree, this South Korean style of task management should be occasional. I mean, Facebook still does the all-night Hackathon, and that's once a year I believe.

fweespeech 11y ago

> He didn't even get it there with natural technical talent. Being able to make a professional-grade app at 17 is natural technical talent. Most people at 17 can't even pass the AP test or build an application that is truly useful.

Reedx 11y ago
I bet they could if they put the time into it and had the same level of interest. Being able to do that stuff isn't a magical attribute you're born with... He worked hard at it. The innate aspect is that he has a natural interest and drive to make apps, and put his time into that as opposed to other things. Which I think a lot of us here can relate to. :)
- fweespeech 11y ago
  Yeah, that is a popular meme. > Being able to do that stuff isn't a magical attribute you're born with... > The innate aspect is that he has a natural interest and drive to make apps, and put his time into that as opposed to other things. Sure, many people fail due to a lack of effort but pretending everyone is equally intelligent is little more than an easily perpetuated self deception. Genetics and early development [i.e. the first few years of a child's life] play a very large role in a person's ability to achieve things by the age of 20.