4 ms·

Teenagers make $170k on Apple iPhone OS platform

35 points by jp 16y ago

zackattack 16y ago
Bookmarklet javascript:location='http://translate.google.com/translate?u='+encodeURIComponent(location);
ajg1977 16y ago
In other news, kids make millions from playing football. http://wcbstv.com/national/nfl.draft.Bradford.2.1649569.html http://wcbstv.com/national/nfl.draft.Bradford.2.1649569.html
- Aetius 16y ago
  Basketball's where it's at. Good work if you can find it :).
  - CoachRufus87 16y ago
    actually, baseball is where its at
    - ebiester 16y ago
      Agreed. There are more spots per potential player, there are more outlets if you don't make the big leagues in the minor leagues and internationally, and most importantly it doesn't do the same damage on your body.
    - jraines 16y ago
      my kid's at least giving golf a shot. Even if you just play in college you travel to sick locations. 20th place at the 2009 Masters was $97,500.
      - puredemo 16y ago
        Yeah but becoming a top 20 golfer is incredibly hard. And that's only about what a seasoned minor league baseball player makes.
gxs 16y ago
> Very impressive right ? Except the journalistic angle is basically "kids make money from nothing" when the reality is that they have access to two MacBook Pro's, at least one iPhone , two iPad's, a broadband connection, a credit card to pay for the Apple Developer license plus web hosting. I typically despise this point of view. Sure, I can readily admit that there is an element of luck in success - but I've never done it to the extent of belittling other people's accomplishments. On a sidenote: this is why I didn't enjoy Malcolm Gladwell's outliers- you can't diminish people's success to merely luck - even if you pre-append your babble with, sure they were smart, but they were really just lucky. I mean where do you draw the line? To use his own example - Lebron James isn't talented: he was just lucky to be born with athleticism and ability? Were Larry and Sergey just lucky to be born with an ability to reason and work hard? Give me a break.
- sh1mmer 16y ago
  Exactly. There are a lot of kids in their social class who don't work as hard and don't get as much back as a consequence. The measure of a person is not what they started with, it's what they did with it.
- starkfist 16y ago
  "Were Larry and Sergey just lucky to be born with an ability to reason and work hard?" Almost anyone is born with the ability to reason and work hard. Larry and Sergey were obviously born with this ability. In addition they were both born into families where both parents were professionals in the mathematical sciences. Larry's parents were CS professors. Sergey's dad is a math professor and his mom works for NASA. In addition, Larry's older brother Carl sold his company to Yahoo for $400M+. Thus not only did math and programming run in the family, so did software entrepreneurship. Not belittling their achievements, but parts of the backstory make it seem like Google was predestined. Where do you draw the line between luck and work, indeed...
  - idoh 16y ago
    Do you have a source for Carl's role in eGroups? It is hard to tell whether he was just an employee at the company or something more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EGroups http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EGroups
stcredzero 16y ago
Why did these kids succeed? The answer is, quite possibly, that they deserved to! Go to their website and take a look at the supported use case for their app. Their app appeals to both the browser and collector mindset. Already, they are harnessing powerful psychology. On top of that, if their "perfect formatting" claim for article, then they also are presenting a polished UX. I tried out two different Wikipedia apps for my old Windows XP Tablet machine. If you're technically inclined, you can load a compressed snapshot of Wikipedia and carry it with you. That puts you in the position of "administrator and custodian" of your Wikipedia snapshot, which isn't fun and seems like work, whereas being a browser and collector is an addictive sort of hobby. You can think of this as Instapaper for Wikipedia.

35 points by jp 16y ago

Bookmarklet javascript:location='http://translate.google.com/translate?u='+encodeURIComponent(location);

ajg1977 16y ago

In other news, kids make millions from playing football. http://wcbstv.com/national/nfl.draft.Bradford.2.1649569.html http://wcbstv.com/national/nfl.draft.Bradford.2.1649569.html

Aetius 16y ago
Basketball's where it's at. Good work if you can find it :).
- CoachRufus87 16y ago
  actually, baseball is where its at
  - ebiester 16y ago
    Agreed. There are more spots per potential player, there are more outlets if you don't make the big leagues in the minor leagues and internationally, and most importantly it doesn't do the same damage on your body.
  - jraines 16y ago
    my kid's at least giving golf a shot. Even if you just play in college you travel to sick locations. 20th place at the 2009 Masters was $97,500.
    - puredemo 16y ago
      Yeah but becoming a top 20 golfer is incredibly hard. And that's only about what a seasoned minor league baseball player makes.

gxs 16y ago

> Very impressive right ? Except the journalistic angle is basically "kids make money from nothing" when the reality is that they have access to two MacBook Pro's, at least one iPhone , two iPad's, a broadband connection, a credit card to pay for the Apple Developer license plus web hosting. I typically despise this point of view. Sure, I can readily admit that there is an element of luck in success - but I've never done it to the extent of belittling other people's accomplishments. On a sidenote: this is why I didn't enjoy Malcolm Gladwell's outliers- you can't diminish people's success to merely luck - even if you pre-append your babble with, sure they were smart, but they were really just lucky. I mean where do you draw the line? To use his own example - Lebron James isn't talented: he was just lucky to be born with athleticism and ability? Were Larry and Sergey just lucky to be born with an ability to reason and work hard? Give me a break.

sh1mmer 16y ago
Exactly. There are a lot of kids in their social class who don't work as hard and don't get as much back as a consequence. The measure of a person is not what they started with, it's what they did with it.
starkfist 16y ago
"Were Larry and Sergey just lucky to be born with an ability to reason and work hard?" Almost anyone is born with the ability to reason and work hard. Larry and Sergey were obviously born with this ability. In addition they were both born into families where both parents were professionals in the mathematical sciences. Larry's parents were CS professors. Sergey's dad is a math professor and his mom works for NASA. In addition, Larry's older brother Carl sold his company to Yahoo for $400M+. Thus not only did math and programming run in the family, so did software entrepreneurship. Not belittling their achievements, but parts of the backstory make it seem like Google was predestined. Where do you draw the line between luck and work, indeed...
- idoh 16y ago
  Do you have a source for Carl's role in eGroups? It is hard to tell whether he was just an employee at the company or something more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EGroups http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EGroups

stcredzero 16y ago

Why did these kids succeed? The answer is, quite possibly, that they deserved to! Go to their website and take a look at the supported use case for their app. Their app appeals to both the browser and collector mindset. Already, they are harnessing powerful psychology. On top of that, if their "perfect formatting" claim for article, then they also are presenting a polished UX. I tried out two different Wikipedia apps for my old Windows XP Tablet machine. If you're technically inclined, you can load a compressed snapshot of Wikipedia and carry it with you. That puts you in the position of "administrator and custodian" of your Wikipedia snapshot, which isn't fun and seems like work, whereas being a browser and collector is an addictive sort of hobby. You can think of this as Instapaper for Wikipedia.