5 ms·

It’s always the same, “<minor> creates revolutionary thing”. And then nothing comes out of it.

by ssizn 4y ago

barroomhero 4y ago
Waiting for the "yeah, but..." comments now.
- olivermarks 4y ago
  'Could'...
asciimov 4y ago
That's because the "rest of the story" isn't as good. With a little digging you often find <minors>'s parent(s) are a researcher that studies that exact <thing> <minor> was building, or <minor> somehow got a job working at a lab that works on <thing>, or <minors>'s <thing> isn't as novel as article leads you to believe often with <thing> being known and unused due to some obvious flaw.
- keepquestioning 4y ago
  Very true. I bet Sam Zeloof's parents are rich as hell.
gedy 4y ago
That's fine, as long as it's not some phoney PR thing like "...well and their parents happen to world experts of the same thing", or own a business around this, etc.
katkatkatkatket 4y ago
Usually because <minor> has made a prototype of an already well-established phenomenon, and the really difficult part is making a production-ready design. A bit like the "10-year-old makes a heart pump for just $10" stories. It's really easy to hook up a motor to some pipes, it's absurdly hard to make that pass medical regulations.
vxNsr 4y ago
A lot of this stuff dies on the industrial engineer’s desk where it can’t be made viable at scale.
- MattGrommes 4y ago
  This is also true for a lot of research done by adults at a large cost. Every "New Battery Technology Will Run Your Phone For 1 Million Years!" story ends like this once they go to the real world with it.
throw_m239339 4y ago
Because most of these stories are sensationalized omitting a lot of facts around who's that kid, who are his parents and how much help did the provide him. It's also often a PR stunt to promote an underlying company or organization. This kid didn't developed anything in his parent's garage, he had access to sophisticated industrial equipment and you bet someone helped. Of course, there are outliers, but most often it's borderline fake news.
ekianjo 4y ago
Also, would be good to see any proper research done on the correlation between kids like that winning prizes and how they fare in the future in terms of driving first-rate innovation wherever they go. I have a hunch there's hardly any.
keepquestioning 4y ago
Better than Clock Boy

It’s always the same, “<minor> creates revolutionary thing”. And then nothing comes out of it.

by ssizn 4y ago

It’s always the same, “<minor> creates revolutionary thing”. And then nothing comes out of it.

barroomhero 4y ago

Waiting for the "yeah, but..." comments now.

olivermarks 4y ago
'Could'...

asciimov 4y ago

That's because the "rest of the story" isn't as good. With a little digging you often find <minors>'s parent(s) are a researcher that studies that exact <thing> <minor> was building, or <minor> somehow got a job working at a lab that works on <thing>, or <minors>'s <thing> isn't as novel as article leads you to believe often with <thing> being known and unused due to some obvious flaw.

keepquestioning 4y ago
Very true. I bet Sam Zeloof's parents are rich as hell.

gedy 4y ago

That's fine, as long as it's not some phoney PR thing like "...well and their parents happen to world experts of the same thing", or own a business around this, etc.

katkatkatkatket 4y ago

Usually because <minor> has made a prototype of an already well-established phenomenon, and the really difficult part is making a production-ready design. A bit like the "10-year-old makes a heart pump for just $10" stories. It's really easy to hook up a motor to some pipes, it's absurdly hard to make that pass medical regulations.

vxNsr 4y ago

A lot of this stuff dies on the industrial engineer’s desk where it can’t be made viable at scale.

MattGrommes 4y ago
This is also true for a lot of research done by adults at a large cost. Every "New Battery Technology Will Run Your Phone For 1 Million Years!" story ends like this once they go to the real world with it.

throw_m239339 4y ago

Because most of these stories are sensationalized omitting a lot of facts around who's that kid, who are his parents and how much help did the provide him. It's also often a PR stunt to promote an underlying company or organization. This kid didn't developed anything in his parent's garage, he had access to sophisticated industrial equipment and you bet someone helped. Of course, there are outliers, but most often it's borderline fake news.

ekianjo 4y ago

Also, would be good to see any proper research done on the correlation between kids like that winning prizes and how they fare in the future in terms of driving first-rate innovation wherever they go. I have a hunch there's hardly any.

keepquestioning 4y ago

Better than Clock Boy