7 ms·
It seems like we're seeing evidence that the class system is alive and well in the UK. Listen to his posh accent, and look at the easy way he casually hangs out
by jaysonelliot 14y ago
It seems like we're seeing evidence that the class system is alive and well in the UK. Listen to his posh accent, and look at the easy way he casually hangs out with Stephen Fry: http://vimeo.com/52014691 http://vimeo.com/52014691
I suspect the story behind this is simply "upper-class child with family connections finds success."
- seivan 14y agoThat's the impression I got from day one. Him or his parents had connections to get someone interested from day one. I am also very curious about this so called "algorithm". For all I know, it could be a very well made genuine admin interface plugged into multiple turks. That is what I would have done.
- tptacek 14y agoSo what we're saying here is that upper-class connections of some sort or another suffice to get companies acquired by Yahoo?
- seivan 14y agoNot at all, but you have to admit, the whole thing is a bit sketchy. Each line is a separate email. http://gizmodo.com/5830076/how-i-made-a-15+year+old-app-developer-cry http://gizmodo.com/5830076/how-i-made-a-15+year+old-app-deve...
- GHFigs 14y ago"To put it bluntly, D'aloisio raped my inbox."
- joe5150 14y ago"Now we've wasted $10,000 as we dont have the article to accompany the efforts. / That puts us in debt and we can't pay that back for ourselves so now I'm going to have to go without food for the next month." What an elevator pitch! If this Yahoo! thing doesn't pan out....
- rdouble 14y agoConsidering his dad is a VP at Morgan Stanley and his mother is a corporate attorney, he is a great actor.
- seivan 14y agoI didn't know this, yeah that makes sense. We're not talking about talent here.
- rdouble 14y agoI was commenting on his desperate sounding emails when clearly he was not in personal financial peril. After reading more about the project and his background, he seems talented enough.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- anigbrowl 14y agoGood grief. I can remember my 15-year old self well enough to understand the eager-puppy part, but not the abundant lies and emotional blackmail.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- ruswick 14y agoNo, but getting celebrities to invest does, which is a natural consequence of being hyper-affluent.
- coldtea 14y agoNo. But it suffices to get your (connected) company acquired instead of 10 other equal (or slightly better) companies.
- ruswick 14y agoIndeed. I haven't tried the app in months, but downloaded it shortly after launch, and it unequivocally sucked. The summarization simply wasn't effective and often gave incoherent information or incomplete sentences. This story seems to boil down to an individual that created a moderately-functioning app who's success was enabled by his family connections and amplified by a media industry voracious for this kind of shit.
- benaiah 14y agoFrom the video, he also seems like he's greatly overhyping the whole thing (as is everyone else, of course). Genetic algorithms are not even remotely close to human intelligence, quantitatively or qualitatively, so his claims to that effect are nonsensical and misleading. One common strain I see with child prodigies, or whatever you want to call them, is that their accomplishments are often greatly exaggerated and they usually don't end up contributing as much as many who make great contributions later in life (few famous historical scientists and artists, with the exception perhaps of Mozart, were what we would consider child prodigies, and many were quite the opposite). I don't know if it's caused by resting on their laurels, burning out, or them just not being as good as they claimed, but it doesn't seem like a healthy model at all. Summly in particular doesn't come across as being all that complicated - genetic analysis of text is a well-researched and thoroughly trodden part of applied complexity theory - but rather a smart business move made by investors and businessmen mostly behind the scenes. D’Aloisio comes across more as a poster boy than anything - he's put up as this child prodigy, but I've never read or heard anything particularly new, profound, or even that interesting from him.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- minikomi 14y agoSounds more like regression to the mean than anything else. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regression_toward_the_mean http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regression_toward_the_mean
- witek 14y ago>few famous historical scientists and artists Plenty of artists: Mozart, Chopin, Liszt, Bizet, Bieber (all right, maybe not the last one) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_music_prodigies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_music_prodigies Others: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_child_prodigies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_child_prodigies
- vixen99 14y agoNot forgetting Mendelssohn as the prime example. Neither Mozart nor Chopin wrote anything comparable in stature to the Octet written when Felix was 16 years old. It's one of the those pieces where within a minute or so you simply 'know' you're listening to a work of genius. Yes, entirely o/t especially on this site. Sorry!
- notlisted 14y agoHear hear! Now, for the rest of us: we've got some bootstraps to pull, because we can achieve success too, if we work hard enough (yes, that's sarcasm, not purple koolaid) The class system is alive and well in the USA too. Less easily recognized perhaps, as the myth of the American Dream(sm) with its "look at these successful underdogs" is the perfect misdirection. Dig a little deeper and you'll most hugely successful startups came from money (i.e. "friends and family" rounds under rule 506).
- Jauny 14y agoUnfortunately, that's how the world works. But yes, I do agree with you.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- visualR 14y ago-- Dead on ---
- lotsofcows 14y agoChrist, get over the class thing. Yes, if you have parents and good connections you've got an advantage. Yes, these traits are often a result of class historically. But trying to use class as an excuse for your own failure is not valid in this day and age.
- lotsofcows 14y agoA down vote! What a great argument! Now I see the error of my ways! Class per se is totally still a feature in our day-to-day lives.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- coldtea 14y ago>But trying to use class as an excuse for your own failure is not valid in this day and age. If it's a factor, then it's perfectly valid. All this talk about "it's your own failure" only serves to stop anybody from attempting to change the overall class thing (not by his individual, outlier, success: systemically). I don't see many rich black entrepreneurs coming from Mississippi or Alabama, for example. Or from "white trash" trailer parks. Or the latino California population. Mostly upper and higher middle class white and asian families with mucho dinero. Do you see anything different? Let's take the top 100 successful startup founders of the last 10 years and check their backgrounds.
- lotsofcows 14y agoCan't really comment, I have no understanding of USA's class system, but as I said, coming from a wealthy and connected background is no longer exclusively for the upper classes. Passive aggressive reverse snobbery is pointless.
- jiggy2011 14y ago"coming from a wealthy and connected background is no longer exclusively for the upper classes" Isn't that basically the definition of upper class in any practical terms?
- flyinRyan 14y ago>It seems like we're seeing evidence that the class system is alive and well in the UK. Yes of course it is, I think anyone in the UK would know that. But do you imagine you're making a contrast here? The class system is alive and well in most places. Do you know what Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg have in common? They all grew up well to do.
- cygwin98 14y agoNot Steve Jobs though.