4 ms·

My seven year old has watched me slog through many pieces of a startup. What's fun is how much kids listen, even when they don't seem to. I remember when he s

by sanj 17y ago

My seven year old has watched me slog through many pieces of a startup. What's fun is how much kids listen, even when they don't seem to. I remember when he stopped in the middle of dinner and said "Daddy, what's 'google'?" And my favorite story is when he stopped me as I was carrying him to bed, looked me straight in the eye and asked, completely seriously: "Daddy, how does LuckyCal make money?" If you haven't already done so, I recommend refining your revenue plan to the point where you can explain to a savvy seven year old.

prodigal_erik 17y ago
That one's straight out of the Evil Overlord List: "One of my advisors will be an average five-year-old child. Any flaws in my plan that he is able to spot will be corrected before implementation."
- pchristensen 17y ago
  http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html
- mshafrir 17y ago
  "My five-year-old child advisor will also be asked to decipher any code I am thinking of using. If he breaks the code in under 30 seconds, it will not be used. Note: this also applies to passwords."
callahad 17y ago
Woah, LuckyCal looks great! It's like emergent group calendaring! Now I just need to find the discipline to use some sort of calendar in the first place...
sfphotoarts 17y ago
Wow, what 7 year old doesn't know what Google is? My 7 year old has been using Google for years. And I suspect he/she has overheard you ask that question so many times (how does X make money) that they were simply trying to ape you, because 7 year olds are not concerned with making money, or shouldn't be...
- mediaman 17y ago
  Sorry, please see comments rule 1: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html "Be civil. Don't say things you wouldn't say in a face to face conversation." I assume that, in their presence, you would not make insulting comments about others' children.
  - sanj 17y ago
    Without detracting from mediaman's politeness post, this is an interesting topic. First off, I rabidly limit the "screen time" my kid gets. That's the sum of TV, computer and (nowadays) my iPhone. I'd much rather have him wandering the great outdoors. When he uses the computer, he's got a set of sites that he likes and tends to stick to them. We'll collaboratively use Google to find answers to stuff, but he won't typically do it on his own. He recognizes that as parent-kid activity. I think this is a positive thing. The "google" is actually about three years old, when I was considering interviewing there and all roads led there. I suspect (and I hope the Googler's appreciate this!) that part of the question was based on how funny of a word it is. Especially drawn out: Goooooooooooooooooogle. Now he knows multiple people there, including his Godfather. But the money comment is all part of who he is. He loves money: counting it, trading it, scheming about it. He's not worried about money, but he is fascinated by it. He spent more time coming up with the pricing scheme for his lemonade stand than actually operating it. Think Alex P. Keaton. Then again, he's also fascinated by dinosaurs and how we'd repel their attacks, so I'm not too concerned. And he knows that I work for myself and that people normally get paid by bosses. So the leap of how does LuckyCal make money struck me as very natural. While I can imagine us having had such a discussion in front of him, I don't think we have. Instead, when he discusses it at all, he's always been very focussed on the application's social elements. In any case, while I appreciate mediaman sticking up for my kid, I tend not to worry about it too much. I wondered aloud to my mom recently that I thought he was smarter than I was. I expected her to rush to my defense. Instead, she agreed with me. And I'm pretty damn smart.
    - mediaman 17y ago
      I found your comment: "But the money comment is all part of who he is. He loves money: counting it, trading it, scheming about it. He's not worried about money, but he is fascinated by it. He spent more time coming up with the pricing scheme for his lemonade stand than actually operating it." pretty funny. Sounds like you've got a budding entrepreneur on your hands. Next thing you know he's going to start hiring operators for the stand and coming up with pricing strategies to segment the demand curve for cold drinks served by cute kids. (think: organic lemonade for only 2X the price!)

by sanj 17y ago

prodigal_erik 17y ago

That one's straight out of the Evil Overlord List: "One of my advisors will be an average five-year-old child. Any flaws in my plan that he is able to spot will be corrected before implementation."

pchristensen 17y ago
http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html
mshafrir 17y ago
"My five-year-old child advisor will also be asked to decipher any code I am thinking of using. If he breaks the code in under 30 seconds, it will not be used. Note: this also applies to passwords."

callahad 17y ago

Woah, LuckyCal looks great! It's like emergent group calendaring! Now I just need to find the discipline to use some sort of calendar in the first place...

sfphotoarts 17y ago

Wow, what 7 year old doesn't know what Google is? My 7 year old has been using Google for years. And I suspect he/she has overheard you ask that question so many times (how does X make money) that they were simply trying to ape you, because 7 year olds are not concerned with making money, or shouldn't be...

mediaman 17y ago
Sorry, please see comments rule 1: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html "Be civil. Don't say things you wouldn't say in a face to face conversation." I assume that, in their presence, you would not make insulting comments about others' children.
- sanj 17y ago
  Without detracting from mediaman's politeness post, this is an interesting topic. First off, I rabidly limit the "screen time" my kid gets. That's the sum of TV, computer and (nowadays) my iPhone. I'd much rather have him wandering the great outdoors. When he uses the computer, he's got a set of sites that he likes and tends to stick to them. We'll collaboratively use Google to find answers to stuff, but he won't typically do it on his own. He recognizes that as parent-kid activity. I think this is a positive thing. The "google" is actually about three years old, when I was considering interviewing there and all roads led there. I suspect (and I hope the Googler's appreciate this!) that part of the question was based on how funny of a word it is. Especially drawn out: Goooooooooooooooooogle. Now he knows multiple people there, including his Godfather. But the money comment is all part of who he is. He loves money: counting it, trading it, scheming about it. He's not worried about money, but he is fascinated by it. He spent more time coming up with the pricing scheme for his lemonade stand than actually operating it. Think Alex P. Keaton. Then again, he's also fascinated by dinosaurs and how we'd repel their attacks, so I'm not too concerned. And he knows that I work for myself and that people normally get paid by bosses. So the leap of how does LuckyCal make money struck me as very natural. While I can imagine us having had such a discussion in front of him, I don't think we have. Instead, when he discusses it at all, he's always been very focussed on the application's social elements. In any case, while I appreciate mediaman sticking up for my kid, I tend not to worry about it too much. I wondered aloud to my mom recently that I thought he was smarter than I was. I expected her to rush to my defense. Instead, she agreed with me. And I'm pretty damn smart.
  - mediaman 17y ago
    I found your comment: "But the money comment is all part of who he is. He loves money: counting it, trading it, scheming about it. He's not worried about money, but he is fascinated by it. He spent more time coming up with the pricing scheme for his lemonade stand than actually operating it." pretty funny. Sounds like you've got a budding entrepreneur on your hands. Next thing you know he's going to start hiring operators for the stand and coming up with pricing strategies to segment the demand curve for cold drinks served by cute kids. (think: organic lemonade for only 2X the price!)