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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 ma

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!)
- Confusion 17y ago
  He wasn't having a conversation with sanj's kid, but with sanj, without the presence of his kid. I would express surprise at a 7-year old not knowing Google and I fail to understand how that could be insulting. Or do you think it's insulting to suggest that a 7-year old would try to ape a parent? I wouldn't understand that either: it's just a fact that they do so. That's not a bad thing. At most, it's an irrelevant comment and possibly an insult to sanj's intelligence to suggest he didn't think of that himself, but apart from that...
  - run4yourlives 17y ago
    You may want to consider the fact that the child not knowing what Google is allowed his father to introduce it to him. There were several benefits to this result that simply would not have been realized otherwise.
- sfphotoarts 17y ago
  No need to apologize mediaman, I took no offense at your response. I was neither insulting nor uncivil and I would absolutely say these things to any other parent of a 7 year old. In my household we use google regularly to find things, like right now she's looking for summer programs in her area, she looks for animals she likes, she looks for cages for her new pet mouse... She has known and used google for years as have most of her friends. And a child of 7 being concerned about a start-up making money? why would a child ask that? They are either (as I said) copying the oft spoken words of a parent or they are burdened with things that a child of 7 should not be. "scheming about money" seems a little unusual. Mine likes to play shop, but she's much more interested in the natural world and leaves money to the grown ups. My child also likes to go play outside, but she also likes to look things up that she has seen or found or heard about, just like me. I don't limit that, I encourage that. Being voraciously curious and knowing how to use a tool that can satisfy that is I think a true gift of living in the modern world and I very much want my child to be part of the modern world. I'm sure you meant well mediaman, but if you are ever around kids you'll realize that every 7 year old knows about google.
  - sanj 17y ago
    Ah, this may be the crux of it. My kid didn't ask because of Google-the-service or Google-the-website, but because of Google-the-company. I assume this was because I was yammering about visiting MTV, about meeting up with their folks here in Boston, about people he knew working there and about struggling with the APIs. BTW, I would be a little judicious about using the term "unusual" to describe anyone's kids but your own. I don't take offense because I think most kids are "unusual". And I'm quite happy with how happily unusual mine is. But most people would.
    - sfphotoarts 17y ago
      I didn't use the term "unusual" to describe your child. I used it to describe his/her behavior... there's a big difference. I wouldn't say your child is unusual (I don't know him/her), but an obsession with money in a 7 year old is definitely unusual, ask any child psychologist (like my wife). 7 year olds live in a world where money is of little importance, they cannot play with it (much), they don't have any of it (to speak of) and they don't need any of it, because they have love and friends which are much more important to them. The idea of a 7 year old scheming a way to game a lemonade stand to maximize monetary gain seems grotesque. A lemonade stand is a social activity, not a start-up opportunity. I personally believe that money and its trappings of consumerism are like TV, they should be limited in children. I don't let my child watch much TV and I discourage her from finding money, or the collection of new shiny things interesting. There are, after all, a lot more useful and interesting things in this world that acquiring money. That is a value that I try to teach my child. Your child, your values... I'm not trying to tell you how to parent. I was simply correcting the mediaman from jumping into something he clearly knows nothing about and gobbing off rules like he's some kind of school yard bully.

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!)
Confusion 17y ago
He wasn't having a conversation with sanj's kid, but with sanj, without the presence of his kid. I would express surprise at a 7-year old not knowing Google and I fail to understand how that could be insulting. Or do you think it's insulting to suggest that a 7-year old would try to ape a parent? I wouldn't understand that either: it's just a fact that they do so. That's not a bad thing. At most, it's an irrelevant comment and possibly an insult to sanj's intelligence to suggest he didn't think of that himself, but apart from that...
- run4yourlives 17y ago
  You may want to consider the fact that the child not knowing what Google is allowed his father to introduce it to him. There were several benefits to this result that simply would not have been realized otherwise.
sfphotoarts 17y ago
No need to apologize mediaman, I took no offense at your response. I was neither insulting nor uncivil and I would absolutely say these things to any other parent of a 7 year old. In my household we use google regularly to find things, like right now she's looking for summer programs in her area, she looks for animals she likes, she looks for cages for her new pet mouse... She has known and used google for years as have most of her friends. And a child of 7 being concerned about a start-up making money? why would a child ask that? They are either (as I said) copying the oft spoken words of a parent or they are burdened with things that a child of 7 should not be. "scheming about money" seems a little unusual. Mine likes to play shop, but she's much more interested in the natural world and leaves money to the grown ups. My child also likes to go play outside, but she also likes to look things up that she has seen or found or heard about, just like me. I don't limit that, I encourage that. Being voraciously curious and knowing how to use a tool that can satisfy that is I think a true gift of living in the modern world and I very much want my child to be part of the modern world. I'm sure you meant well mediaman, but if you are ever around kids you'll realize that every 7 year old knows about google.
- sanj 17y ago
  Ah, this may be the crux of it. My kid didn't ask because of Google-the-service or Google-the-website, but because of Google-the-company. I assume this was because I was yammering about visiting MTV, about meeting up with their folks here in Boston, about people he knew working there and about struggling with the APIs. BTW, I would be a little judicious about using the term "unusual" to describe anyone's kids but your own. I don't take offense because I think most kids are "unusual". And I'm quite happy with how happily unusual mine is. But most people would.
  - sfphotoarts 17y ago
    I didn't use the term "unusual" to describe your child. I used it to describe his/her behavior... there's a big difference. I wouldn't say your child is unusual (I don't know him/her), but an obsession with money in a 7 year old is definitely unusual, ask any child psychologist (like my wife). 7 year olds live in a world where money is of little importance, they cannot play with it (much), they don't have any of it (to speak of) and they don't need any of it, because they have love and friends which are much more important to them. The idea of a 7 year old scheming a way to game a lemonade stand to maximize monetary gain seems grotesque. A lemonade stand is a social activity, not a start-up opportunity. I personally believe that money and its trappings of consumerism are like TV, they should be limited in children. I don't let my child watch much TV and I discourage her from finding money, or the collection of new shiny things interesting. There are, after all, a lot more useful and interesting things in this world that acquiring money. That is a value that I try to teach my child. Your child, your values... I'm not trying to tell you how to parent. I was simply correcting the mediaman from jumping into something he clearly knows nothing about and gobbing off rules like he's some kind of school yard bully.