garethsprice 14 years ago

"D'Aloisio is by no means a typical teenager - he is polite, highly motivated and enthusiastic."

Wow, wonder how many other groups they'd be able to get away with stereotyping like that.

"D'Aloisio is by no means a typical (woman|Mexican|black person|obese person) - he is polite, highly motivated and enthusiastic."

Ouch.

Makes the BBC sound out of touch, considering that most teenagers are under a historically unprecedented amount of pressure to succeed (eg: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6221872).

  • ticks 14 years ago

    I'm cynical when I read these sorts of articles, especially when the person involved has good links through relatives: "the son of a lawyer and an investment banker".

    It should be praised that someone can show initiative like this, but I just can't help thinking it's happening too easily - especially getting free PR on the BBC website.

    • eigenvector 14 years ago

      A couple days ago BBC was carrying the story of a 15-year-old who had become the youngest person to climb the Seven Summits (the tallest summit on each continent). He was, of course, the child of two wealthy mountaineers.

  • tripzilch 14 years ago

    > "D'Aloisio is by no means a typical teenager - he is polite, highly motivated and enthusiastic."

    > Wow, wonder how many other groups they'd be able to get away with stereotyping like that.

    Here on HN, try "Redditor" ;-)

  • dextorious 14 years ago

    Get off your PC horse.

    Reality based generalization is not "stereotyping" (and all stereotyping is not false).

    Really, we people from other parts of the world --the victims of stereotypes ourselves-- are incredibly tired of all this "guilt" and "tiptoeing around issues" mentality going on from that side of the Atlantic. As if anyone's feelings will be hurt if somebody calls the typical teenager impolite or un-motivated...

    In this part of the world we see as comic how people in a well known country are oh-so-sensitive about how someone "stereotypes", say, a Mexican person or a black person, while the same country has used black people as slaves first and second rate citizens second up until the '60s (with a disproportionate amount of them vs whites in prison even now), and has stolen several states (CA, TX, NM, UT, CO etc) from Mexico.

    If you want to fix something, try to fix the harsh realities instead of BS like this.

    • garethsprice 14 years ago

      It's not a reality based generalization though, it's unfounded nonsense - like the thought that black people can jump really high compared to white people, you can die if you leave a fan on while you sleep, or that you can identify criminals by measuring their skulls.

      All of these beliefs have been shared by millions of people at some time, but that does not make them true and certainly does not make them suitable for reprinting as implied fact by a state-backed, high quality, supposedly objective news organization.

      I suppose I am a rather stereotypical Brit in that in this part of the world we don't really care about harsh realities in other countries but we do care about the quality of journalism coming out of our beloved BBC.

      • dextorious 14 years ago

        """It's not a reality based generalization though, it's unfounded nonsense - like the thought that black people can jump really high compared to white people, you can die if you leave a fan on while you sleep, or that you can identify criminals by measuring their skulls."""

        "Completely unfounded nonsense", how? Because, people just don't know enough teenagers to generalize that they aren't in general that motivated?

        He is comparing the general teenager with a 16 guy who learned programming on his own, built an app people want to use in hundreds of thousands, and even got an investment for it. It's only reasonable to deem him quite apart from the average teenager in the motivation department. And judging from the success of GTD methodologies and such crap, even from the average adult.

        """All of these beliefs have been shared by millions of people at some time, but that does not make them true and certainly does not make them suitable for reprinting as implied fact by a state-backed, high quality, supposedly objective news organization."""

        The reporting that a kid that managed SUCH AND SUCH is more motivated than the average kid, is nothing like Lombroso's theory or some urban legend about dying when sleeping with a fan on. It's a simple observation and statement of fact.

        As for the report on the extra politeness of the kid --compared to the average kid--, do you really believe that a reporter cannot spot a polite kid when he sees one? Or, do you think that he hasn't seen enough kids in his life to be able to discern any difference in politeness levels?

        (Note: I've worked as an teacher for a spell, and I know that there are kids that are far more motivated than the average kid, and kids far more polite than the average kid. I also know one when I see one).

  • jQueryIsAwesome 14 years ago

    A group whose members are part of it only for a short period of their lives; and who are clearly not being discriminated by society in any meaningful way, shape or form.

brador 14 years ago

I understand the writer needs an introduction to the article, but F everything about starting with this:

"Most teenagers will find any reason under the sun not to do their homework."

No most won't and stop repeating it.

  • msinghai 14 years ago

    The writer was, at some point in his life, a spoiled teenager. Most of my friends and other teenage students near me, (By the way, I'm from India, 15) love to do their homework, as, it's challenging and we feel something after completing it. Same is the case for most of the teenagers in other parts of my country, nearly everyone does their homework properly.

    • brador 14 years ago

      It's the BBC, so I guess the writer is from the UK. In which case, she is propogating the "I'm an idiot and I can't be bovered to work" attitude that seems prevalent among some of the youth there. Shame really, and from the BBC too.

    • dextorious 14 years ago

      """The writer was, at some point in his life, a spoiled teenager. Most of my friends and other teenage students near me, (By the way, I'm from India, 15) love to do their homework, as, it's challenging and we feel something after completing it."""

      Yeah, we sure buy this...

      • eigenvector 14 years ago

        I am from India. I find the remark quite plausible.

tripzilch 14 years ago

Heh. They should have asked him what "ontological detection" means.

https://www.google.com/search?q=%22ontological+detection%22+...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontology_(information_science)

There's no way he fit a useful semantic network in an iPhone app, and I doubt he interfaces with an external one such as OpenCyc, or in fact uses any kind of automated reasoning that can sort of be classified as "ontological".

It's VERY impressive for his age (even if it doesn't actually work that well outside the demo/testcases, according to a commenter below), but more general terms such as "it uses Computational Linguistics" would sound just as impressive and are actually descriptive instead of meaningless buzzwords.

  • dextorious 14 years ago

    "There's no way he fit a useful semantic network in an iPhone app"

    Define "useful".

    It doesn't have to be big to be useful. A perfectly fine for summation purposes semantic network can fit in an iPhone. The bloody thing has several GBs of storage last time I checked.

amigo___ 14 years ago

I feel I have to say something positive in light of the other comments; this is great to see from a 16 year old.

llambda 14 years ago

Isn't it redundant to summarize BBC articles? A bit off topic, but I do think it's a horrible way to demo your app considering that the BBC's online news outlet has been publishing articles that feature "paragraphs" which are rarely longer than a single sentence for years. In other words, summarized news. Still an interesting concept. Quite interesting that this idea has already been pointed out well over a year ago out by one HNer, Geee, via Open Text Summarizer. Makes you wonder what he's actually using to summarize the content.

lowglow 14 years ago

Regarding the hype of this app -- this is a response from a friend who is a journalist and has covered this kid's app :

"unfortunately the kid is pretty good at marketing himself, and a 16 year old app developer makes a good story"

davidcann 14 years ago

I don't think a $250,000 investment is considered a "jackpot".

  • kokey 14 years ago

    The same can be said for deals with record labels. I don't know if it's a good or a bad thing, it may be a good thing since it motivates more aspiring talent.

  • Maro 14 years ago

    It's probably not a jackpot in terms of this project, but imagine how much this kid will learn in the process. It's a jackpot for his growth as an entrepreneur, if he sticks with it.

  • dextorious 14 years ago

    Well, I can live very comfortably for 10 years with that kind of money, and no work at all -- and I live in one of the most expensive European countries (save for rent, which is cheap).

    I'd call it a jackpot alright.

toyg 14 years ago

A MacBook when he was 9 ? Damn, I'm 32 and still cannot really justify one. And I'm sure his parents had nothing to do with his funding arrangements, of course.

I hate to talk about privilege, and this kid is clearly smart, but the smell of upper class is hardly bearable, sorry.

  • GFischer 14 years ago

    I'm 30, and I don't own a MacBook either, but I don't see them as above an upper-middle class income bracket, I'm certain you can afford them if you're into software development.

    I wouldn't give them to a 9-year old either, but his parents are "a lawyer and an investment banker", so it sounds reasonable (and I guess that being the son of an investment banker probably helped the funding).

    Edit: here's GigaOm's original interview linked in the BBC article

    http://gigaom.com/2011/12/13/meet-the-internets-newest-boy-g...

    • toyg 14 years ago

      I said "justify", not "afford". I could afford to buy a house in Hawaii, but that doesn't mean I could justify the expense :)

      • rimantas 14 years ago

        It's easy to justify with three words: "development for iOS".

  • arethuza 14 years ago

    Nitpick: being the son of a banker and a lawyer hardly qualifies you as "upper class", even if that was relevant.

    • justincormack 14 years ago

      This is the UK, where the upper class is more hereditary than job based unlike in the US. Banking and law are fairly common professions for the upper class, so he may well be upper class.

    • wtvanhest 14 years ago

      I think it does. Less than 20% of Americans make over 100k per year.

      Entry level in IB makes 70+ min. After a graduate degree we are talking 100 to 300k per year. By the time that person has had kids, especially a nine year old they are probably making 500k min. I don't know British IB salaries, but I imagine they are as high.

      Law could be anywhere from 50k to 1mm so it really depends.

      • calpaterson 14 years ago

        You (and the grandparent) are misapplying the American conception of class (money) to a Briton. It's about birth and schooling here - money is irrelevant. The boy seems likely to be middle class. (Upper class means a member of the aristocracy in the UK, FWIW).

        • dextorious 14 years ago

          That's not quite accurate. There are several definitions of the upper class. No one said he was a royal or a lord.

          From the financial standpoint, he is upper class alright, even if the Eton guys would snub him.

          • calpaterson 14 years ago

            Yes, there are "several definitions" (as there are with most terms), but I'm talking about the normal and popular one - the one you'll find in contemporary and historical literature and on Wikipedia, etc. Here's wikipedia:

            > The British "upper class" is statistically very small and consists of the peerage, gentry, and hereditary landowners. These people were traditionally the wealthiest in the land having inherited money and position. The majority of aristocratic families originated in the merchant class, and were ennobled between the 14th and 19th century.

            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_structure_of_Britain#Upp...

            Just as an aside - public schools like Eton were originally exclusively for the middle class (aristocrat children would have been privately tutored) and though since 1900 they have expanded in class terms to accommodate the Upper Classes (obviously including the Royal Family) there's no way a middle class person would feel out of place there.

    • eatmyshorts 14 years ago

      Nitpick: being the son of an investment banker (not a retail banker; there is a big difference) and a lawyer (barrister in the UK) likely places this family in the top 1% of income earners in the UK. By most people's definitions, that qualifies their family as "upper class".

      • sp332 14 years ago

        In Britain the "upper class" is more about political power than just how much money you make in a year.

        • toyg 14 years ago

          That's not been true at least since Blair got into power.

      • ig1 14 years ago

        Under the UK definition if you're "in business" then it's unlikely that you're upper class.

  • leoedin 14 years ago

    In the traditional sense, it'd be hard to tell whether he's upper class or not. From the way he presents himself, he almost certainly attends a public school, but these days the majority of people at public school aren't upper class by lineage. His parents are certainly wealthy, and I'd imagine that a considerable portion of his success is due to being well funded (my parents certainly wouldn't have bought me an iPhone or macbook at the age of 12) and well supported at home.

    Fundamentally, I'm sure the guy is of above average intelligence. He has very good support from home, and actually has funding for his startup. However, apart from his age there's little differentiating this from other iPhone app based startups, and I would be surprised if he manages to maintain the level of progress he's had recently once life starts to be complicated. If his life is anything like mine was at 16, school is completely unchallenging and he'll have oodles of free time. That doesn't last forever!

  • rudiger 14 years ago

    What's so privileged about getting a MacBook 7 years ago? Why does it matter that a 9-year-old kid's parents handled the "funding arrangements" (ie. bought their son a laptop)? And clearly he could justify one: video editing and iPhone development starting from when he was 12 years old.

  • absconditus 14 years ago

    Are you a software developer? Are you underpaid?

    • simonbrown 14 years ago

      Software developers are paid nowhere near as much in the UK.

  • jodrellblank 14 years ago

    tl;dr "His parents are rich and I'm incredibly jealous".

    He was given a macbook age 9. What's the point of your sarcastic jab "And I'm sure his parents had nothing to do with his funding arrangements, of course."? Of course they did, but why does it matter?

    I hate to talk about privilege, and this kid is clearly smart, but the smell of upper class is hardly bearable, sorry.

    He's smart and you hate to talk about class but you can't bear hearing about his text summarization software because of the contents of his parent's bank account or because he has access to more stuff than you? What?

    • esrauch 14 years ago

      I think the issue he is raising is that there are certainly other kids out there that are less privileged (but still privileged) that have achieved more but don't get any fame|money|respect simply because they aren't the son of an investment banker.

  • Tycho 14 years ago

    So a child got a MacBook and made a popular app with it which garnered serious attention from investors.

    And then you complain that he was given a MacBook?

  • dextorious 14 years ago

    """Damn, I'm 32 and still cannot really justify one."""

    In the US, about 20 million people have one. It's not that big of a deal.

    """I hate to talk about privilege, and this kid is clearly smart, but the smell of upper class is hardly bearable, sorry."""

    Yeah, because it's so easy for them, that tons of other upper class kid have done something similar, right?

    Actually, real "upper class" kids wouldn't bother do anything like that at all. Why spoil their perfectly good lazy existence and fun-having?

citricsquid 14 years ago

App aside, this kid has a fantastic camera presence, although some of his words made no sense ("quickly and instantaneously") I would guess a large part of his success is down to his ability to talk so well.

  • padolsey 14 years ago

    It's odd you say that because the one thing I noticed was that he didn't seem be very comfortable describing the product in laymen's terms. His word usage seemed forced and his hand movements too. He had good camera presence insofar that he was bold and moderate in volume. Beyond that, I don't see what you mean.

brador 14 years ago

Any insight into the tech this is using?

pan69 14 years ago

"I find the product and the design of the product much more interesting than the programming"

Of course. Programming is hard work.

looper888 14 years ago

Good job kid. Keep it going