
How a Florida kid’s “stupid app” saved his family’s home - jamesjyu
http://pando.com/2014/04/30/how-a-florida-kids-stupid-app-saved-his-familys-home-and-landed-him-on-the-main-stage-of-facebooks-f8/
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mattgreenrocks
What I love about this kid is that he admits it's a "stupid" app. If we could
get a lot of SV to admit the same thing, perhaps we'd have a healthier
culture.

But no, it's business-y-fake-success-killing-it-bullshit all the way down.

~~~
dperfect
It's easy (or easier) to call your own app "stupid" when it's a single-person
effort. As soon as you bring on other people to help, it's hard to call it
"stupid" \- not because the app changed and not because you think it's any
less stupid at that point, but simply because by calling it "stupid," you're
ascribing the label to someone else's work (which may or may not be welcome).

For a team to maintain that perspective (that their app is _not_ going to
solve world hunger any time soon) requires some real humility and open
communication. You've got to take it seriously enough to produce quality work,
but not so seriously that you convince yourself it's anything more than a
stupid app at the end of the day.

~~~
krisgenre
You know the biggest reason for Steve Job's success was his ability to call
stupid things stupid.

~~~
owenversteeg
What‽ Steve Jobs called all his projects "revolutionary", "amazing", and other
hyperbolic adjectives. Remember his speech to Sculley? "Do you want to sell
sugared water for the rest of your life? Or do you want to come with me and
change the world?" He believed that what he did was changing the world.

------
diminish
As much as I like the story, those stories are like exceptional lotto
millionaire stories which keep the app rush alive, despite growing stats that
overwhelming majority of app entrepreneurs can't make enough for a living,
just with one app. So other kids, don't put too much hope on the possibility
that you could do the same. But it could help you land a nice job..

~~~
mikestew
> But it could help you land a nice job.

That's the advice I give to aspiring app store millionaires: on average
there's no money in the app store, but there's plenty of money to be made
making apps for someone else. Throw something on the store that's above the
level of flashlight app, and point to it when in contact with a potential
employer. There is no ??? step, you just move straight to Step 4: Profit.

~~~
FLUX-YOU
Can't be that easy. Maybe if the employer is looking to pay you 10 an hour.

~~~
will_work4tears
Well, your resume has to pass the filters, you still gotta do several phone
screen interviews (at least one hour long, technical one), three panel
interviews, an all day technical interview, and a 6 month "paid" (sorry, below
market value) trial period.

Then you can get the job. The App only appears to help.

------
eldude
It's pretty alarming that the net financial outcome of all his efforts and
4Snaps' popularity and success is not enough to even pay his private school
tuition. No doubt the intangibles will transform his life (network, fame,
Zuckerberg, experience, etc...), but as a commentary on the viability of the
app store for monetary gain in games, it's pretty bleak.

As a developer, it was wildly successful (can't overstate that enough). As an
entrepreneur, it was a big failure. If, as an entrepreneur, you're jealous of
his success, you need to reevaluate your priorities and consider a change of
profession.

Too much Silicon Valley navel-gazing here.

~~~
hatu
I think of it as Google and Apples failure mostly. Current app stores are
terrible for new app discovery. Even for games which used to be a lucrative
market a couple of years ago there seems to be just a handful that take in
most of the money - which causes Google and Apple to showcase them more hiding
all the new interesting lesser known apps.

------
Swizec
You know what, this is a wonderful age we live in. A 13 year old kid can make
money off iOS apps, at 17 they can make _serious_ money.

When I was a kid the best I could do was have opensource stuff out there used
by thousands of people. Personal gratification was high, but my wallet never
got anything out of that, there just weren't any decent distribution channels
for non-free stuff. And this was less than ten years ago.

Kudos to the kid!

~~~
hansy
A wonderful age indeed. I see building apps becoming the new "lemonade stand"
for kids.

~~~
ben336
... there's slightly more work involved in one of those things.

~~~
noir_lord
Indeed, those lemons don't cut themselves and have you seen the price of sugar
these days?

------
d12345m
“[It] was the most stressful time of my whole life,” Sayman says. “It will
help me as an adult in the future because I learned how to be [stressed]. Now
I understand adults completely.”

This quote makes me want to drop everything and walk off into the forest.

------
caffinatedmonk
Do you have any advice for kids who code? I am 14 years old and I started
programming when I was 12. I primarily write open source software.

~~~
kirse
Log out of this website, turn away, and never come back. Assuming you want to
keep your coding as natural, fun, and creative as possible. You likely don't
have the awareness and wisdom yet to remain untarnished by the many garbage
influences you'll find on a site like this.

Keep doing your own thing and building confidence in exploring your own paths,
because there's a whole world out there that's going to tell you how things
_should_ be done and what defines success (to _them_ ). They're even going to
sound really smart and appear to be doing things right based on some metric
for "success", but only _you personally_ can figure that out for yourself.
It'll be harder to wrestle with figuring out your values, but will be far more
worth it in the end, always stay true to what _you_ want to do.

Once you build some confidence and consistent integrity in your values and
your own life approach, then come back.

~~~
peterwwillis
This, a million times.

@caffinatedmonk I can't tell you what to do, but I can tell you what I regret.
I regret not learning the boring structure of programming. The general terms
and ideas about programming languages, computer science terminology, low-level
stuff like kernel and operating system design (and thus hardware design), even
some of the math to understand and talk about algorithm efficiency. All of
that is necessary once you get a little older and want a really cool, creative
job. Most of us put off learning the boring stuff because it never seems as
important as the fun stuff you can do now, and then we have to deal with those
consequences later in life.

Also, i'd suggest you keep working in open source. There's a lot of
professionals and good best practices to be found in open source software.
Important stuff that seems to be missing in the code released on HN (another
reason to get out now!). Follow the good open source examples, make some cool
things or contribute to others' projects, and start building a mini resume out
of code you've done.

As more practical advice: you can learn programming languages like .NET, Java,
C++, PHP and Python if you want to get crummy corporate jobs that are a dime a
dozen. More fun stuff will probably be in some obscure language. Figure out
what _kind_ of programming excites you, then look into what kind of projects
there are like that out there and what languages and tools they use.

Oh, and for god's sake have some fun. Computers aren't everything. Go outside,
climb a tree, read a book, hang out with people. Computers will last forever;
youth won't. (Sorry, I know that's off-topic)

~~~
caffinatedmonk
Thanks! I have been trying to stay away from structural information but
recently I have wanted the contribute to the uofw/uofw project. This project
aims to completely reverse Sony's PSP firmware. This requires me to learn MIPS
ASM which requires me to learn the structure, general terms and ideas of
computer science.

Your last point, about having fun, is a good one. Lately, I have been very
busy with school and programming. Between my school work and my programming,
almost all of my day is consumed. You have a good point.

Thanks for the advice!

------
differentView
> His father lost his job, and in 2012 their family home was foreclosed on.

> They had to move into a much smaller apartment, and at the age of 16, Sayman
> found himself in the strange situation of helping his parents make the
> mortgage payments on the new place.

This part sounds strange to me.

~~~
windsurfer
You missed the phrase "He also started pitching in for his and his sister’s
private school tuition." What kind of family, so obviously down in luck, would
pay to have a member of their family go to a private school?

~~~
jnbiche
A family zoned for a very low-performing school -- not uncommon in South
Florida.

~~~
windsurfer
I am from Canada, where such a thing is almost unheard of. Private school is
considered a luxury.

This is a culture I'm very much unfamiliar with. Thank you.

~~~
shabadoop
And really, I've only ever seen rich kids with minor substance abuse problems
get sent to private school.

~~~
jnbiche
That just tells me that you've never lived in a city with truly atrocious
public schools like Detroit, Newark, or New Orleans.

In those cities, any caring family who can beg, scrape or borrow the funds
sends their kids to private schools, including most middle class families, and
many poor families (off a combination of scholarship money and extended family
contributions).

------
MattGrommes
The tone of this article is hilarious. Someone made an app, all by themselves!
With no VC help! It's amazing! It wasn't that long ago that in the wreckage of
the first .com bubble people could make websites, then apps, without millions
in funding. This story is awesome, this kid is awesome, I wish stories like
this weren't such "news".

------
ForHackernews
What a ridiculously overwrought writing style. This is why Pando is terrible:

> Instead, it took _sheer force of will_ and a refusal to back down to any of
> the obstacles he faced. That, and an _unholy faith in the power of Google_
> to answer his questions.

Don't get me wrong, this kid is pretty awesome, and I'm happy for his success.
But let's be serious: He got lucky with a silly fun app that caught on.

~~~
josefresco
Did you even read the article? What I found most striking was the he didn't
just "get lucky" ... he may have gotten lucky once but he had numerous
setbacks that he had to overcome, and did so very creatively.

From his creative Instagram marketing, to his deals to get a server, to his
numerous app enhancements and rewrites to address problems, he's got a lot
more than "luck" on his side.

Your could argue the Flappy Birds guy got lucky, but this kid had multiple
successes, setbacks and kept (and keeps) fighting to move to the next level.

------
freditup
Neat to see the community and parental support a kid who's willing to go
outside of the usual methods of learning (school) and do things on his own.
Not a real fan of the article though, seems unnecessarily patronizing to me:
"His braces give him a charming little lisp." Really?

~~~
tomjakubowski
(perhaps? (= it '(a pun)))

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theycallmemorty
“I knew this was going to be a huge app. I knew it because my sister liked it
before it even existed.”

Must be wonderful to have a validated idea fall in your lap like that!

------
msandford
Is anyone else surprised by the quality of reporting from Pando on this one? I
thought it was all SV link-bait but this reads like real, actual news.

------
jakebellacera
Honestly, this is cool. A lot of kids just sort of "stumble" into all of this
and it's inspiring in a way.

------
cbhl
It isn't clear from this article... is there an Android version of his app? Or
is he iOS-only?

------
gdilla
what a great story. chapeau, young michael. you are the unstartup!

