

Teenagers make $170k on Apple iPhone OS platform - jp
http://labs.teppefall.com/2010/04/teenagers_make_170k_on_apple_iphone.html

======
gxs
> Very impressive right ? Except the journalistic angle is basically "kids
> make money from nothing" when the reality is that they have access to two
> MacBook Pro's, at least one iPhone , two iPad's, a broadband connection, a
> credit card to pay for the Apple Developer license plus web hosting.

I typically despise this point of view. Sure, I can readily admit that there
is an element of luck in success - but I've never done it to the extent of
belittling other people's accomplishments.

On a sidenote: this is why I didn't enjoy Malcolm Gladwell's outliers- you
can't diminish people's success to merely luck - even if you pre-append your
babble with, sure they were smart, but they were really just lucky.

I mean where do you draw the line? To use his own example - Lebron James isn't
talented: he was just lucky to be born with athleticism and ability? Were
Larry and Sergey just lucky to be born with an ability to reason and work
hard? Give me a break.

~~~
starkfist
"Were Larry and Sergey just lucky to be born with an ability to reason and
work hard?"

Almost anyone is born with the ability to reason and work hard. Larry and
Sergey were obviously born with this ability. In addition they were both born
into families where both parents were professionals in the mathematical
sciences. Larry's parents were CS professors. Sergey's dad is a math professor
and his mom works for NASA. In addition, Larry's older brother Carl sold his
company to Yahoo for $400M+. Thus not only did math and programming run in the
family, so did software entrepreneurship.

Not belittling their achievements, but parts of the backstory make it seem
like Google was predestined. Where do you draw the line between luck and work,
indeed...

~~~
idoh
Do you have a source for Carl's role in eGroups? It is hard to tell whether he
was just an employee at the company or something more:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EGroups>

~~~
starkfist
I'm not really sure but his old ZVUE page said he was a founder. Most of the
articles I've seen imply that he was the 2nd person to join the company.

------
ajg1977
In other news, kids make millions from playing football.

<http://wcbstv.com/national/nfl.draft.Bradford.2.1649569.html>

~~~
Aetius
Basketball's where it's at. Good work if you can find it :).

~~~
CoachRufus87
actually, baseball is where its at

~~~
jraines
my kid's at least giving golf a shot. Even if you just play in college you
travel to sick locations. 20th place at the 2009 Masters was $97,500.

~~~
puredemo
Yeah but becoming a top 20 golfer is incredibly hard. And that's only about
what a seasoned minor league baseball player makes.

------
stcredzero
Why did these kids succeed? The answer is, quite possibly, that they deserved
to! Go to their website and take a look at the _supported use case_ for their
app. Their app appeals to both the _browser and collector mindset_. Already,
they are harnessing powerful psychology. On top of that, if their "perfect
formatting" claim for article, then they also are presenting a polished UX.

I tried out two different Wikipedia apps for my old Windows XP Tablet machine.
If you're technically inclined, you can load a compressed snapshot of
Wikipedia and carry it with you. That puts you in the position of
"administrator and custodian" of your Wikipedia snapshot, which isn't fun and
seems like work, whereas being a browser and collector is an addictive sort of
hobby.

You can think of this as Instapaper for Wikipedia.

------
zackattack
Bookmarklet

    
    
      javascript:location='http://translate.google.com/translate?u='+encodeURIComponent(location);

