I am impressed by his determination. The Pando article says it best:
"Sayman's experience is one that perhaps could only be entirely appreciated here in Silicon Valley, where entrepreneurship, ingenuity, and building something out of nothing, or rather, out of lines of code, still holds cult-like status, for good or ill. Sayman doesn’t even seem to understand the power of his story.
He got his app where it is today not with millions or even thousands in venture capital. He didn’t get it where it is with Silicon Valley connections or hookups to the magic elves who pick what’s featured in the iOS app store. He didn’t get it with a team of developers or designers or a co-founder or even an incorporated company. He didn't even get it there with natural technical talent. 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."
"“I watch my son, every night and every single day, staying up until 4 or 5 am, working on the app, doing his homework, sleeping two or three hours, and then going to school,” Cristina Sayman says. "
I'm sad to say, I don't do this :( , I struggle to find that much willpower, even though I believe in what I'm building.
> > “I watch my son, every night and every single day, staying up until 4 or 5 am, working on the app, doing his homework, sleeping two or three hours, and then going to school,” Cristina Sayman says. "
> I'm sad to say, I don't do this :( , I struggle to find that much willpower, even though I believe in what I'm building.
It's great to have ambition and follow through with a project but staying up all night, sleeping 3 hours and going to school completely tired isn't the way to do it, not healthy at all and it shouldn't be encouraged.
No reason to be sad - save your willpower for reasonable hours.
Don't fall into the trap of thinking that insane productivity == success though. Remember this article that was posted last week on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10423455
I hope young people reading that article realize it's talking about someone winning the lottery. There's statistically zero chance that will happen to you, so you'd better work on your exams than code through the night and fail them.
The second time around he gambled a bit, but he also put in the work to give his app the right amount of polish, struck a partnership with a marketing company, found a way to haggle with Parse, etc.
Sure, I won't dismiss luck as a factor, luck is always a factor when it comes to games, about a third of it probably, but the chance of someone just getting lucky from their game is, well, statistically zero (and probably the most offensive thing someone could ever tell you).
Statistically speaking, the chance of creating a successful game is slim, the chance of creating a successful startup (or even a small company) is slim, the chance of getting promoted to a really high level within the company is slim, the odds of a lot of nice thoughts happening within our lives are slim. The thing is that these odds are just averages, it's definitely within the realm of possibility to beat the averages. Having a rich uncle helps, but not nearly as much as having a better strategy than average, developing better partnerships than average, putting in more work than average, and being more determined than average.
And I will agree that you really shouldn't choose exams over app, but I can kinda relate with the kid, when your family loses their home and is struggling to make ends meet with their downsized apartment, thinking about acing your exams just isn't something you think about. Survival is on your mind and sometimes you come up with some pretty crazy ideas to make that happen.
getting an app to the top of the app store is probably mostly luck in this context. But landing a good job at a respected technology company was the result of some serious hard work and dedication. Not failing exams is nonetheless good advice for anyone
Exams can be retaken. If you fail because you are dumb there's not much you can do but if you fail because you were building something cool then that's fixable.
Wow, the original article uses proper English. The version the OP posted seems like a rough derivative. For example, confusing Hustle version:
"The next great idea came when Michael watched his younger sister, Mariana, play on her phone. She was basically playing a hacked iOS charades game that Michael had created. The game was to take four photos, slap them into a collage, and make her friends guess the word she was acting out."
The much better original...
'Inspiration struck one day while he watched his younger sister Mariana playing on her phone with a friend. She was taking pictures and giggling. “I was texting my friend one day and we were bored so I started sending her a collage of four pictures and making her guess the word and she would do the same,' Mariana Sayman told me. 'Michael saw what I was doing and thought it would be a great idea for an app.'
Michael Sayman explained his thinking, 'I knew this was going to be a huge app. I knew it because my sister liked it before it even existed.'"
It's difficult to know without more specifics of why he got the full-time position. It's a great accomplishment for him but his app didn't sound as technically rigorous as the interview or job requirements Facebook would give a 30-something. It's probably the same reason the news finds teenagers passing college calculus/physics fascinating but not so with 30 year olds. His app could have also solved a lot of technical problems that 30 year olds couldn't in interviews and maybe he blew through Facebook's technical interviews easily.
If part of a sufficiently well-connected seed funded startup team that didn't have a business plan beyond hitting the top ten in the App Store, there's a realistic prospect they'd be acqui-hired at a cost of >£1m per person to Facebook.
Getting a teenager who's done it the hard way, probably for a fraction of that outlay, sounds like a smart move.
[+] [-] GFischer|10 years ago|reply
"Sayman's experience is one that perhaps could only be entirely appreciated here in Silicon Valley, where entrepreneurship, ingenuity, and building something out of nothing, or rather, out of lines of code, still holds cult-like status, for good or ill. Sayman doesn’t even seem to understand the power of his story.
He got his app where it is today not with millions or even thousands in venture capital. He didn’t get it where it is with Silicon Valley connections or hookups to the magic elves who pick what’s featured in the iOS app store. He didn’t get it with a team of developers or designers or a co-founder or even an incorporated company. He didn't even get it there with natural technical talent. 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."
"“I watch my son, every night and every single day, staying up until 4 or 5 am, working on the app, doing his homework, sleeping two or three hours, and then going to school,” Cristina Sayman says. "
I'm sad to say, I don't do this :( , I struggle to find that much willpower, even though I believe in what I'm building.
[+] [-] thirdsun|10 years ago|reply
> I'm sad to say, I don't do this :( , I struggle to find that much willpower, even though I believe in what I'm building.
It's great to have ambition and follow through with a project but staying up all night, sleeping 3 hours and going to school completely tired isn't the way to do it, not healthy at all and it shouldn't be encouraged.
No reason to be sad - save your willpower for reasonable hours.
[+] [-] degenerate|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fweespeech|10 years ago|reply
Being able to make a professional-grade app at 17 is natural technical talent.
Most people at 17 can't even pass the AP test or build an application that is truly useful.
[+] [-] bsaul|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Bjorkbat|10 years ago|reply
The second time around he gambled a bit, but he also put in the work to give his app the right amount of polish, struck a partnership with a marketing company, found a way to haggle with Parse, etc.
Sure, I won't dismiss luck as a factor, luck is always a factor when it comes to games, about a third of it probably, but the chance of someone just getting lucky from their game is, well, statistically zero (and probably the most offensive thing someone could ever tell you).
Statistically speaking, the chance of creating a successful game is slim, the chance of creating a successful startup (or even a small company) is slim, the chance of getting promoted to a really high level within the company is slim, the odds of a lot of nice thoughts happening within our lives are slim. The thing is that these odds are just averages, it's definitely within the realm of possibility to beat the averages. Having a rich uncle helps, but not nearly as much as having a better strategy than average, developing better partnerships than average, putting in more work than average, and being more determined than average.
And I will agree that you really shouldn't choose exams over app, but I can kinda relate with the kid, when your family loses their home and is struggling to make ends meet with their downsized apartment, thinking about acing your exams just isn't something you think about. Survival is on your mind and sometimes you come up with some pretty crazy ideas to make that happen.
[+] [-] finyeates|10 years ago|reply
There needs to be more people chasing their dreams rather then being cranked through the academia process.
[+] [-] hitgeek|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tim333|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] anonmeow|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] detay|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] serge2k|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eckza|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] teh_klev|10 years ago|reply
https://pando.com/2014/04/30/how-a-florida-kids-stupid-app-s...
[+] [-] neogodless|10 years ago|reply
"The next great idea came when Michael watched his younger sister, Mariana, play on her phone. She was basically playing a hacked iOS charades game that Michael had created. The game was to take four photos, slap them into a collage, and make her friends guess the word she was acting out."
The much better original...
'Inspiration struck one day while he watched his younger sister Mariana playing on her phone with a friend. She was taking pictures and giggling. “I was texting my friend one day and we were bored so I started sending her a collage of four pictures and making her guess the word and she would do the same,' Mariana Sayman told me. 'Michael saw what I was doing and thought it would be a great idea for an app.'
Michael Sayman explained his thinking, 'I knew this was going to be a huge app. I knew it because my sister liked it before it even existed.'"
[+] [-] gaius|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hashberry|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] test1235|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pjmlp|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] FLUX-YOU|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] notahacker|10 years ago|reply
Getting a teenager who's done it the hard way, probably for a fraction of that outlay, sounds like a smart move.
[+] [-] tootie|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ryanSrich|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aliston|10 years ago|reply
That sounds... off by a factor of 100...
[+] [-] plonh|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|10 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] logingone|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bsimpson|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] plonh|10 years ago|reply