6th Grade iPhone Developer speaks at TEDx

http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2011/11/09/absolutely-amazing-6th-grade-iphone-app-developer-speaks-at-tedx/

by mbesto • 15 years ago

139 54 15 years ago

raquo• 15 years ago

If my children will be like that I'll die happy.

dasrecht• 15 years ago

That's what i tought. Furthermore it feels a bit strange to listen to a 6th grade boy is talking about creating apps. But why, it's just the same as we did some years ago. Just the possibility to speak up has gotten better =)

middus• 15 years ago

I'm not sure. It's an impressive, yes. But I doubt that I'd want my (young) children to own a mobilephone that's worth $$$.

muhfuhkuh• 15 years ago

12 years old is high time to learn responsibility, I reckon. Throw a ruggedized case like LifeProof and a 3rd party warranty on it and let 'em have it.

Hell, adults should do that for their phones, let alone kids.

forkrulassail• 15 years ago

He's a great speaker.

unalone4• 15 years ago

I wouldn't call him great, but I think it's really adorable how he takes his cadences/writing style from popular tech presenters. He's an excellent mimic.

latch• 15 years ago

I would.

He didn't oversell it (which is what every tech speaker does nowadays as they try, and fail, to imitate Jobs). His ton was even, he didn't sound or look nervous. He had minor trip ups a couple time and just kept going. He made the audience genuinely laugh.

Also, what makes you say he took "his cadences/writing style from popular tech presenters?" Isn't that a bit like watching a child score three pointers one after another and saying "ah, isn't that cute, he's imitating Ray Allen"

sjs• 15 years ago

Does it really have to be qualified with "for his age and experience"? It seems to me like that's simply understood in this context.

nassosdim• 15 years ago

I can say with absolute certainty that other people in his place would be anxious, nervous or insecure. He seems to like it. And when you like what you do, well... it's pretty obvious.

missy• 15 years ago

For his Age definately. He Has this Aura of a Star Speaker.

umarmung• 15 years ago

"He's a great speaker."

I agree.

I would go as far as to say that he is a better speaker than I am now and I would remain so without training.

That requires no qualification about his age or any of the other nonsense from some of the responses to your post.

safetyscissors• 15 years ago

I love the tools and resources that are being available to kids these days! The sad thing that I find is that some of the younger generation now do not have the same amount of curiosity and imagination that we had when we were younger. Most kids that I encounter now don't even bother to ask why or how a specific thing works. This kid gives me a lot of hope :) I'm glad that there are kids like that out there, willing to understand and absorb the information available to them, especially in this day in age where information is so easily accessible.

I wonder what we will shape for our kids. I hope its not useless iFart apps and social networking junk.

wallflower2• 15 years ago

> Most kids that I encounter now don't even bother to ask why or how a specific thing works. This kid gives me a lot of hope:)

It is really up to the parents. Extreme example, I remember having lunch with my cousins and one of them asked how a microwave worked. The dad, an engineer for IBM, disappeared and returned with a magnetron from his basement workshop. And then told his sons exactly how a microwave works.

The eldest son is now an undergraduate studying physics. He was about ten at the time of the question.

As a lesser example, my sister (who is not a Ph.D. like my cousins' father), loves BrainPop. BrainPop makes science fun without getting into too-many of the nitty-gritty details. Which is enough, when you are just 5.

http://www.brainpop.com/topics

dylangs1030• 15 years ago

I think it's also a cycle. If a parent is repeatedly dismissive of a child's questions, the child is conditioned not to ask them, and so becomes less inquisitive as a result of nurture. It's clearly not nature, as the generation isn't intrinsically different. Parents don't necessarily need to do something like the extreme example mentioned above, but they could certainly plant a seed by being more open to a lot of "Why?"'s, as annoying as it can be.

unalone4• 15 years ago

I think this is an example of limited perspective. I spent two recent summers working with kids ages 9-17 and was delighted at their curiosity, brightness, and willingness to get involved in elaborate conversations. Granted, the older kids were also trying to get in each others' pants, but that's the fun of being a kid, right?

I don't mind the social networking junk too much either; it's detrimental in the short term but everybody I know is getting weary of how pointless it is. I've been reading A. S. Neill's fantastic Summerhill School, where he details the things he learned after 50 years of teaching children, and he argues that letting children play is essential to their growing up properly. Freedom to play eventually leads to kids deciding what they most enjoy doing, and it leads to them being more willing to work within their society. Since reading that, I've wondered if social networks aren't just our modern form of play: useless wastes of time objectively, but people will move on from them and find better things to do.

(I hope. Facebook/the status feed are still only half a decade old. If five more years pass and everybody's still just as hooked, we've got a problem; I think we'll see feed obsession subside, but I could very well be wrong.)

sygeek• 15 years ago

I think the scarcity of tools and resources are also a problem. At least in my case ;)

jarek2• 15 years ago

> The sad thing that I find is that some of the younger generation now do not have the same amount of curiosity and imagination that we had when we were younger.

I'm willing to bet some of your generation did not have the same amount of curiosity and imagination you did when you were younger.

brainless• 15 years ago

What interested me most is that not only did he figure out how to learn app development, he is also going ahead and helping others through the club.

The basic social traits are there in a 6th grader too. Sharing knowledge for a better world!

ja273• 15 years ago

I help coach a FIRST Tech Challenge robotics team. When I opened up my MacBook one day there the kids went nuts seeing XCode and the iPhone simulator open. A couple of them would probably rather be building iOS apps than doing robotics. One of the kids even has apps in the Android store.

I think back to my middle school days and it doesn't seem that different from us tinkering with (ok, I'm old so humor me) BASIC and assembler on Commodore 64s, Atari 800s, and Apple IIes. The big differences are that kids today have a chance to publish stuff without years of building business relationships. There's also something Paul Hegarty said in his iOS class in iTunes University (another thing we didn't have as kids - access to free college-level courses): There's just something neater about having your app in your hand to show people wherever you go.

tansey• 15 years ago

>There's just something neater about having your app in your hand to show people wherever you go.

This is so true. I used to build TI-83 games and physics apps for precisely this reason. Handheld devices are hugely popular among kids and the ability to go from a content consumer to a content creator is huge for them.

inportb• 15 years ago

Ohey, I used to make TI-calculator programs too, when I was 12~ish. Most people at school had a TI-83+, and lunch hour (amongst the geeks) was spent trading apps.

feralchimp• 15 years ago

I was part of a FIRST team in high school, I think the second year of the competitions. One other friend and I were big into RC cars at the time, and we went in with all kinds of designs for drivetrains, oil-damped suspensions, control linkages, etc.

We had a decent design voice (shock/horror none of our oil-damped suspension designs made it), but essentially zero construction was performed by students in the club. Engineers from our partner org built the chassis from whole cloth using laser-cut polycarbonate and other legit machine tools. We didn't even get to watch that happen...the first rev of the mobility platform just sort of showed up one week.

At the time, my friend and I were really disappointed by that. But we stuck around and I'm glad we did, because it took a TON of teamwork and not-infrequent heroism for all of us to use and improve the robot without destroying it.

Software would have allowed far more room for experimentation and individual tinkering, but the group-social stakes would have always been way lower. Our robot literally had cheerleaders by the time we took it to compete in NH. That mix of fragility, anthropomorphism, weirdness, size/heft...can embody weeks of teenage group effort in a way that even a wicked-sweet app just can't.

So merits on both sides, I guess. And hey, app-controlled robots? Boom.

ja273• 15 years ago

I have mixed feelings about some aspects of FIRST Robotics, mostly about how much kids really learn when they're so focused on winning. (That's actually a core value of FIRST - "What we learn is more important than what we win", but a lot of teams don't really follow that.) FRC (the biggest class of robots) gets all the press, but FIRST LEGO League is a tremendous challenge for elementary and middle school kids. No remote control, completely autonomous operation of the robot. (Well, the students can pick up the robot and run different programs, but there's no joystick drive.)

The real physical robots vs. all software / simulation is a classic debate. I heard MIT's Rodney Brooks (of the "build real robots" camp) used to tell prospective grad students something like "it may take you a year longer to graduate with me but you'll have one hell of a demo tape."

This year's FRC teams will be getting Microsoft Kinect sensor bars to use. Should be some interesting stuff.

code_duck• 15 years ago

It's also a lot easier to learn about programming these days.

When I was in elementary school, I really wanted to write adventure games in Logo and Basic... learning resources were limited to books and magazines, and the naescent online world (PeopleLink? BBSs?) was out of reach. I tried to get my mother to sign us uip for Q-Link, but being ahead of her time she said I'd get molested or something.

Later, as a teen I learned all I could about ARexx and AmigaShell, but never came up with the $350 it cost for a good C compiler.

These days, C compilers and IDEs can be had for free... XCode is $5 and the iPhone dev. program, $100 a year. There's an endless supply of help, reference and tutorials available online, for free to anyone with an internet connection and a computer.

ja273• 15 years ago

It just dawned on me that I didn't mention the TEDx part of this. This kid building apps is pretty cool, but the fact that he put together a talk and presented at a TEDx is what might be even more impressive.

There are many different sizes of TEDx conferences but coming up November 18-21 there are a cluster of TEDx Youth Day conferences. I think there are about 40 just in the U.S. They're a great event to take youth to or for youth to come present at. At our local one, our presenters ranged from I think 4th grade to an artist in his 60s. If you don't have a local one or can't make it, many are webcast live and almost all the talks are recorded and posted to YouTube at some point. If you have time, a lot of TEDx conferences always seem to need techies to help. And if you really have some time, organizing a TEDx of your own isn't that difficult.

http://tedxyouthday.ted.com

cmelbye• 15 years ago

And this is why I don't believe it when people say that Apple's closed platforms will be the death of the technological creativity and curiosity at young ages that we were able to enjoy when we were younger.

superuser22• 15 years ago

Either the kid committed fraud when he digitally signed the Apple NDA and said he was at least 18 or the parent signed the NDA with the intent to break it . Google, Apple, Amazon, Paypal et al don't ever knowingly do business with minors and have been known to freeze accounts/keep kids' profits.

pmarsh• 15 years ago

Minor detail, everything should be closed like Apple does, unless it's not Apple doing it. Then is should be open.

sramam• 15 years ago

As a parent of a 1 year old perhaps I should consider bailing on his "speaking to humans" effort and get him focused on "speaking to computers"! :)

hrabago• 15 years ago

I recently learned that children can learn sign language before they can even learn to speak. This tells me that, yes, the can probably speak to computers prior to learning to speak to humans.

joshmlewis• 15 years ago

When I was 12 (18 now) I decided to make a website for my boy scout troop and I ran Microsoft Frontpage and used GoDaddy and got a website up. It was something about putting something I made online and being able to access it anywhere that really drew me in to the web world. I haven't stopped from there and have been very successful in my endeavors since then. I am living in a downtown apartment working for myself doing things I love after just graduating high school. Sadly but truly not many people my age can say that, especially around here (in the south.) All that to say, it was an awesome feeling at age 12 having something online and being proud of something I made. From there it never stopped and really grew into a passion I hope to carry for a lifetime.

Lost_BiomedE• 15 years ago

You get a similar feeling when seeing your tangible product's first run or seeing it on the shelf in the wild. It is more than a feeling of accomplishment but a feeling of creation.

kiba• 15 years ago

I have a similar experience and is in almost exact same situation as you except I just lost my programming job because they have no work for me.

tikhonj2• 15 years ago

Heh, that's almost exactly how I started: making websites using Frontpage for school. For some reason, we had a really thick Frontpage book lying around at home; I found it fascinating. My designs back in the day involved animated backgrounds, unstoppable music and weird fonts. I even hacked together my own version of @font-face where the visitor would download and install the font manually... Fun times.

It's really reassuring to hear of other people with similar experiences, especially those my age. There is nothing comparable to knowing what you want to do in life and being able to enjoy it immediately.

I really hope you continue to be successful and go on to build many cool things.

baby3• 15 years ago

Ahhh frontpage, we never think about it when we talk about microsoft failures.

ajasmin• 15 years ago

I was really into BASIC in school but I wonder if teaching specific technologies such as iPad development or HTML5 really has the same value than sport or music. These things change so fast.

tikhonj2• 15 years ago

The point isn't to master a specific technology but to get a general understanding of how things work and develop an insatiable curiosity coupled with a creative drive.

Learning how to make an interactive website with JavaScript will teach you how to think in computer terms, teach yourself new technology (reading the documentation is itself a valuable experience) and take a project from imagination to reality. The very best programmers--and somebody starting out so young is probably more likely to become a great programmer--are not the ones that have mastered the technology de jour but rather the ones who have solid fundamental skills, a logical and inquisitive mind and can teach themselves new technologies easily.

Ultimately, all the short-term changes in the software field are ultimately fairly superficial. Going from Flash to JavaScript or C++ to Java is not an earth-shattering change--it's just a natural progression. There are changes, to be sure, but you're ultimately just doing similar things in similar ways. If anything, it just gets easier.

So, in short, the quick pace of the software industry isn't really as quick as it seems and writing programs is at least as healthy for developing intelligence and curiosity as anything else. I really don't think it a worse choice than sports or music for an extracurricular activity.

baby3• 15 years ago

What this kid say in the first minute is really true. I was craving to make video games when I was a kid, if there was a book about creating video games, I would buy it. I tried everything, my parents didn't really know how to help me...

I ended up choosing flash, it was back in 2002 and started to learn action script (which was very basic then). Made a lot of crappy games, but got bored by the limitations of the software.

Now, years after, I still really want to make a game, but I'm in the wrong major, I'm trying to get into directX but It's really too difficult for me... I don't even know where to start.

gmatty• 15 years ago

As someone who has written a game (To The Stars 3D on iPhone) and as someone who has gone through many different routes, I would suggest taking a look at Unity3D. They have a free version and they really take a large portion of the pain out of creating a game on basically any platform.

baby3• 15 years ago

I just found out about it today. But I've been willing to try the CryEngine 3 SDK for a long time...

cpeterso2• 15 years ago

If you have a Flash/ActionScript background, I recommend checking out Ansca Mobile's Corona. It's a (commercial with free trial) Lua programming environment (including device simulator and Lua debugger) that can generate iOS and Android apps.

Corona's media and physics libraries are a great match for 2D games. Other types of apps would be more difficult.

I have no vested interest in Corona; as an ex-Flash guy, I just think it's really cool!

http://www.anscamobile.com/corona/

epaga• 15 years ago

And an open source alternative I just discovered here on HN a week or so ago is Moai: http://getmoai.com Also Lua, also with media & physics libraries.

TorbjornLunde• 15 years ago

What is also really impressive is his speaking skills.

alduler• 15 years ago

Well what's so fascinating about it? I personally started dabbling in coding at the age of 12 and at the age of 14 I started to earn money from it. I believe many among us followed this path.

6th Grade iPhone Developer speaks at TEDx

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