Meet Alex: New York's Youngest Hustler

http://nymag.com/news/features/41539/

by pdsull • 19 years ago

27 22 19 years ago

nymag.com

alaskamiller2• 19 years ago

Great parenting skills.

brk• 19 years ago

Not now, but maybe when he gets older and has kids.

sspencer• 19 years ago

He's like a tiny Paris Hilton. Except even more worthless, if that's even possible.

pius2• 19 years ago

Haha, more like Perez Hilton.

pius2• 19 years ago

Or maybe Turtle from Entourage.

jkkramer• 19 years ago

I read about a condition recently that was like the opposite of autism: people with it were extremely socially adept. Sounds like this kid has it.

Can't find a link at the moment; maybe someone else has read about it?

Darmani• 19 years ago

Williams Syndrome.

One of its major symptoms is also mental retardation; while the article didn't delve too much into that sector, not mentioning mental retardation is a bit of a glaring omission.

blader2• 19 years ago

I love this kid - he knows what he wants and is able to get them without whining to his parents.

I think the parents have done a pretty good job.

alaskamiller2• 19 years ago

Sure did! With this type of enabling behavior at such a young age, who knows what might happen? He might be president one day!

mattmaroon• 19 years ago

My bet is on alcoholic.

tlrobinson2• 19 years ago

I have to wonder if the attention he gets is because of his age. He certainly wouldn't get away with a lot of the things mentioned in the article if he were, say, 20.

Kaizyn• 19 years ago

Good point. However, if he builds enough contacts between now and when he's twenty, that won't be much of a problem.

sethg2• 19 years ago

If he has a trust fund to support him for his entire adult life, then he's all set.

Otherwise, at some point he's going to have to do more than hang around, look cute, and do occasional odd jobs for free. I saw no evidence from the article that he's prepared for that aspect of adult life. It doesn't seem like his parents are even trying to prepare him.

zeantsoi2• 19 years ago

The depiction is decidedly not indicative of Williams Syndrome.

Rather, what I'd take away (from a cursory level, anyways) is not his glibness and glaringly ostentatious demeanor-- it's his glibness and glaringly ostenation demeanor at such a young age.

Rarely would we encounter such a young individual with such brazen behavior that he feels not that he's merely able to operate with an adult's social capabilities, but that he's in fact entitled to operate in such capacities.

While I realize that this boldness and brashness can be jealously misconstrued as simple pomp... this kid has true (thought perhaps not intellectual) genius and is certainly nothing akin to anything as depraved as, say, a Paris Hilton.

jsmcgd• 19 years ago

I think he's probably literally psychopathic. I say this as someone reading who's been reading Wikipedia about the subject for about 5 minutes.

My official diagnosis is that he is a Factor 1 psychopath exhibiting symptoms of Narcissistic Personality Disorder for positive effect according to PCL-R Model of psychopathy.

Alex behaviour demonstrates a strong correlation with the known symptoms of psycopathy including: glib and superficial charm, grandiosity, need for stimulation, pathological lying, conning and manipulating, lack of remorse, callousness, poor behavioral controls, impulsivity, irresponsibility, failure to accept responsibility for one's own actions.

I recommend that he eats humble pie three times a day before he gets his just desserts, after all you are what you eat.

I'm off to pop a few jealously tablets.

zeantsoi2• 19 years ago

Sociopathic, perhaps... but psychopathic? I'm not sure he fits the description even based on the symptoms you've listed. - Glib and superficial charm: Is there any other sort of charm? - Pathological lying: Yes, there are depictions of lies (lady in the swimming pool), but are they substantively pathological? - Conning and manipulation: These are mistaken for being the same thing; from the article, he is certainly a manipulator, but perhaps not a conman. - As for lack of remorse, callousness, poor behavioral controls, impulsivity, irresponsibility, and failure to accept responsibility for one's actions... couldn't these be symptomtic of adolescence as well???

That said, I agree that this kid needs a dose of humility, and I'm sure he's going to get it in spades over the next few years.

edu• 19 years ago

Well, not precisely a role model.

herdrick• 19 years ago

Poor kid. His life will suck.

create_account• 19 years ago

Why has this gotten so many votes?

sethg2• 19 years ago

So when this becomes a Law and Order episode, will the kid be the victim or the murderer?

Meet Alex: New York's Youngest Hustler

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