> 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.<p>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.<p>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.<p>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.
In other news, kids make millions from playing football.<p><a href="http://wcbstv.com/national/nfl.draft.Bradford.2.1649569.html" rel="nofollow">http://wcbstv.com/national/nfl.draft.Bradford.2.1649569.html</a>
Why did these kids succeed? The answer is, quite possibly, that they deserved to! Go to their website and take a look at the <i>supported use case</i> for their app. Their app appeals to both the <i>browser and collector mindset</i>. 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.<p>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.<p>You can think of this as Instapaper for Wikipedia.