The guy comes from an affluent family. The privilege is obvious from a mile away.
Still cool and all but in no way should anyone read this as a “oh, why wasn’t I able to do that” or “why aren’t more kids doing this?!” type of thing. It speaks to how out of touch most of HN is that they find this relatable.
Suppose it would be possible while poor, and only his high IQ enabled him to do it. Then it would still be his luck for having parents with genes that produced high IQ in their kids. So it would still be "privilege".
What's more, his parents don't just happen to be all that, they presumably worked for it too, including looking for a suitable partner to have kids with.
It might even inspire the one or other person to try to earn more money to enable their kids to do great things that require a bit of money.
Or what is the reasoning behind privilege theory? If you go back in the ancestry of this guy, eventually you'll find some colonialist exploiting slaves, and if you go back in the ancestry of poor kids who don't create chips in their garage, eventually you'll find an exploited human who never had a chance to earn money?
Not even mentioning that creating chips in one's garage is not the only kind of achievement there is. And some poor kids do in fact succeed in life.
Steve Wozniak also was lucky to have a da who was a cutting edge engineer. So I guess that makes Wozniak owe all his money to society now, because he had such an unfair advantage.
I think you are, at a minimum, really missing out on some context?
My post was a direct response to a parent poster who mused about how this sort of thing is possible in America, whereas it's nearly impossible for most Europeans. I responded by pointing out that this sort of thing also isn't possible for most Americans.
Or what is the reasoning behind privilege theory?
This kid seems super talented, and I'm glad that he seems to have parents with the inclination and means to support this sort of thing.
But also, please understand that what he's accomplished here is monetarily out of the reach of your average American as well. Especially the average American teenager. The article notes that his dad is a very successful engineer, so roughly speaking he's almost certainly in the top 5-10%. Most homes do not have garages of this size and most garages are not climate controlled as this one is.
Additionally, his dad is an engineer. I grew up middle class, but my dad sold vegetables. Neither of my parents could do algebra, much less advanced stuff, so they weren't in a position financially or otherwise to help me start up a semiconductor fab in the garage. Not that I would have had the smarts or the drive to do that; I'm merely pointing out that this kid is at the intersection of talent and privilege.
In service of their "boy genius" narrative, the article glosses over how much parental monetary support this kid has had. To pick one example:
Very impressive, but thousands more were spent on plumbing, repairs of the unit, a giant electrical transformer to power the thing, etc. Shipping costs alone may have exceeded the cost of the unit, but he doesn't touch on that. You can see some of the details in his video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJXio_jpc_YI remember in the 90's, my school turned down a free electron microscope for exactly that reason -- the cost of the unit itself is only the tip of the iceberg.