Tumblr: All Thanks To Mum?

You couldn’t have missed the news that social networking site Tumblr was sold to Yahoo for $1.1 billion.  A new 26 year old techie genius joins the growing club of under 30s millionaires and deservedly so.  I was pondering though… would it have happened if his mum was more conservative?

David Karp (Tumblr creator and CEO) dropped out of school aged 14 at the advice of his mother, a teacher in a different school to her son’s and recommended home schooling.  She observed that her son was so engrossed in and obsessed with his computer that it was something to encourage and give space to.  What an amazing and brave mother!  Can you imagine that happening in your house??

School, homework, after school clubs, university…it was never a question of IF we were going to enter into further education it was only a question of when and to study what.  I think that parents should help identify if their kids have a genuine talent or are just lazy bums into games and that the government should set up different learning environments for them.  How would they differentiate? I don’t know I’m not qualified to answer but it makes sense to me that some kids just tick in different ways. After dropping out of school David worked for a company in New York and then moved to Tokyo where he gained more experience.  He introduced an MTV producer to Apple iPods and got the channel IT ready to benefit from the platform.

David Karp has immensely added to his country’s GDP, to the job market and to the technology world. He is only 26 so goodness knows what he will create next.  Techie guys have a bad reputation for being anorak weirdos, which some are no doubt, but there is immense creativity and foresight in how their thought process works.  The other thing I find interesting about techie guys that become millionaires is how they are interested in sharing their riches.  David Karp has only just earned $200 million and he is already wondering about philanthropic causes.

This generation of techie geniuses is made up of guys as it was traditionally a guy hobby I hope the next generation that includes their daughters will create awesome things we never knew we needed.

I’m actually not a Tumblr user, what is it good for?? May I suggest his next project….please get working on the Star Trek beaming machine, sounds like a great way to transport me and my luggage between London and Delhi I’m sure it’s only a coding issue….

Bubbly

Tags: anorak, Apple, child genius, Computing, creativity, David Karp, Education, home schooling, Information Technology, Ipod, IT, Mothers, MTV, parenting, philanthropy, schooling, social networking, techie genius, techie nerd, Tumblr, weirdos, women, Yahoo