[Hitchhiker]

David's start is at 14 and not post 20 as most grad students. At minimum, he will end up making something like Mathematica like Wolfram and at max, he will change the world.

The Big and Little Oh of this story are both extreme events.

[lmm]

That's an awfully high "minimum". I knew several "geniuses" at that age (might even qualify myself, though admittedly I was only three years ahead of par at that age); most of them have gone on to fairly normal (though by no means unsuccessful) careers, and a couple burned out quite spectacularly. I don't think putting that weight of expectation on is helpful.

[Hitchhiker]

In deed, you remind me of Solon's warning. Perhaps the better way to put it is he's attacking one heck of a problem - and with the right detachment to both industry and academia - so the minimum is based more on the quality of problems than the individual ( as unique as that is in this particular case ).

But yes, being an entrepreneur is an added layer, as you've to learn to arrange people to attain a larger goal than just research.

And he shows signs of that even on the jobs page while avoiding the broken method of interviewing that is oft practiced, he's almost defining a boundary for relatively high signal from the applicants.

His fluid approach is reminiscent of the caper that the Google guys pulled at Stanford.. and as it turns out, I think he also got funded by Larry.