Show HN: I’m 16 years old and working on my first startup, a study app

you're selling the 16 year old angle on HN, where 20 years old and younger represents about 2% of the demographic. You're getting an unusually high level of negative responses in comments as well, so I am curious, did you buy 'upvotes' for your post to boost it? I can't imagine such a disconnect between upvotes and comments arising from controversy, since the project isn't controversial, just unremarkable and somewhat amateur.

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To answer your question: Personally? I don't think so. When I was 16 I was aware of how little I knew, and knew that by virtue of units life lived vs units experience possible to have gained, there was likely little to nothing I knew sufficiently enough about to be relied on over most adults, with the exception of, at the time, tech. Then, this was only true given how niche it was, so niche most folks did not yet even have a computer or even internet access. If it was common place for folks to access, even that would not have been true. So for that reason, I saw no reason, it shouldn't also be true for my peers. For that reason I would give low weighting to whatever peers offered. For example, that one friend who claimed to have all the answers when it came to girls/women, why would you treat them as anything other than full of shit? Or that friend who might claim to know more on a topic than our teacher. While plausible in some domains, it is extremely unlikely in general like the know-it-all would have claimed and required a higher burden of proof than they could provide. That being said, this humility came from having constant reinforcement that my assumptions were overly simplistic, or outright wrong. This reinforcement tempered an otherwise self-indulgent world view and sense of self. I have to wonder how things like sycophantic AI influence this aspect of natural human development. Terrible ideas reinforced as world changing and awesome, ideas lacking in depth or nuance left not only unchallenged but outright reinforced and celebrated.

So, do I think kids would trust another kid to develop a worthwhile tool? Not in my generation, but perhaps kids in your cohort have a different attitude. They are inheriting a world on the brink of collapse due to mismanagement and are largely guided by sycophantic AI, and I have no illusion that this would breed a level of resentment and disregard for what older generations have to say / offer. You'd know better what kids your age would like and how they'd respond than I do by virtue of lived experience and my lack of insight on that demographic's wants/needs/perception of things, but if what was true for my cohort is true for yours, it would not help you sell your product.

That's a really positive outcome, one I am personally supportive of. Learning to code is a rewarding journey.

Now, while I am not scared of LLM's, I am scared for users who use them inappropriately.

I use LLM's extensively, and so I am intimately familiar with the dangers they pose to the uninitiated. I would HEAVILY caution against relying on LLM's until you can read and understand the code your asking LLM's to write comfortably.

Personally, I would recommend you first learn to code in a language of interest, then use LLM's to automate the stuff that has become second nature. The stuff you can pump out mindlessly. This takes the burden of monotonous tasks of your hands, and you have the expertise to check the LLM output for glaring issues. It's still not fully automated but it's much faster if you can write something complex, critical, or sensitive, while the LLM churns out boiler plate and routine chunks. You then comeback later and proof read the LLM output.

Trusting AI code you yourself don't understand is a recipe for disaster. You claim your users data will be private, but then have to rely on AI jank to keep this data safe, if it is even safe. It might just throw everything into publicly accessible folders. What happens when you promise safety, but don't actually provide any. What happens when a users data is then stolen? Who does the court hold accountable? you? the LLM you blindly trusted?

Your right, I’ll make this change, thanks.

This is the best comment here! I made this app not with making money in mind, but knowing I want an obtainable skill that I can leverage with applying to schools/jobs. I’m not here to make money quick, I want to build something with meaning, and I don’t think that’s possible with someone’s first app. This is the first step in learning to reach my meaningful idea.

It's amazing to see someone at 16 already capable of creating a project like this, seriously, you're so talented! Keep it up, you’ve got a long way to go.