(it was created 1 hour ago and the only comments from the account are negative posts about the article: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=petea)
To me it just confirms what the GP said: plenty of bruised egos in this thread.
This style of marketing is becoming very popular. The young, disadvantaged, novice, whatever does something extraordinary through sheer brilliance and dedication [1][2][3] and when their claims don't really match reality [4], nobody cares. The marketing has already succeeded. It is exactly the kind of marketing that is taylor made for social media and if we don't want to be inundated with it in the future, we need to question it every time it appears so that only the truly deserving reap its benefits. Extraordinary claims (should) require extraordinary evidence.
[1] - http://gigaom.com/2011/12/13/meet-the-internets-newest-boy-g...
[2] - http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/05/22/18-year-old-invents-unde...
[3] - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2335195/Meet-Madis...
[4] - http://www.businessinsider.com/the-17-year-old-yahoo-paid-30...
We really don't. You playing armchair internet detective will not stop people from getting more attention than you.
What do all of those things hurt? Nothing. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a story on the internet for a few days. It's not being shoved in your face, you're not being made to read about it. You chose to join this thread, like you chose to look up those four examples of the thing you hate so much.
I would much rather question the people who spend their time trying to denounce others.
[1] - http://grapefeed.com
And, unlike the subject of the post, you don't even have the courage to stick your identity to your work.
Neither do you -- as far as I can tell by viewing your profile and googling on your user name.
If you're going out of your way to create a new account to voice your opinion, chances are your opinion is shit.
That's a bit of a stretch, isn't it? Some opinions are more unpopular than others, and sometimes recipients of said opinion aren't as restrained as one would hope when they encounter an opinion they don't like.