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The findings seem a little off to me. My father was 26 when I was born and he was a leather cutter, so our family wasn't advantaged in any way. He was also a

The findings seem a little off to me. My father was 26 when I was born and he was a leather cutter, so our family wasn't advantaged in any way. He was also a hopeless parent and played very little part in my personal development, despite being physically present throughout my childhood. The really key environmental factors that led me to being a geek can firmly be put down to: My Mother taking me to the library every week; having plenty of books at home and school; and good quality teaching at school. I can't imagine that having an older/wealthier father would have that much additional impact on top of these factors.

kyberias 9y ago
They are a little off because you compare them to your own individual life and you ignore the general trends. I'm a geek and libraries had nothing to do with. Rather it was all about my geek big brother and some of my geek friends. Yet I don't deny that the geekiness can be inherited from an old geek father in most cases.
k__ 9y ago
My father is a butcher, who was 20 when I was born. Came to geekiness mostly because I moved into different cities too much. Didn't find good friends, so I started gaming. In the end the gaming led me to build my own PCs, fix them when they broke down and tweak the games and drivers. This led to interest in coding.
dragonwriter 9y ago
“I don't fit the pattern” is not a strong reason for rejecting research findings that claim an increased probability of an outcome based on an input, not an sine qua non relationship. anecdote < data.
- j9461701 9y ago
  Precisely. I even fit the pattern, being an aspergers STEM major whose father was in his 50s when I was born. But that's no more evidence than the other person's refutation, because personal experience is worthless here. Statistics matter, and our own biases serve only to cloud our analysis.

kyberias 9y ago

They are a little off because you compare them to your own individual life and you ignore the general trends. I'm a geek and libraries had nothing to do with. Rather it was all about my geek big brother and some of my geek friends. Yet I don't deny that the geekiness can be inherited from an old geek father in most cases.

k__ 9y ago

My father is a butcher, who was 20 when I was born. Came to geekiness mostly because I moved into different cities too much. Didn't find good friends, so I started gaming. In the end the gaming led me to build my own PCs, fix them when they broke down and tweak the games and drivers. This led to interest in coding.

dragonwriter 9y ago

“I don't fit the pattern” is not a strong reason for rejecting research findings that claim an increased probability of an outcome based on an input, not an sine qua non relationship. anecdote < data.

j9461701 9y ago
Precisely. I even fit the pattern, being an aspergers STEM major whose father was in his 50s when I was born. But that's no more evidence than the other person's refutation, because personal experience is worthless here. Statistics matter, and our own biases serve only to cloud our analysis.