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Our culture has an awkward relationship between talent due to genetics and due to hours and hours of practice. Props to the author for creating this. But part o
by tw1010 9y ago
Our culture has an awkward relationship between talent due to genetics and due to hours and hours of practice. Props to the author for creating this. But part of me feels like this book is slightly too heavily skewed in the direction of thinking that genetics is more in control of talent rather than practice. Why do I say this? Because it seems to believe that there aren't implicit ways of improving brain capability through the use of, for instance, mathematics. By teaching the child what it is you want them to know directly, instead of concentrating the attention on, for instance, developing their imagination (without the constraints of having to anchor it in programming), you're essentially placing a vote on the belief that the child won't be able to pick this stuff up easily once you've built their brain up.
- peacetreefrog 9y agoI think you're projecting. The simpler explanation is what he says, "although [Amazon has] thousands of books explaining how a construction site works, and hundreds of books explaining how farms work, they did not have any books that explained what I did [as a programmer]".
- tw1010 9y agoThat may be his intention. But an author is not in full control over how a reader will interpret his work. And there is no doubt that a lot of people will read this work as if it is a tool for teaching their child coding, rather than as a way to teach them about what it is they do all day.
- peacetreefrog 9y agoMaybe it's a mix of both. I think it's a huge stretch to say the author or this book is weighing in on nature vs nurture and genetics vs practice debates though.
- tgarv 9y agoI look at it as mainly improving the child's vocabulary with some very niche words that they probably wouldn't learn on their own. Then, some day, they'll run into that word in context and they'll be able to understand the greater context a little better.
- jedberg 9y agoHaving studied how humans learn, both are important factors. Genetics determines the upper limit, and teaching and practice determines if you reach that limit. But when it comes to teaching, it is important to teach both how to learn, as well as basic concepts to build upon. By teaching the child these words and concepts, they can then expand from there. They can get curious then use their training on "how to learn" to learn more about the topics presented. To successfully teach a child, you have to do both.