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Why, to this day, am I still mesmerized by Legos? Is it the fact that it was my first "engineering" like activity which allowed unconstrained creativity that u

Why, to this day, am I still mesmerized by Legos? Is it the fact that it was my first "engineering" like activity which allowed unconstrained creativity that ultimately lead to my career in software engineering? Or was it more mundane, Robinhood never looked so good until I made him battle a space alien...

RyanMcGreal 16y ago
Lego is low-barrier-to-entry hardware programming for children - i.e. people who haven't yet learned that normal people don't make things.
- iuytgfrdsza 16y ago
  There is a theory that OO really caught on in the 80s/90s because of a generation that had first grown up with interchangeable identical building blocks of Lego bricks in the 70s
  - RyanMcGreal 16y ago
    Now I'm wondering what a functional building toy might look like.
    - cscheid 16y ago
      Logo?
    - iuytgfrdsza 16y ago
      A lego toy that could only return copies of lego toys?
levesque 16y ago
The Minecraft developer should implement lego NXT-esque stuff in his game :)
- jokermatt999 16y ago
  He does have Redstone, which is Turing Complete, to the point where someone built a 16 bit ALU (I think they went further than that though) out of it. I've seen a few seven segment displays in it too.
- daeken 16y ago
  I'm working on a game -- when time allows -- that lets you build and race vehicles using Lego Technic-style pieces, e.g. gears, motors, belts, blocks, etc. It's honestly pretty easy from a tech perspective (I'm using Python + PyOgre + Bullet for the core of it), but presenting the vehicle designer to the user in a nice way is really tough. I'll announce the alpha here as soon as I have anything, of course.
city41 16y ago
I just bought a LEGO set the other day for a fun little diversion. To this day at the ripe age of 33 it's still therapeutic and very enjoyable to kick back and build a car out of LEGOs. I really enjoy the designs they come up with, complete with little hints of suspension viewable from the wheel well. The car even has the little trough where the windshield wipers would live.
- dripton 16y ago
  My mother-in-law bought me a Lego F1 Ferrari for my birthday a couple of years ago. Probably the best gift I've received since I was a kid. Because it turns out that I still I like playing with Lego, but I no longer think to buy it for myself.
kiba 16y ago
It's like trying to understand people who are incurious about technology. Lego are joys to hackers! We like to think, modify, and build things.
brc 16y ago
I don't know, but I bet there is a very strong correlation between played with lego as kid : works as software developer now. I wouldn't be willing to work out which one comes first. Does playing with lego cause you to want to build things, or do you want to build things and naturally start playing with lego. It's the most awesome toy ever built. I've started my kids on Lego as soon as they could hold the bricks, and informed all relatives for all presents to be from the house of Lego. It's also one of the only toys with resale value (after being played with); the ebay auctions for Lego are hard to win.

RyanMcGreal 16y ago

Lego is low-barrier-to-entry hardware programming for children - i.e. people who haven't yet learned that normal people don't make things.

iuytgfrdsza 16y ago
There is a theory that OO really caught on in the 80s/90s because of a generation that had first grown up with interchangeable identical building blocks of Lego bricks in the 70s
- RyanMcGreal 16y ago
  Now I'm wondering what a functional building toy might look like.
  - cscheid 16y ago
    Logo?
  - iuytgfrdsza 16y ago
    A lego toy that could only return copies of lego toys?

levesque 16y ago

The Minecraft developer should implement lego NXT-esque stuff in his game :)

jokermatt999 16y ago
He does have Redstone, which is Turing Complete, to the point where someone built a 16 bit ALU (I think they went further than that though) out of it. I've seen a few seven segment displays in it too.
daeken 16y ago
I'm working on a game -- when time allows -- that lets you build and race vehicles using Lego Technic-style pieces, e.g. gears, motors, belts, blocks, etc. It's honestly pretty easy from a tech perspective (I'm using Python + PyOgre + Bullet for the core of it), but presenting the vehicle designer to the user in a nice way is really tough. I'll announce the alpha here as soon as I have anything, of course.

city41 16y ago

I just bought a LEGO set the other day for a fun little diversion. To this day at the ripe age of 33 it's still therapeutic and very enjoyable to kick back and build a car out of LEGOs. I really enjoy the designs they come up with, complete with little hints of suspension viewable from the wheel well. The car even has the little trough where the windshield wipers would live.

dripton 16y ago
My mother-in-law bought me a Lego F1 Ferrari for my birthday a couple of years ago. Probably the best gift I've received since I was a kid. Because it turns out that I still I like playing with Lego, but I no longer think to buy it for myself.

kiba 16y ago

It's like trying to understand people who are incurious about technology. Lego are joys to hackers! We like to think, modify, and build things.

brc 16y ago

I don't know, but I bet there is a very strong correlation between played with lego as kid : works as software developer now. I wouldn't be willing to work out which one comes first. Does playing with lego cause you to want to build things, or do you want to build things and naturally start playing with lego. It's the most awesome toy ever built. I've started my kids on Lego as soon as they could hold the bricks, and informed all relatives for all presents to be from the house of Lego. It's also one of the only toys with resale value (after being played with); the ebay auctions for Lego are hard to win.