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Tani’s family has an apartment, near his current school, paid for one year by an anonymous donor. They will be donating 10% of the GoFundMe to their church and

Tani’s family has an apartment, near his current school, paid for one year by an anonymous donor. They will be donating 10% of the GoFundMe to their church and the remaining 90% will become a trust to help African migrants seeking asylum in the United States. While Tani has been offered scholarships by several elite private schools in NYC, his family has decided to stay loyal to the school Tani is currently attending until the middle school transition. Tani was asked if he wanted any single material item and he replied, “Maybe a computer”.

m0zg 8y ago
> “Maybe a computer”. Whereupon, sadly, he will discover social media, and all his progress will come to a screeching halt due to FANG PhDs gaming his dopamine cycles for a buck. I wish I was wrong, but looking at my 15 year old, I'm not hopeful. He used to be pretty good at chess, too, before he started spending all his time watching bullshit on Youtube.
- Invictus0 8y ago
  Don't write this about your kid man. We all wasted our time as teenagers, it's part of growing up.
  - rjf72 8y ago
    I wouldn't equate all wastes. Most forms of play have some derivative benefits. Social media and trash content on YouTube seems to have no benefit whatsoever. Of course we had TV whereupon the same critique of unbeneficial waste applies, but I think one big difference is that it became boring quickly. By contrast things such as social media and YouTube provide practically endless entertainment. Even video games have lost their benefit. When 'we' were younger, games tended to be difficult which instilled perseverance and required the development of skill. That or you got frustrated and went and did something else. Now games, and by this I mostly mean AAA type stuff, have become far more passive forms of entertainment with most of all challenge removed. This feels like a 'back in my day' rant, but one major difference is that there is quantifiable data to indicate ongoing negative changes in society such, as mentioned in a peer post, the contemporary reversal of the Flynn Effect. [1] [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect
  - nostrademons 8y ago
    I mean, I wasted hundreds of hours playing online games as a middle-schooler. Got so addicted that I decided I wanted to learn to make one, so I taught myself C, then C++, then Java when it came out. One thing led to another, I got a few internships, then a job, a CS major, another job, and 15 years later I was one of those Google engineers gaming dopamine cycles for a buck. And the cycle completes!
    - eastendguy 8y ago
      Unfortunately you are the exception, not the rule. I know a few truly addicted computer gamers. They are in their 30-40s now, still sitting in their little room playing all day. Lonely, no friends, no social life. Like drug addiction, it is not pretty to see. But lucky you, you will never meet them on the Google Campus. FANG is Tobacco industry, V2.0.
- sandov 8y ago
  ... Or he will learn to code and become the next Dijkstra.
  - m0zg 8y ago
    From watching bullshit on Youtube? Please.
  - gowld 8y ago
    One of Dijkstra's complaints was that American computer scientists, with all their wealth and non-WWII-bombed cities (vs Europeans) , spent too much time and money playing with computers instead of doing computer science.
    - kevin_thibedeau 8y ago
      That play time seems to have been more valuable than what the defunct European computer industry focused its energies on.
      - m0zg 8y ago
        I'm all for a clever snark, but you're posting this using the medium invented by an European computer scientist, Tim Berners Lee. Whatever they were doing turned out to be pretty valuable, too. Like "the backbone of the information age" grade valuable.
    - teddyh 8y ago
      Some US computer scientists managed to avoid it, with great effort: “Clearly the game was potentially addictive, so I forced myself to stop playing — reasoning that it was great fun, sure, but traditional computer science research is great fun too, possibly even more so.” — Donald Knuth
  - segmondy 8y ago
    Or Amat Cama https://www.zdnet.com/article/tesla-car-hacked-at-pwn2own-contest/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/tesla-car-hacked-at-pwn2own-co...
- newen 8y ago
  Learning how to use chess engines and making use of them for training is actually a huge tool for chess players.
- nl 8y ago
  The irony of this post complaining about BS Youtube videos when the next comment down posts the Youtube vid of the game itself along. The comment seems relevant: agadmator is one of the few YT chess channels that I enjoy watching on a daily basis. Love his analysis, and it has helped to improve my chess thinking and strategy.[1] (I say this as someone who was banned from watching TV, and ended up wasting lots of time reading trash novels as a teenager instead) [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19479225 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19479225
- rjf72 8y ago
  It's unbelievable this is getting downvoted, because it's 100% true and a very major problem in society. I've taught lots of young players and success or failure has 0 to do with intelligence. It's a matter of who can stay focused and actually do the work it takes to improve (which at that age/level is tactics tactics tactics). The second they "discover" social media or the endless stream or inanity on e.g. YouTube, it's game over. It's a big part of the reason I stopped teaching. It's so disappointing to see somebody make such rapid progress, start getting distracted by digital entertainment including social media, and then see all their potential (alongside extensive wasted effort on my part) just flushed down the toilet. --- A sharp but, in my opinion, very related tangent is the Flynn Effect [1]. It was the observation that IQs were increasing over time. IQ tests are always normalized such that the mean is 100 with a standard deviation of about 15. However, Flynn observed that the absolute score of a 100 in e.g. 1950 was higher than it was in 1920 and similarly on forward. Until the 1990s. Sometime in the 1990s this all changed. In numerous developed nations the Flynn Effect has reversed. Now, for the first time ever, a 100 IQ score would be less today than in e.g. 1985 in many developed nations. And the declines have been quite dramatic reducing on the order of 1-2 points per decade. Keep in mind that 1/15 = 0.07. Somebody who is at the average of 100 would be ahead of about 50% of people. Reduce that by just 1 point he's dropped 0.07 sigmas and is now only ahead of 47% of people. And that's a population level event recurring each and every decade! [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect
  - jinfiesto 8y ago
    I stopped teaching piano for much the same reason. The level of focus just isn't there any more (obviously there are exceptions.) Not that I blame the students, If I'd grown up in this day and age, I certainly would rather be gaming or jacked into social media than practicing.
  - m0zg 8y ago
    Needless to say, I agree that it's a major problem, and one the full extent of which we will only experience 10-15 years in the future. One thing is for sure: something _has_ to be done now.
  - reissbaker 8y ago
- GhotVeren 8y ago
  As far as the bullshit goes, chess is probably the pinnacle of it. Perfect game of grind for pretense of intelligence. Chess doesn't solve half as much problems as YouTube videos. Your 15 year old is more likely to grow up making living off making YouTube videos than playing chess anyway.
  - ovi256 8y ago
    Yes, the real economy is making and watching Youtube videos in a virtuous circle.

m0zg 8y ago

> “Maybe a computer”. Whereupon, sadly, he will discover social media, and all his progress will come to a screeching halt due to FANG PhDs gaming his dopamine cycles for a buck. I wish I was wrong, but looking at my 15 year old, I'm not hopeful. He used to be pretty good at chess, too, before he started spending all his time watching bullshit on Youtube.

Invictus0 8y ago
Don't write this about your kid man. We all wasted our time as teenagers, it's part of growing up.
- rjf72 8y ago
  I wouldn't equate all wastes. Most forms of play have some derivative benefits. Social media and trash content on YouTube seems to have no benefit whatsoever. Of course we had TV whereupon the same critique of unbeneficial waste applies, but I think one big difference is that it became boring quickly. By contrast things such as social media and YouTube provide practically endless entertainment. Even video games have lost their benefit. When 'we' were younger, games tended to be difficult which instilled perseverance and required the development of skill. That or you got frustrated and went and did something else. Now games, and by this I mostly mean AAA type stuff, have become far more passive forms of entertainment with most of all challenge removed. This feels like a 'back in my day' rant, but one major difference is that there is quantifiable data to indicate ongoing negative changes in society such, as mentioned in a peer post, the contemporary reversal of the Flynn Effect. [1] [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect
- nostrademons 8y ago
  I mean, I wasted hundreds of hours playing online games as a middle-schooler. Got so addicted that I decided I wanted to learn to make one, so I taught myself C, then C++, then Java when it came out. One thing led to another, I got a few internships, then a job, a CS major, another job, and 15 years later I was one of those Google engineers gaming dopamine cycles for a buck. And the cycle completes!
  - eastendguy 8y ago
    Unfortunately you are the exception, not the rule. I know a few truly addicted computer gamers. They are in their 30-40s now, still sitting in their little room playing all day. Lonely, no friends, no social life. Like drug addiction, it is not pretty to see. But lucky you, you will never meet them on the Google Campus. FANG is Tobacco industry, V2.0.
sandov 8y ago
... Or he will learn to code and become the next Dijkstra.
- m0zg 8y ago
  From watching bullshit on Youtube? Please.
- gowld 8y ago
  One of Dijkstra's complaints was that American computer scientists, with all their wealth and non-WWII-bombed cities (vs Europeans) , spent too much time and money playing with computers instead of doing computer science.
  - kevin_thibedeau 8y ago
    That play time seems to have been more valuable than what the defunct European computer industry focused its energies on.
    - m0zg 8y ago
      I'm all for a clever snark, but you're posting this using the medium invented by an European computer scientist, Tim Berners Lee. Whatever they were doing turned out to be pretty valuable, too. Like "the backbone of the information age" grade valuable.
  - teddyh 8y ago
    Some US computer scientists managed to avoid it, with great effort: “Clearly the game was potentially addictive, so I forced myself to stop playing — reasoning that it was great fun, sure, but traditional computer science research is great fun too, possibly even more so.” — Donald Knuth
- segmondy 8y ago
  Or Amat Cama https://www.zdnet.com/article/tesla-car-hacked-at-pwn2own-contest/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/tesla-car-hacked-at-pwn2own-co...
newen 8y ago
Learning how to use chess engines and making use of them for training is actually a huge tool for chess players.
nl 8y ago
The irony of this post complaining about BS Youtube videos when the next comment down posts the Youtube vid of the game itself along. The comment seems relevant: agadmator is one of the few YT chess channels that I enjoy watching on a daily basis. Love his analysis, and it has helped to improve my chess thinking and strategy.[1] (I say this as someone who was banned from watching TV, and ended up wasting lots of time reading trash novels as a teenager instead) [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19479225 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19479225
rjf72 8y ago
It's unbelievable this is getting downvoted, because it's 100% true and a very major problem in society. I've taught lots of young players and success or failure has 0 to do with intelligence. It's a matter of who can stay focused and actually do the work it takes to improve (which at that age/level is tactics tactics tactics). The second they "discover" social media or the endless stream or inanity on e.g. YouTube, it's game over. It's a big part of the reason I stopped teaching. It's so disappointing to see somebody make such rapid progress, start getting distracted by digital entertainment including social media, and then see all their potential (alongside extensive wasted effort on my part) just flushed down the toilet. --- A sharp but, in my opinion, very related tangent is the Flynn Effect [1]. It was the observation that IQs were increasing over time. IQ tests are always normalized such that the mean is 100 with a standard deviation of about 15. However, Flynn observed that the absolute score of a 100 in e.g. 1950 was higher than it was in 1920 and similarly on forward. Until the 1990s. Sometime in the 1990s this all changed. In numerous developed nations the Flynn Effect has reversed. Now, for the first time ever, a 100 IQ score would be less today than in e.g. 1985 in many developed nations. And the declines have been quite dramatic reducing on the order of 1-2 points per decade. Keep in mind that 1/15 = 0.07. Somebody who is at the average of 100 would be ahead of about 50% of people. Reduce that by just 1 point he's dropped 0.07 sigmas and is now only ahead of 47% of people. And that's a population level event recurring each and every decade! [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect
- jinfiesto 8y ago
  I stopped teaching piano for much the same reason. The level of focus just isn't there any more (obviously there are exceptions.) Not that I blame the students, If I'd grown up in this day and age, I certainly would rather be gaming or jacked into social media than practicing.
- m0zg 8y ago
  Needless to say, I agree that it's a major problem, and one the full extent of which we will only experience 10-15 years in the future. One thing is for sure: something _has_ to be done now.
- reissbaker 8y ago
GhotVeren 8y ago
As far as the bullshit goes, chess is probably the pinnacle of it. Perfect game of grind for pretense of intelligence. Chess doesn't solve half as much problems as YouTube videos. Your 15 year old is more likely to grow up making living off making YouTube videos than playing chess anyway.
- ovi256 8y ago
  Yes, the real economy is making and watching Youtube videos in a virtuous circle.