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Is it a bad thing to get kids thinking about this? I mean, this is what they have to do when they select what subjects they want to do. This has happened all ov

Is it a bad thing to get kids thinking about this? I mean, this is what they have to do when they select what subjects they want to do. This has happened all over the world for at least 30 years.

seszett 7y ago
Kids at 9 are absolutely not able to choose what career they will actually want to do when they are old enough to work. They just don't know enough of the world to make this choice. What they have to do at this age is discover as much of the world as possible in order to be able to make a better choice later on.
- close04 7y ago
  It always puzzled me that the same kids who are expected to think that far and be able to take "career" decisions are not allowed to watch any movie they want or drink alcohol. There's a bit of a dissonance there.
dvdbloc 7y ago
I think it’s also interesting how a lot of very successful people in the field of engineering identified that they want to be engineers when they were very young and just started pursuing it.
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  If you mean software engineering, those people must be completely unlike myself. I started spending serious time programming at 13. But it took me well into my first job 10 years later until I thought, "well, shit, I guess that's how I'm gonna be making money". My choice of software as a study field when I was 18 was literally made like this: "oh, I can get degree by doing what I like, and hopefully pick up some more interesting knowledge along the way, sign me in!". For some reason (probably upbringing and local environment), some people start to think about their careers very late. And I don't feel like thinking about it much earlier is productive. When you're 15, or 9, you don't really have enough information (or arguably sapience), to make a reasoned choice. I feel the "compound interest everything" thinking is infecting our lives too much. I've heard arguments that Soviet times were bad because it was government that told you where to go to work, and free societies let people choose for themselves. But if kids are forced to think about their career at 9 and make decisions that become binding because of sunk costs, that's essentially market choosing for you. You're not free either way, it's just a different optimization system optimizing you.
  - tonyedgecombe 7y ago
    I've heard arguments that Soviet times were bad because it was government that told you where to go to work In some ways that must be quite freeing, assuming that the selection is reasonably correlated with your abilities and temperament.
    - p_l 7y ago
      Even then, AFAIK you weren't "told" what kind of career you were getting, but at times people would get assignments they could take for a job in their field?
- p_l 7y ago
  When I was 8-9 year old, I wanted to become aeronautical engineer and in university to get "MSci-Engineer in Aerodynamics". People change a lot since that age ;)
arvinsim 7y ago
I think the bad thing is that we have allowed our social and economic structure so that kids have to think about their career this early.
flukus 7y ago
Thinking about careers is fine, but if they're choosing subjects then they're potentially making some life long decisions and shutting themselves out of many career paths early.
TheCoelacanth 7y ago
Thinking about it, sure. Making meaningful decisions about it, absolutely not. Most people can barely manage to successfully decide what career they want at 18, much less 8.
pureliquidhw 7y ago
There are too many invisible jobs in the world for even a high schooler to accurately decide. I was way to far into software when I discovered I would have rather have become a food packaging science. I didn't take anymore than the bare minimum chemistry and biology courses in high school instead opting for programming self study. The only people I know ended up going to a few select programs they discovered via proximity to the schools that had them. That is only one job in one niche industry. I'm trying to figure out how to expose my children to a volume of careers that extend beyond programmer, fireman, astronaut, etc.

Is it a bad thing to get kids thinking about this? I mean, this is what they have to do when they select what subjects they want to do. This has happened all over the world for at least 30 years.

seszett 7y ago

Kids at 9 are absolutely not able to choose what career they will actually want to do when they are old enough to work. They just don't know enough of the world to make this choice. What they have to do at this age is discover as much of the world as possible in order to be able to make a better choice later on.

close04 7y ago
It always puzzled me that the same kids who are expected to think that far and be able to take "career" decisions are not allowed to watch any movie they want or drink alcohol. There's a bit of a dissonance there.

dvdbloc 7y ago

I think it’s also interesting how a lot of very successful people in the field of engineering identified that they want to be engineers when they were very young and just started pursuing it.

TeMPOraL 7y ago
If you mean software engineering, those people must be completely unlike myself. I started spending serious time programming at 13. But it took me well into my first job 10 years later until I thought, "well, shit, I guess that's how I'm gonna be making money". My choice of software as a study field when I was 18 was literally made like this: "oh, I can get degree by doing what I like, and hopefully pick up some more interesting knowledge along the way, sign me in!". For some reason (probably upbringing and local environment), some people start to think about their careers very late. And I don't feel like thinking about it much earlier is productive. When you're 15, or 9, you don't really have enough information (or arguably sapience), to make a reasoned choice. I feel the "compound interest everything" thinking is infecting our lives too much. I've heard arguments that Soviet times were bad because it was government that told you where to go to work, and free societies let people choose for themselves. But if kids are forced to think about their career at 9 and make decisions that become binding because of sunk costs, that's essentially market choosing for you. You're not free either way, it's just a different optimization system optimizing you.
- tonyedgecombe 7y ago
  I've heard arguments that Soviet times were bad because it was government that told you where to go to work In some ways that must be quite freeing, assuming that the selection is reasonably correlated with your abilities and temperament.
  - p_l 7y ago
    Even then, AFAIK you weren't "told" what kind of career you were getting, but at times people would get assignments they could take for a job in their field?
p_l 7y ago
When I was 8-9 year old, I wanted to become aeronautical engineer and in university to get "MSci-Engineer in Aerodynamics". People change a lot since that age ;)

arvinsim 7y ago

I think the bad thing is that we have allowed our social and economic structure so that kids have to think about their career this early.

flukus 7y ago

Thinking about careers is fine, but if they're choosing subjects then they're potentially making some life long decisions and shutting themselves out of many career paths early.

TheCoelacanth 7y ago

Thinking about it, sure. Making meaningful decisions about it, absolutely not. Most people can barely manage to successfully decide what career they want at 18, much less 8.

pureliquidhw 7y ago

There are too many invisible jobs in the world for even a high schooler to accurately decide. I was way to far into software when I discovered I would have rather have become a food packaging science. I didn't take anymore than the bare minimum chemistry and biology courses in high school instead opting for programming self study. The only people I know ended up going to a few select programs they discovered via proximity to the schools that had them. That is only one job in one niche industry. I'm trying to figure out how to expose my children to a volume of careers that extend beyond programmer, fireman, astronaut, etc.