3 ms·

What Chinese parents understand is that nothing is fun until you're good at it. Whoever wrote this must not be very good at what they do (assuming they agree w

What Chinese parents understand is that nothing is fun until you're good at it. Whoever wrote this must not be very good at what they do (assuming they agree with the opinion). Programming was an enormous amount of fun for me, I would have never gotten good at it if it weren't. In fact, everything I ever got good at was tremendous fun. Sometimes it was work and pure misery, but for the most part it was fun. Perhaps others tick differently from me, but based on conversations I had with people that are very good at what they do, I doubt it.

luu 16y ago
Completely agreed. It's improving at something that's the most fun. As I get better at things, and improve more slowly, they become less fun. That's especially true of sports and other zero-sum competitive activities: it's really boring when winning is the only goal, and you know you're going to win.
paulitex 16y ago
In fact it's often more fun at the beginning. As coders, we have to constantly be learning new things - new languages, frameworks, APIS, etc... more than most professions I know. Personally I think getting that first little project done, a first proof of concept, in a new (language/framework/api) to be exhilarating - probably more fun than almost anything afterwards.
- math 16y ago
  Yes. I have to say though that after 20 years of exhilaration, the buzz is getting less and less for me each time. I think because the process of learning another new language, framework, API etc is now no longer new.
ddkrone 16y ago
Many activities become enjoyable after a certain amount of mastery. Overcoming the initial hurdles is not fun and it's important to stick with it but it seems like some Chinese parents overdo it. If you just give up because you can not overcome certain initial hurdles then you might miss out on something worthwhile but if after the initial hurdles you're still not liking it then it might be a good idea to pick up something else.

luu 16y ago

Completely agreed. It's improving at something that's the most fun. As I get better at things, and improve more slowly, they become less fun. That's especially true of sports and other zero-sum competitive activities: it's really boring when winning is the only goal, and you know you're going to win.

paulitex 16y ago

In fact it's often more fun at the beginning. As coders, we have to constantly be learning new things - new languages, frameworks, APIS, etc... more than most professions I know. Personally I think getting that first little project done, a first proof of concept, in a new (language/framework/api) to be exhilarating - probably more fun than almost anything afterwards.

math 16y ago
Yes. I have to say though that after 20 years of exhilaration, the buzz is getting less and less for me each time. I think because the process of learning another new language, framework, API etc is now no longer new.

ddkrone 16y ago

Many activities become enjoyable after a certain amount of mastery. Overcoming the initial hurdles is not fun and it's important to stick with it but it seems like some Chinese parents overdo it. If you just give up because you can not overcome certain initial hurdles then you might miss out on something worthwhile but if after the initial hurdles you're still not liking it then it might be a good idea to pick up something else.