5 ms·

It gets better. Way better. Last night I explained quicksort to one kid. Now we are designing cards to laser cut. The kids get interesting and independent q

by sanj 7y ago

It gets better. Way better. Last night I explained quicksort to one kid. Now we are designing cards to laser cut. The kids get interesting and independent quicker than you might imagine. The days are long, but the years are fast.

xwowsersx 7y ago
> The days are long, but the years are fast. So true!
- drcongo 7y ago
  The most true, and also beautiful sentence ever posted to HN.
joenot443 7y ago
I'm not sure if you're referencing his post or not, but Sam Altman has an excellent piece about this exact mindset. I meditate on this idea quite a bit. https://blog.samaltman.com/the-days-are-long-but-the-decades-are-short https://blog.samaltman.com/the-days-are-long-but-the-decades...
ehou 7y ago
Same here. Yesterday I fell in the Collatz trap (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21780068 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21780068). So after a few hours my 7y old son asked what I was doing (what was I doing?!). Explained him how it works and then we did Collatz "by hand" for almost an hour. These sorta random triggered experiences are the best.
james_s_tayler 7y ago
>The days are long, but the years are fast. Nicely put. That's going into my "how to explain parenting" quotes right alongside "it doesn't get easier, just a different kind of difficult"
- lonelappde 7y ago
  Lots of fun epigrams. Little kids have little problems. Big kids have big problems.
- esmi 7y ago
  It’s definitely perfect for that. It’s from this book. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6398634-the-happiness-project https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6398634-the-happiness-pr... Gretchen Rubin had an epiphany one rainy afternoon in the unlikeliest of places: a city bus. “The days are long, but the years are short,” she realized. “Time is passing, and I’m not focusing enough on the things that really matter.” In that moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her happiness project.
- jaxr 7y ago
  Loved both frases. Will add them to my own. Mine is: "having kids is as beautiful as it is hard. And it's the most beautiful thing in the world". My mom always says "the older the children, the harder the problems". Which is also true and quite counter intuitive. You might think that the harder years are when kids are young and demanding, but us humans turn into quite complex beings :)
perfectritone 7y ago
I love how inquisitive my 7 year old daughter is. She doesn't want or take a simple explanation and I enjoy teaching her about seemingly mundane topics that she makes exciting for me again.
- raducu 7y ago
  Oh, God, I hope my almost two year old daughter turns out that way too, right now she seems most enthusiastic about me chasing her, dancing, airplaning her around; though I see some seeds of inquisity because she wants me to help her open up every drawer and appliance, pushing every button, opening every faucet and so on. Her godmothers son, which is just 4 months older is so happy sitting in my lap for ages as I explain ilustrated books to him; my own daughter gets bored real quick with that.

by sanj 7y ago

xwowsersx 7y ago

> The days are long, but the years are fast. So true!

drcongo 7y ago
The most true, and also beautiful sentence ever posted to HN.

joenot443 7y ago

I'm not sure if you're referencing his post or not, but Sam Altman has an excellent piece about this exact mindset. I meditate on this idea quite a bit. https://blog.samaltman.com/the-days-are-long-but-the-decades-are-short https://blog.samaltman.com/the-days-are-long-but-the-decades...

ehou 7y ago

Same here. Yesterday I fell in the Collatz trap (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21780068 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21780068). So after a few hours my 7y old son asked what I was doing (what was I doing?!). Explained him how it works and then we did Collatz "by hand" for almost an hour. These sorta random triggered experiences are the best.

james_s_tayler 7y ago

>The days are long, but the years are fast. Nicely put. That's going into my "how to explain parenting" quotes right alongside "it doesn't get easier, just a different kind of difficult"

lonelappde 7y ago
Lots of fun epigrams. Little kids have little problems. Big kids have big problems.
esmi 7y ago
It’s definitely perfect for that. It’s from this book. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6398634-the-happiness-project https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6398634-the-happiness-pr... Gretchen Rubin had an epiphany one rainy afternoon in the unlikeliest of places: a city bus. “The days are long, but the years are short,” she realized. “Time is passing, and I’m not focusing enough on the things that really matter.” In that moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her happiness project.
jaxr 7y ago
Loved both frases. Will add them to my own. Mine is: "having kids is as beautiful as it is hard. And it's the most beautiful thing in the world". My mom always says "the older the children, the harder the problems". Which is also true and quite counter intuitive. You might think that the harder years are when kids are young and demanding, but us humans turn into quite complex beings :)

perfectritone 7y ago

I love how inquisitive my 7 year old daughter is. She doesn't want or take a simple explanation and I enjoy teaching her about seemingly mundane topics that she makes exciting for me again.

raducu 7y ago
Oh, God, I hope my almost two year old daughter turns out that way too, right now she seems most enthusiastic about me chasing her, dancing, airplaning her around; though I see some seeds of inquisity because she wants me to help her open up every drawer and appliance, pushing every button, opening every faucet and so on. Her godmothers son, which is just 4 months older is so happy sitting in my lap for ages as I explain ilustrated books to him; my own daughter gets bored real quick with that.