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The essay starts out okay, but then kind of goes off the rails: > Instead of telling kids that their treehouses could be on the path to the work they do as adu

The essay starts out okay, but then kind of goes off the rails: > Instead of telling kids that their treehouses could be on the path to the work they do as adults, we tell them the path goes through school. There are two things wrong with that sentence. First, there's no tradeoff because kids have enough time for both. Second, a treehouse is rarely the path to riches. Let's not kid ourselves (pun intended). Most kids do not have projects that are valuable from a career perspective. > And unfortunately schoolwork tends be very different from working on projects of one's own. Well sure, because the average kid needs to learn to write and do basic arithmetic. The author may be unaware of what most kids are like. > So as school gets more serious, working on projects of one's own is something that survives, if at all, as a thin thread off to the side. That's true, but that's because teenagers would rather spend their time hanging out with other teenagers than working on a startup idea. Most high school kids in the US have time for projects but they choose to spend time on other things. And that's good, though maybe not for the VCs of the world.

ant6n 5y ago
Going from plan to finish is extremely valuable no matter what the project is. I myself was always a dreamer, just planned stuff, and that tendency carried all the way into adulthood. Perhaps I should have finished more projects when I was a kid, maybe I‘d be a bit more productive and less of a dreamer today.
TeMPOraL 5y ago
> First, there's no tradeoff because kids have enough time for both [projects and school]. Do they, though? Between schools offloading teaching as "homework", making kids do after school what should've been done in-class, and the cultural pressure making parents sign up kids to every possible extracurricular they can afford - there's not that much time in a kid's day left. > a treehouse is rarely the path to riches pg did not talk about riches in this essay, and especially in this paragraph. He talked about doing interesting work.
- solipsism 5y ago
  pg did not talk about riches in this essay, and especially in this paragraph. He talked about doing interesting work. Yeah it make sense to focus on interesting projects when you are already rich.
  - TeMPOraL 5y ago
    Correct. I mean, it's the Maslov's pyramid - you aren't going to do interesting projects if you're constantly worrying about food and shelter. I understand that most people don't have the luxury of starting interesting projects (I frequently talk about it on HN, too), but I think we can't read this essay (or most of the other pg writes) as targeted at everyone. His audience is clearly the people who can afford to entertain his ideas. Which is not just rich people - it's all the people who have some disposable free time, or can restructure their life to have it.
- bachmeier 5y ago
  > parents sign up kids to every possible extracurricular they can afford Yeah, that's what causes the tradeoff. Kids can't do school, work on projects, and have parents that fill their schedule with loads of other stuff. It would have been perfectly reasonable for PG to launch his attacks on overscheduling rather than school. > pg did not talk about riches in this essay He talked about "work they do as adults" and "more predictive value" and "When I was picking startups for Y Combinator".
  - TeMPOraL 5y ago
    > It would have been perfectly reasonable for PG to launch his attacks on overscheduling rather than school. I agree, it would have been. But I wouldn't let schools off the hook, because they are the other edge of the feedback loop: in big part, extracurriculars exist as a way to game admission system. Together, they form a system that tries to consume all the free time a kid has. > He talked about "work they do as adults" and "more predictive value" and "When I was picking startups for Y Combinator". At least in his writing, pg does play with the idea that work is valuable beyond the money it earns you, so I interpreted this essay in that light.

ant6n 5y ago

Going from plan to finish is extremely valuable no matter what the project is. I myself was always a dreamer, just planned stuff, and that tendency carried all the way into adulthood. Perhaps I should have finished more projects when I was a kid, maybe I‘d be a bit more productive and less of a dreamer today.

TeMPOraL 5y ago

> First, there's no tradeoff because kids have enough time for both [projects and school]. Do they, though? Between schools offloading teaching as "homework", making kids do after school what should've been done in-class, and the cultural pressure making parents sign up kids to every possible extracurricular they can afford - there's not that much time in a kid's day left. > a treehouse is rarely the path to riches pg did not talk about riches in this essay, and especially in this paragraph. He talked about doing interesting work.

solipsism 5y ago
pg did not talk about riches in this essay, and especially in this paragraph. He talked about doing interesting work. Yeah it make sense to focus on interesting projects when you are already rich.
- TeMPOraL 5y ago
  Correct. I mean, it's the Maslov's pyramid - you aren't going to do interesting projects if you're constantly worrying about food and shelter. I understand that most people don't have the luxury of starting interesting projects (I frequently talk about it on HN, too), but I think we can't read this essay (or most of the other pg writes) as targeted at everyone. His audience is clearly the people who can afford to entertain his ideas. Which is not just rich people - it's all the people who have some disposable free time, or can restructure their life to have it.
bachmeier 5y ago
> parents sign up kids to every possible extracurricular they can afford Yeah, that's what causes the tradeoff. Kids can't do school, work on projects, and have parents that fill their schedule with loads of other stuff. It would have been perfectly reasonable for PG to launch his attacks on overscheduling rather than school. > pg did not talk about riches in this essay He talked about "work they do as adults" and "more predictive value" and "When I was picking startups for Y Combinator".
- TeMPOraL 5y ago
  > It would have been perfectly reasonable for PG to launch his attacks on overscheduling rather than school. I agree, it would have been. But I wouldn't let schools off the hook, because they are the other edge of the feedback loop: in big part, extracurriculars exist as a way to game admission system. Together, they form a system that tries to consume all the free time a kid has. > He talked about "work they do as adults" and "more predictive value" and "When I was picking startups for Y Combinator". At least in his writing, pg does play with the idea that work is valuable beyond the money it earns you, so I interpreted this essay in that light.