I go back and forth trying to decide whether to try and introduce my 5 year old to programming. To him, every screen is a little entertainment portal of some ki

I go back and forth trying to decide whether to try and introduce my 5 year old to programming. To him, every screen is a little entertainment portal of some kind. I recently got him an Odroid Go Advance kit - a Linux-based handheld gaming device that you can put together in an hour. Putting the thing together with him felt constructive - but then it was quickly off to running old video games under emulation. He loves it, and I curate the games he can play on it, but he's not making anything with it. Here we go with the "when I was a kid" bit... but I felt that computers were something that were just barely within reach when I was in grade school. I really wanted to learn how programs worked. I checked out every book on programming I could find at my elementary school's library. I had my dad take me to the university library where I had a proverbial field day. But neither he nor any other adult was trying - at all - to expose me to programming. It just happened. I sometimes wonder if this new norm of actively encouraging and exposing kids to every possible creative outlet in life is really just stifling their progress. When everything is presented to you as a buffet of choices, with hopeful parents anxiously awaiting some kind of interest or progress, how does it not all become kind of ... boring? Where is the space to develop longing and desire? I remember being a kid and longing for access to the university's Ultrix machines. They seemed to be just for adults - and difficult to access - and all of that just made me want it more. I became obsessed about the concept of multitasking and machines serving multiple users at once. I really had no encouragement, and was even reprimanded for gaining unauthorized access to some university machines. This, along with the tied up phone lines, annoyed my parents to no end. They were patient and understanding, but not actively encouraging. I hope my kids can some day feel a similar passion and longing to learn something. If they can have that, they won't need it to be spoon-fed to them. They'll break down doors to get at it.