Steering me away from bad habits or towards more computer science did make sense - but, yes, actively discouraging me from building things I found cool didn't h

Steering me away from bad habits or towards more computer science did make sense - but, yes, actively discouraging me from building things I found cool didn't help my motivation. It didn't deter everybody, though - my friend went full speed ahead and implemented a graphical MacOS application using SML that forwarded e-mails over SMS so he could read them on his phone. I was amazed to discover that was possible!