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You are extremely unrealistic and I don't believe it will be fine for one second if they express frustration and quit, because you will be resentful that they d

You are extremely unrealistic and I don't believe it will be fine for one second if they express frustration and quit, because you will be resentful that they didn't appreciate your plan. I started with even older machines, 8 bit, and I can tell you right now a 386 or even a 486 is not realistic. You seriously propose to sit them in front of a CRT and expect them to teach themselves Pascal and to find something useful to do with it on an antique? It'll be a challenge on its own to find new floppy disks. If you want them to enjoy what they're doing, you can show them something else more modern and useful like maybe how to use the GPIO pins on a Raspberry Pi or something to turn things on or off. If you make computing into a weird punishment all you'll end up achieving is guaranteeing disappointment.

markus_zhang 4y ago
I don't know why you call it punishment. My plan is to use a similar machine side by side. I'll definitely go over the basics with them. And there are going to be some game floppies for fun. There are still 3.5 around and I can buy an external drive to write games in on my personal laptop. Since this is the first computer he encounters, he doesn't have anything easier to compare with. As I said if he frustrates out then it's fine, I'll give him maybe a Rpi then, nothing big deal, but if he can grit through the initial period I prepare to teach him QuickBasic first and then C if he is interested, all about game programming. It was the way kids in the 80s learned programming and I think the only obstacle is his lack of interest/intelligence and access to easier electronics.
- Sunspark 4y ago
  So, since you have a limited window to work with where the kid can't see how the modern world is today, this will be a 2 year old learning basic and/or C on a 486? Their brains aren't ready for that kind of cognitive development at that age. You were a lot older back in the 80s and weren't exposed to people or society with much better stuff. Kid is going to see that dad forces them to use a 33 year old machine with poor resolution graphics and sound and is slow as molasses. Let me frame this differently. Your father or grandfather cut the grass with a sickle. Why aren't you doing the same thing? You can buy a sickle even now. Yet, you presumably use an electric or gas mower. Why not a sickle? Because a sickle sucks and it was fine for the time. Not now. PS. After a kid has frustrated out, it's already too late. You're never getting them back because they've already decided they hate it. Lots and lots of kids with parents who wanted to live through them again or wanted them to be a clone of the parent, and these kids rebelled against their planned lives. Same thing with parents who force their kids to eat a food that they've already expressed that they do not like the taste of it. They don't suddenly start liking the food when they are older. Listen to what they're saying, don't force it. This isn't the army.
  - markus_zhang 4y ago
    You have a point. I need to think through about this experiment. I still hope he has a chance to touch at least some of the lower level stuffs at the beginning though. Also I won't start from two years old for sure, probably from 8/9 just as I did. It could be still too early so I need to observe his progress.

markus_zhang 4y ago

I don't know why you call it punishment. My plan is to use a similar machine side by side. I'll definitely go over the basics with them. And there are going to be some game floppies for fun. There are still 3.5 around and I can buy an external drive to write games in on my personal laptop. Since this is the first computer he encounters, he doesn't have anything easier to compare with. As I said if he frustrates out then it's fine, I'll give him maybe a Rpi then, nothing big deal, but if he can grit through the initial period I prepare to teach him QuickBasic first and then C if he is interested, all about game programming. It was the way kids in the 80s learned programming and I think the only obstacle is his lack of interest/intelligence and access to easier electronics.

Sunspark 4y ago
So, since you have a limited window to work with where the kid can't see how the modern world is today, this will be a 2 year old learning basic and/or C on a 486? Their brains aren't ready for that kind of cognitive development at that age. You were a lot older back in the 80s and weren't exposed to people or society with much better stuff. Kid is going to see that dad forces them to use a 33 year old machine with poor resolution graphics and sound and is slow as molasses. Let me frame this differently. Your father or grandfather cut the grass with a sickle. Why aren't you doing the same thing? You can buy a sickle even now. Yet, you presumably use an electric or gas mower. Why not a sickle? Because a sickle sucks and it was fine for the time. Not now. PS. After a kid has frustrated out, it's already too late. You're never getting them back because they've already decided they hate it. Lots and lots of kids with parents who wanted to live through them again or wanted them to be a clone of the parent, and these kids rebelled against their planned lives. Same thing with parents who force their kids to eat a food that they've already expressed that they do not like the taste of it. They don't suddenly start liking the food when they are older. Listen to what they're saying, don't force it. This isn't the army.
- markus_zhang 4y ago
  You have a point. I need to think through about this experiment. I still hope he has a chance to touch at least some of the lower level stuffs at the beginning though. Also I won't start from two years old for sure, probably from 8/9 just as I did. It could be still too early so I need to observe his progress.