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adorable, and good for you! Seems kids now, spend all their time on computers, and don't even know how to use them. My parents supported my interest in comput

adorable, and good for you! Seems kids now, spend all their time on computers, and don't even know how to use them. My parents supported my interest in computers from a young age and it's paid off for me a thousand times over, but that was when I had to learn about jumpers and IRQ's to install a new peripheral. I fear that if they had offered the same "support" these days, I would just be really good at facebook and videogames.

gavinlynch 13y ago
I disagree. I think you're taking a narrow-scope on this story. The lesson here is that you can teach kids about any facet of the computing landscape, and they can catch on quickly and learn a valuable skill. Just because you're not getting into low-level hardware interrupts or vector tables or memory addresses, does not mean you "don't know how to use" a computer. I'm glad you have that knowledge, I enjoy stuff like that too. But a lot of kids are "really good at facebook" and use that as inspiration to get into web dev. They want to create the next social network, or the next cool website. Maybe it sparks their interest in big data, or databases, or the math behind social networks. This is just one example. I don't particularly care about or use facebook personally. But there are a million different facets to computing. Maybe they end up as a graphic designer for a video game. Maybe they learn they enjoy the machines themselves and build one some day. Maybe they learn they don't quite care about computers, and just learn to become literate in an essential tool of the Information Economy. That's good too. shrugs
- jacob019 13y ago
  I see your point, and it's valid. I'm just really grateful to have had an interest in computers at a time where proficient use has required a deeper understanding. I take my car for granted, it's a machine that just works, I need not understand the complexities of an automatic transmission to enjoy it's maximum benefit, and I have no desire to. I appreciate the complexities of the computer, and the knowledge has been a huge benefit to me. I would want my kids to have the same appreciation, but the conditions that have fostered it have changed. I think it's cool that the author is giving his kids a ground up introduction to computers, and I think it will help them.

gavinlynch 13y ago

I disagree. I think you're taking a narrow-scope on this story. The lesson here is that you can teach kids about any facet of the computing landscape, and they can catch on quickly and learn a valuable skill. Just because you're not getting into low-level hardware interrupts or vector tables or memory addresses, does not mean you "don't know how to use" a computer. I'm glad you have that knowledge, I enjoy stuff like that too. But a lot of kids are "really good at facebook" and use that as inspiration to get into web dev. They want to create the next social network, or the next cool website. Maybe it sparks their interest in big data, or databases, or the math behind social networks. This is just one example. I don't particularly care about or use facebook personally. But there are a million different facets to computing. Maybe they end up as a graphic designer for a video game. Maybe they learn they enjoy the machines themselves and build one some day. Maybe they learn they don't quite care about computers, and just learn to become literate in an essential tool of the Information Economy. That's good too. shrugs

jacob019 13y ago
I see your point, and it's valid. I'm just really grateful to have had an interest in computers at a time where proficient use has required a deeper understanding. I take my car for granted, it's a machine that just works, I need not understand the complexities of an automatic transmission to enjoy it's maximum benefit, and I have no desire to. I appreciate the complexities of the computer, and the knowledge has been a huge benefit to me. I would want my kids to have the same appreciation, but the conditions that have fostered it have changed. I think it's cool that the author is giving his kids a ground up introduction to computers, and I think it will help them.