4 ms·

As a student who's followed the rules and essentially played by the book for pretty much my whole life, part of me regrets not doing stuff that defies norm, but

by krrishd 12y ago

As a student who's followed the rules and essentially played by the book for pretty much my whole life, part of me regrets not doing stuff that defies norm, but another part of me is scared to think what I would look like if I got caught up in the 'wrong' things and never got interested in something useful. I'd say this article is not necessarily the biggest advocate for delinquency, rather, it advocates for self-discovery in children, which is rare in modern parenting and educational systems. Sometimes this 'self-discovery' can lead to incidents of delinquency, but I think it's best to do dumb stuff young so you learn bad from good based on experience.

PavlovsCat 12y ago
This may not exactly be delinquency, but as kids I and a friend loved to explore construction sites on weekends. We never did anything dangerous really, it was just highly fascinating. But as we grew older, people who saw us started threatening to call the police, assuming we might be stealing something :( So in hindsight, I do wish we had used that "window of opportunity" even more. I have no idea how I would feel about my own children, should I have those; but we personally weren't reckless, stupid or malicious about it, just very curious and creative. The things you can get away with as a child, used well, can be a beautiful thing ^^ Not that we did anything great or learned anything useful, but it sure beat watching TV.
- krrishd 12y ago
  > So in hindsight, I do wish we had used that "window of opportunity" even more ^ sums up my feelings about this topic almost exactly.
  - aaren 12y ago
    But as a kid you probably didn't realise that this opportunity was for a limited period and if someone had tried to tell you, you might not have listened anyway. What opportunities do you have right now? Can you see any of those slipping away? It's really hard to think outside of the box on this one. Perhaps you'd like for someone to tell you what you should do - but if they did, would you listen? And if you did, would they be right? There is a constant stream of opportunity. Looking back and looking forward can be useful, but not if it stops you looking in the present.
    - krrishd 12y ago
      Exactly why I don't give it much thought. I think my life has turned out pretty great so far, I've become interested in useful/productive things, so I don't have much to worry about.
- rdtsc 12y ago
  > but as kids I and a friend loved to explore construction sites on weekends. Hehe that reminds me I did that with my dad, once. Looking back it was very dangerous but it was great fun. It was a new site for a 9 story residential building right next to ours. Once we thought we'd get caught by the guard, as we heard steps, so we hid, and it turns out it was some other people also exploring the site. Another thing we did was climb a parachute training tower, and also hopped on a slow moving cargo train to hitch a 3 km ride towards my grandparents' house. Aside from that (which if anyone knows me would totally uncharacteristic of me, but I guess it was more my dad than me), I was a pretty awkward nerd that liked tinkering with electronics (and later computers) and had only a few friends.
  - keithpeter 12y ago
    Do you think it might be that your father was trying to toughen you up a bit? Get you out and playing with the other teenagers? Parents of nerds sometimes get worried like that. Which is also a 'self-determination' type issue just as much as raucous behaviour.
    - rdtsc 12y ago
      > Do you think it might be that your father was trying to toughen you up a bit? Who knows, it is possible. It was a fun thing to do, I look at it as more of a "hey let's do a crazy thing together" and one of the things I remember fondly. > Parents of nerds sometimes get worried like that. He was also a bit if nerd, and I think how I said "people would be surprised to hear I did those things" they would not a lot less surprised to find out my dad did those with me as well.

by krrishd 12y ago

PavlovsCat 12y ago

This may not exactly be delinquency, but as kids I and a friend loved to explore construction sites on weekends. We never did anything dangerous really, it was just highly fascinating. But as we grew older, people who saw us started threatening to call the police, assuming we might be stealing something :( So in hindsight, I do wish we had used that "window of opportunity" even more. I have no idea how I would feel about my own children, should I have those; but we personally weren't reckless, stupid or malicious about it, just very curious and creative. The things you can get away with as a child, used well, can be a beautiful thing ^^ Not that we did anything great or learned anything useful, but it sure beat watching TV.

krrishd 12y ago
> So in hindsight, I do wish we had used that "window of opportunity" even more ^ sums up my feelings about this topic almost exactly.
- aaren 12y ago
  But as a kid you probably didn't realise that this opportunity was for a limited period and if someone had tried to tell you, you might not have listened anyway. What opportunities do you have right now? Can you see any of those slipping away? It's really hard to think outside of the box on this one. Perhaps you'd like for someone to tell you what you should do - but if they did, would you listen? And if you did, would they be right? There is a constant stream of opportunity. Looking back and looking forward can be useful, but not if it stops you looking in the present.
  - krrishd 12y ago
    Exactly why I don't give it much thought. I think my life has turned out pretty great so far, I've become interested in useful/productive things, so I don't have much to worry about.
rdtsc 12y ago
> but as kids I and a friend loved to explore construction sites on weekends. Hehe that reminds me I did that with my dad, once. Looking back it was very dangerous but it was great fun. It was a new site for a 9 story residential building right next to ours. Once we thought we'd get caught by the guard, as we heard steps, so we hid, and it turns out it was some other people also exploring the site. Another thing we did was climb a parachute training tower, and also hopped on a slow moving cargo train to hitch a 3 km ride towards my grandparents' house. Aside from that (which if anyone knows me would totally uncharacteristic of me, but I guess it was more my dad than me), I was a pretty awkward nerd that liked tinkering with electronics (and later computers) and had only a few friends.
- keithpeter 12y ago
  Do you think it might be that your father was trying to toughen you up a bit? Get you out and playing with the other teenagers? Parents of nerds sometimes get worried like that. Which is also a 'self-determination' type issue just as much as raucous behaviour.
  - rdtsc 12y ago
    > Do you think it might be that your father was trying to toughen you up a bit? Who knows, it is possible. It was a fun thing to do, I look at it as more of a "hey let's do a crazy thing together" and one of the things I remember fondly. > Parents of nerds sometimes get worried like that. He was also a bit if nerd, and I think how I said "people would be surprised to hear I did those things" they would not a lot less surprised to find out my dad did those with me as well.