Hacker News Reader

Comment by alexk307 | Hacker News Reader

This is what happens when you give children the tools to succeed by teaching them math and science in ways that directly relate to their world view. Obviously, this kid is very bright, but giving kids the tools to understand how the ideas they're learning can be applied in the real world is so satisfying. They aren't blinded by previous failures, or the current market, or what can and can't be done.

View on HN

Sometimes you give the children these tools and they decide to do something they are more interested in. It is important to realize that not all children are interested in sciences.

Of course, no one should be forced to make things. But a lot of kids are naturally curious and can look at things in ways that are not obvious to adults.

But, by the law of nature, not all kids are prodigy. The normal distribution curve still holds, and the current society is putting too much pressure on them. Last time I visited India, I was shocked that parents were forcing their kids to learn IIT related thing in class 6. I encountered same thing in US, where kids were being prepared for competitive exams like SAT etc… Parents expect their children should go to prestigious universities like MIT and standford. The case is worst in China.

Do you need to be a prodigy to wire up sensors and controllers? More pressure to learn how modern technology works? That should be a great thing.

This exactly is the issue: not all kids are geniuses and not all kids are morons, but you'll NEVER know if you treat them like you think they deserve to be treated. If you believe that kids can't understand complex things, they of course won't because you won't explain it to them.

There's a difference between allowing people to learn what they're interested in, and forcing them to cram for standardised tests. The first one is the best thing that ever happened to me, and the second is among the worst. (I was the one forcing myself, but the point still applies.)

You shouldn't do this to prodigies either.

I was one and honestly I'm really happy my parents were neglectful (in the legal sense); my peers at award dinners might have had their university and career plans set out by 12, but none of them struck me as happy or emotionally healthy people, and the older I get the more I'm thinking that turning our smartest kids into robots or sociopaths is a bad idea.

Just curious, what were you a prodigy at?

I was a hyperlexic kid + a mental calculator who was a child programmer.

At the age of 6, I was reading at the level of a college graduate, and I started coding in elementary school; I taught my first intro to programming class when I was 11.

My middle-school standardized test scores put me in the top .03 percent and my IQ was tested to be in the mid-140s.

So I think I would count by most metrics, barely. (Nothing quite like going to dinners for the top 200 whatever and knowing you're number 199 or so ha).

I'm also a mental basketcase who developed MS in my 20s, so while I've done pretty well for myself so far, I don't have the personality, dedication, or temperament for great success. There are just a lot of things from my childhood that really make me raise an eyebrow now as an adult.

The amount of pressure is terrible, of course, but in addition to that, there's this weird push and pull where a lot of adults will say out of one side of their mouth how special you are and hold you to standards that are unreasonable for children and accept you + your contributions if they're helpful, but the minute you have your own opinion or disagree, you're a child and obviously don't know anything.

I'm a lost cause for society, intellectually speaking, but I feel concerned for the me born in 2015.

That said, every single kid who I knew growing up who had access to these sorts of opportunities but did something "more interesting" has ended up regretting it in adulthood. This probably isn't true across the board, but among the people I know it definitely is.

Maybe. It’s more like it’s what a kid’s parents do when kids can no longer be kids and are driven to start working on their college applications earlier and earlier.

There’s more to life than getting into MIT.

If the kid was innately driven to do this, a big win for the kid and for humanity...

On the other hand, if the kid is 'coached' to look/identify, as you say, it is a sad state of affairs when kids are pushed into adulthood too soon...

We have seen this for more than a decade also with the marketing practices around sexualization of fashion for younger and younger kids...

To briefly clarify on why I believe it is the former: Caleb just happened to have caught a really bad fungal pneumonia when he was 9yo, and that was his inspiration to explore what could be done to diagnose things differently. And he just happened to do tons of research to try and re-use open source technology, etc.

There's more to making electronics than getting into MIT and prestigious universities. I think a lot of the users on HN like myself enjoy creating things just to create them. I don't need prestige or accolades; just build something, break it, fix it, take it apart. Some people enjoy learning how things work.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com