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Comment by dagw | Hacker News Reader

As a new and naive parent I thought I would get my kid into hacking and computers by giving them a laptop with a basic Linux install as their first computer. I had visions of teaching them how to program and doing cool things with Arduino and kinds of awesome hacker projects.

All I achieved was to convince them that computers are hard and stupid and not fun, and that iPads and Playstation are superior in every way.

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From the late 1970s to the late 1980s or early 1990s, typing BASIC in yourself was the fastest dopamine hit you could get. You could just do something. You could have an idea and see it become real. It was addicting. It changed us.

Since the early 1990s, pre-packaged games and social media have delivered more dopamine faster. It's changed children and teenagers, but it's changing them in a different way than BASIC changed their parents.

I think a lot of it is goals/rewards. I got into computing as a kid because I wanted to play games that I saw in screenshots in magazines. Then I wanted the game I got running to run faster. Then i’m losing online so suddenly I’m learning about ping/networking.

Fast forward a decade and I end up being a programmer. Most people won’t learn technical things just for the hell of it.

Computer programming and all that is quite difficult. I don't think kids are likely to get it before about 10-12. I was a very bright kid, into computers from an early age, but programming came much later. I found the ideas of computers interesting though. When my dad explained how microkernels and monolithic kernels differed to me I was fascinated.

maybe you are pushing them to do things with computers too early and you would have more success if you focused more on trying to capture their wonder.

This is backed up by Jean Pieget's theory of cognitive development (specifically the transition from the concrete operational stage to the formal operational stage): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Piaget#Stages

Linux is something that your curiosity leads you to, not something that leads to curiosity heh

It can be both of course, depending on the person and their mood, age.

That's why I don't have a PS or an iPad around.

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