Playing With My Son: An experiment in forced nostalgia, questionable parenting

A question I’m really interested in, and maybe I should spend some time writing about is - nostalgia vs timelessness.

40 years ago when I was born, books were considered better for the brain than television, and that’s probably still true.

Being outdoors is probably better than being on the computer. Spending time with family is better than social media.

There’s nothing wrong with the modern set of tools we have, but they’re tools, you have to own them rather than them owning you. For all the talk about tik tok and AI and robotics and etc. et. al, most of the important things are still timeless.

And so I know nostalgia can be dangerous, but I agree with the notion of the author that I think gaming used yo be inherently skill based, where as more gaming today can just be about immersion (everything is television) https://www.derekthompson.org/p/why-everything-became-televi...

I remember a phrase a set of parents of older adults said to me was “we raised them for a world that doesn’t exist anymore.”

I certainly want my kids to be prepared for the modern world, and for sure part of my being productive in the modern world means being comfortable with these tools.

But also, it’s traditional values on curiosity, working hard, empathy, confidence. The tools we use today, even AI won’t be cutting edge by the time our kids grow up. But the values will be forever.

(2014)