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Interview by a 15 Year Old

paulgraham.com

71–80 of 101 posts

Re: Interview by a 15 Year Old

#71
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kids need to learn to read. Society works sooo much better when you can assume every adult can read. Give man a fish vs. teach to fish..

This was true when print was orders of magnitude cheaper to distribute than audio or video. Of course text still has distinct advantages, particularly for further education (a lot easier to skim and pull the factoid you need out of a textbook than 80 hours of video), but "society" shouldn't be affected nearly as much as it used to be.

...and here I type you an answer. I can't really use video yet.

Larger percentage of humans are literate than ever before. Larger body of knowledge is in written form than ever before. I think we are going to rely more on text in the future, not less. Even with video content, you search, tag and label them with text. That is not going away.

Re: Interview by a 15 Year Old

#72

"An entrepreneur is someone who starts their own business. But only a tiny fraction of new businesses are startups." This needs a context: http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html Because Paul Graham (and probably Silicon Valley in large) clearly has different definition for a term 'startup' than the rest of the world. ( http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/start-up )

>I am really interested for Paul Graham and others to define term 'startup'. Here you go: http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html

thanks, I found that right before you posted reply and already changed my comment before seeing yours :)

Re: Interview by a 15 Year Old

#73
Maybe I'd like to say that this is bad, that's awful, a long list of these other things have been left out, and generally call BS.

Nope. This time PG wins, and I'd lose.

Very nicely done. Succinct. Nice. Elegant. Top stuff.

Sure, wish I'd read that in middle school.

Only one point left: Where can I apply to go back to, say, the sixth grade and have a do-over?

Re: Interview by a 15 Year Old

#74
post #5
post #2

"I think all kids should learn how to program at some point. I'm not sure what's the right age." I do not think all kids should learn how to program. I think programming is just one of many skills that one can master, not a must-have skill.

>I think programming is just one of many skills that one can master, not a must-have skill. Programming/coding/software engineer is, probably, the only skill that provides high income opportunities, freedom to relocate, a global market and low financial cost of entry. Unless a kid is coming from a rich family, learning programming among other skills is her/his best bet at achieving a decent quality of life. Also, say…

It seems unlikely to me that future generations will be able to benefit from programming understanding and ability the way the programmers of today have. Economic value lies in scarcity, and as we are now pushing for everyone to have those skills, it will not be scarce anymore.

The programmers of today have been lucky because the thing they loved to do anyway just happened to explode as an industry in a short period of time, leaving only a small supply of labour ready to fill the ballooning demand. There is no reason to think that will hold for the future. As every good investor will tell you, when everyone starts looking in the same direction, it is time to run the other way.

Some suggest that programming is something that only a small group of people can innately do. Others suggest that it is a task that the majority of the population detest. If these are true, then perhaps it will remain a viable career as most cannot or refuse to do what work needs to be done. I'm not sure I agree with either point. Programming tools like Excel are widely used already by the general population, demonstrating that they can program, that they are willing to program in some capacity, and that it doesn't meaningfully improve their economic standing when outside of a very narrow spectrum of programming – specifically what we seem to call software engineering.

I, personally, think programming related work will eventually trend towards what we see in entertainment, agriculture, etc. A small group of people will do very well, more will do the work for practically nothing just to do what they love, and everyone else will have no direct opportunity whatsoever, with, at best, passing relevance in what they do end up doing.

Re: Interview by a 15 Year Old

#75
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kids need to learn to read. Society works sooo much better when you can assume every adult can read. Give man a fish vs. teach to fish..

This was true when print was orders of magnitude cheaper to distribute than audio or video. Of course text still has distinct advantages, particularly for further education (a lot easier to skim and pull the factoid you need out of a textbook than 80 hours of video), but "society" shouldn't be affected nearly as much as it used to be.

This isn't true yet, but with enough technological progress it could become true. And if it does, it seems likely that the change from literate to post-literate culture will be as significant as the change from pre-literate to literate.

Ted Chiang wrote an excellent story examining this issue (although not going as far as completely post-literate):

http://subterraneanpress.com/magazine/fall_2013/the_truth_of...

Re: Interview by a 15 Year Old

#76
"But if you teach them arithmetic as a series of secret tricks—for example, that you can add 6 million and 3 million by adding 6 and 3 and then sticking the million back on at the end—it becomes like a game."

Looking back, this was what separated the subjects I loved and was great at, and the subjects where I struggled. In the former group, at an early age I saw learning as a game where I could improve continously.

Re: Interview by a 15 Year Old

#77
post #49

Is there anything else that isn’t taught to young students that you wish would be incorporated into the material, or any other thoughts on education? I can't comment on the US education system, but back home I think one of the most important ingredient missing from my school education was _Critical Thinking_ [0]. I happened to stumble upon this field by happenstance and was baffled why this is not integral to our edu…

In Finland my high school had one mandatory course on philosophy. It was really more "history of ontology" than actual philosophy. (There was maybe one instance when students had to form opinion on something, instead of memorizing what some dude had thought two thousand years ago. How do you call that philosophy?) It was really unpopular because: "I think philosophy is stuff you kinda already know deep down. So why s…

Philosophy is a mandatory schools in Italy's lyceums.

Really, there are many reasons that I left that country, but the high school education it provides (on average) is absolute world-class when it comes to the "soft" skills.

Re: Interview by a 15 Year Old

#78

Is there anything else that isn’t taught to young students that you wish would be incorporated into the material, or any other thoughts on education? I can't comment on the US education system, but back home I think one of the most important ingredient missing from my school education was _Critical Thinking_ [0]. I happened to stumble upon this field by happenstance and was baffled why this is not integral to our edu…

The funny thing is that pretty much every single curriculum says this in the liner notes and syllabus. It's just as much of a buzzword these days as "synergy" and "outside-the-box."

Critical thinking is simultaneously hard to teach and uncomfortable to teach. For one, when you teach someone to think critically, you now have them questioning everything else that you're teaching them. Many, many people define "critical thinking" as "thinking like I do." Which, of course, leads to them discouraging critical thinking.

I had a history teacher in high school who loved talking about critical thinking and how important it was that we question everything. He didn't like the fact that every single one of my papers (which were all about developing a viewpoint and explaining it) were diametrically opposed to his political opinions.

Looking back, I wrote some genuinely cringe-worthy shit, mostly just to wind him up. Hilariously, as mad as he got at me, I was probably one of the few kids in the class who really took his "critical thinking" lectures to heart.

Re: Interview by a 15 Year Old

#79

"What makes a good entrepereneur? Are these the type of people you accept into the program?" The entrepreneurs around me are numerious. My neighbor's are very rich. I grew up with wealthy kids. Many are entrepreneurs. They all(95%), or more gave one trait in common, and it's never mentioned in these Q & A's, but we are all in the big world now. That trait; They have a sympathetic/understanding/wealthy parent. The wea…

This is a really good point, and it's not just because of the bankrolling that the parents do. They also set a good example for financial management, discipline, respect for education, and perspective toward business.

My parents are upper-middle-class. They're not rich, but they're wealthy enough that they know what to do with money. If I were thinking about starting a business, I could easily bounce ideas off my dad and get genuinely good advice. And if he couldn't give me the advice I needed, he knows people who would be able to do so.

In contrast, someone who grows up poor is working in a vacuum. Whom are you going to ask, your deadbeat dad? His shithead friends? Your mom, who's working two minimum-wage jobs just to put food on the table and keep the lights on? They work their asses off, but they have no idea how to build a business.

As a result, it's no surprise that the wealthy tend to come from the middle class. The rich might fall from grace into the middle class, and the middle class will often make a whole bunch of money and become rich, but the poor tend to stay where they are.

Re: Interview by a 15 Year Old

#80
> Based on my experiences, the best way to teach kids is to show them the hidden interestingness in the things you want them to learn.

This is consistent with the ideas behind BetterExplained [1] and Crash Course [2], both excellent learning resources that are really compelling.

"Learning is about a permanent shift in viewpoint, an Aha! moment, not memorizing facts that are quickly forgotten."

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[1] http://www.betterexplained.com/

[2] http://www.youtube.com/crashcourse/

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