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Interview by a 15 Year Old

paulgraham.com

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Re: Interview by a 15 Year Old

#81

Post by visakanv »

Amorymeltzer wrote: post #23

I'd like to just say thanks to Paul for doing this, it was probably hugely meaningful to the kid. Ages ago I interviewed Neil deGrasse Tyson for an 8th grade assignment - it is still one of the best moments of my life, and one of the major reasons I am a scientist now. I recently read Judd Apatow's book "Sick in the Head", wherein he interviews comedians, beginning in high school. Looking back, I wish I'd contacted m…

Tyson himself cited his experience with Carl Sagan as one of the best moments of HIS life:

> At the time deGrasse Tyson was just a 17-year-old kid from the Bronx with dreams of being a scientist, but Sagan had invited him to spend a Saturday with him in Ithaca at Cornell University, after seeing his application to attend University there.

> He toured their labs there, and Sagan gave him a book, “The Cosmic Collection” and inscribed it “to a future astronomer”:

> DeGrasse Tyson describes how this influenced his entire life:

> At the end of the day, he drove me back to the bus station. The snow was falling harder. He wrote his phone number, his home phone number, on a scrap of paper. And he said, “If the bus can’t get through, call me. Spend the night at my home, with my family.”

> I already knew I wanted to become a scientist, but that afternoon I learned from Carl the kind of person I wanted to become. He reached out to me and to countless others. Inspiring so many of us to study, teach, and do science. Science is a cooperative enterprise, spanning the generations.

Re: Interview by a 15 Year Old

#82

Post by gaius »

vlehto wrote: post #51
rhizome wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it fair to say that there isn't (or may not be) a such thing as first principles at all, outside of acculturation, if education is so context dependent?

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..

Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish... And he'll vote for the man who gave him a fish.

Re: Interview by a 15 Year Old

#83

Post by gaius »

kercker wrote: 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 say this every time "learn to code" comes up, kids should learn to cook. People who can cook a meal from basic ingredients are healthier (than they would have been living on ready meals and takeaways), wealthier because it's cheaper, more relaxed because they have a hobby and more attractive to whatever is the gender of their preference.

Humans have been cooking for thousands and thousands of years, but modern schools have no idea how to teach it, hence the epidemics of obesity, diabetes, etc. So how on Earth can they teach anyone to "code" and should that reallly be priority?

Silicon Valley VCs want everyone to learn to code because it'll be cheap grist for their mill...

Re: Interview by a 15 Year Old

#84

Post by ageofwant »

gaius wrote: post #83
kercker wrote: 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 say this every time "learn to code" comes up, kids should learn to cook. People who can cook a meal from basic ingredients are healthier (than they would have been living on ready meals and takeaways), wealthier because it's cheaper, more relaxed because they have a hobby and more attractive to whatever is the gender of their preference. Humans have been cooking for thousands and thousands of years, but modern scho…

> Silicon Valley VCs want everyone to learn to code because it'll be cheap grist for their mill...

Too right. I've yet to read one of these that acknowledges that.

Re: Interview by a 15 Year Old

#85

Post by tempestn »

RKoutnik wrote: post #56

> I wouldn't advise people to try to start startups before about 23. Before that you should be exploring. Man, I wish he had written this five years ago. I focused far too early and had to spend a lot of time correcting that course. Finally in the thick of exploring and loving it. Yes, there's hints in other essays about this but the hard age limit says that in a way the others don't. I was a incredibly dumb smart st…

I agree that this is really important. I love seeing how popular entrepreneurship as an option is becoming, but it does seem one effect is that one effect is that young people are trying to start businesses before they really know anything about... anything. I'd like to think that I'm still young enough that this is coming more from memory of where I was at in my late teens and early twenties, rather than some kind of indictment of "kids today". It's just so valuable to get some experience before you go trying to start a company. For one thing, I imagine it would be much more difficult to manage people if you had never had any experience from the other side. (A varied set of experience would be ideal.) That's just one example of many though.

So, if you think you want to start a company, that's great! Keep that goal in mind and work toward it. The first step would be to learn and experience as much as you can.

Re: Interview by a 15 Year Old

#86

Post by tempestn »

gaius wrote: post #83
kercker wrote: 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 say this every time "learn to code" comes up, kids should learn to cook. People who can cook a meal from basic ingredients are healthier (than they would have been living on ready meals and takeaways), wealthier because it's cheaper, more relaxed because they have a hobby and more attractive to whatever is the gender of their preference. Humans have been cooking for thousands and thousands of years, but modern scho…

I agree with you in general that coding (unlike critical thinking and logic, as discussed above) is not a necessary skill. I think the last sentence is uncharitable though. At least in the case of pg, I'm pretty confident that his desire for everyone to learn to code is purely altruistic, springing from the fact that programming ability was a massive positive factor in his own life, as well as those of most people he knows. More, I expect that most VCs, like most people, are generally decent human beings, and therefore their motives are likely not to be purely self-centered. I'm sure there are some sociopaths out there who only care about building their fortunes, but most who advocate learning to code probably legitimately believe it's a good idea. (And honestly, it IS beneficial to learn to code; just not as vitally important as it is sometimes portrayed.)

Re: Interview by a 15 Year Old

#87

Post by aianus »

gaius wrote: post #83
kercker wrote: 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 say this every time "learn to code" comes up, kids should learn to cook. People who can cook a meal from basic ingredients are healthier (than they would have been living on ready meals and takeaways), wealthier because it's cheaper, more relaxed because they have a hobby and more attractive to whatever is the gender of their preference. Humans have been cooking for thousands and thousands of years, but modern scho…

You can code for $60/h and pay $5-$10 of that to someone else to cook a meal for you and clean up too. Why on earth would you want to be the latter guy?

Re: Interview by a 15 Year Old

#88

Post by lentil_soup »

aianus wrote: post #87
gaius wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I say this every time "learn to code" comes up, kids should learn to cook. People who can cook a meal from basic ingredients are healthier (than they would have been living on ready meals and takeaways), wealthier because it's cheaper, more relaxed because they have a hobby and more attractive to whatever is the gender of their preference. Humans have been cooking for thousands and thousands of years, but modern scho…

You can code for $60/h and pay $5-$10 of that to someone else to cook a meal for you and clean up too. Why on earth would you want to be the latter guy?

because you like cooking more than coding?

Re: Interview by a 15 Year Old

#89

Post by spoiler »

omegaham wrote: post #78
myth_buster wrote: post #19

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…

> Many, many people define "critical thinking" as "thinking like I do."

This should be emphasized more. I was dating a guy who claimed to be a critical thinker, which actually was worse than what you described here. Essentially, his definition of critical thinking was "agreeing with me." This--among ample other reasons--is why he is an ex.

But later in life I realised it wasn't just him, a lot of other "intellectuals"[0], are like that.

[0]: I've grown to snort and snicker when I hear the word lately. I believe anyone who calls himself (or someone else, because they've given themselves the authority to decide who is and who isn't) an intellectual, is a pompous little shit.

Re: Interview by a 15 Year Old

#90

Post by davidgerard »

kercker wrote: 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 it's really important that kids learn the concept of programmability: that all of this is just instructions. This is not a widely-known thing!

In the UK, all children are now expected to learn coding in school. What this actually means is putting 7-8 year olds in front of Scratch. AND IT WORKS REALLY WELL.

Writeup of my daughter's experience: http://reddragdiva.tumblr.com/post/127964136013/it-turns-out...

There's been a zillion simplified languages intended to get kids coding, but Scratch appears to be the one that works.

She's one of the academically-bright ones, but I asked her teacher about it and he said the average ones and the academically-bad ones also like Scratch. So it's doing job number 1 right: get the kid actually interested.

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