My Step 1 would be: Don't listen to an internet article on how to raise a fucking child... specially if it's a NYT article.
How to Raise a Creative Child – Step One: Back Off (2016)
221–230 of 263 posts
Re: How to Raise a Creative Child – Step One: Back Off (2016)
#222In adulthood, many prodigies become experts in their fields and leaders in their organizations. Yet only a fraction of gifted children eventually become revolutionary adult creators. My daughter is being treated for Leukemia by some amazing doctors at Boston Children's Hospital. To my knowledge, none of the health care professionals at this world-class institution have won Nobel Prizes in medicine. All the same, for…
Maybe I'm biased because I'm a no-name physician at a community hospital, but the "best doctors" in my eyes are the ones with the best outcomes, lowest utilization, highest efficiency and highest patient satisfaction. These measures don't correlate well with the physician's credentials. I learned this in residency, which I did just down the street from a "top" university hospital. We out-performed that place on every…
Doesn't this depend on the severity of cases the hospital gets ie top hospitals get the more acute life threatening cases
Re: How to Raise a Creative Child – Step One: Back Off (2016)
#223Re: How to Raise a Creative Child – Step One: Back Off (2016)
#224Earlier quoted context omitted.
By remaining in proximity and contact of other humans you're their responsibility and they are yours. I reject this completely. That's your reality, not mine.
Please respond to the rest of my post, not just the weakest line.
I agree with lacampbell that we're not responsible for other people's kids. In western society the individual is sovereign and our only responsibility is to do no harm. It is equally important to note however that the individual is missing out if he foregoes the pleasure of friendly interactions with other people, and is free to be a good neighbour and to give where he chooses. He is also wise if he aligns his ambitions with the general good of all.
But he may not be compelled. Indeed, it is the societies where people have talked about us all being responsible for everybody else that have murdered the most people (e.g. Soviet Union).
The foregoing interaction with lacampbell might be an analogy of how society fails creative types. They are often awkward, abrasive people who insist on doing things their own way. As a result they are denied jobs, ostracised socially (in the name of friendliness) and generally swept under the rug.
Society would far rather give academic posts, for example, to those who fit in enthusiastically:
http://iqpersonalitygenius.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/the-head-g...
The desire to be accepted and to fit in, despite appearances, is not really about friendliness, is my guess. It is actually rooted in the fear of others and the fear of being cast out of the tribe. Like all emotions this fear enacts behaviours which tend to install it in other people. As a result of early socialisation most of our creativity goes into being/appearing normal instead of into making original stuff.
Re: How to Raise a Creative Child – Step One: Back Off (2016)
#225Earlier quoted context omitted.
Repeat after me: Artificial Neural Networks/DL =! Biological Neural Networks
You'd have to be pretty ignorant to assume they are exactly analogous, but to assume that there is no transfer is equally ignorant. Artificial neural networks are much closer to neurons and brains than economic models are to markets, yet we bet the farm on forecasting (with pretty bad results, I might add). The repeat after me meme is really condescending by the way, might want to avoid using that.
What are the analogous components? Backpropagation is biologically implausible.
Re: How to Raise a Creative Child – Step One: Back Off (2016)
#226My personal theory on this is twofold: 1.) High achievers are used to pushing at things to win. Creativity is like a garden - you have to do some tending, but then you have to back off and let the plants grow. Fiddling doesn't help, in fact you're liable to end up killing the plants. 2.) Smart people actually learn too fast. Creativity requires very broad neural connectivity, and I think fast learning tends to produc…
2) This falls into the just world fallacy. Intelligence does not seem to come with real drawbacks. Highly intelligent people often have upper end reflexes, are unusual attractive, highly creative, social, and or content. They are more often taller and live longer as well. The trappings of intelligence are different, but very high raw intelligence is seen across most walks of life including actors, athletes, and sales…
As a hi IQ Dyslexic id have to disagree
Re: How to Raise a Creative Child – Step One: Back Off (2016)
#227Earlier quoted context omitted.
Good point about Feynman. The only thing I've found to work is trying everything until something starts to work. Of course, you start with the books to get ideas for what to try next. Ive got one of those kids that bounces off the walls. The older I get though the less I care. Some kids just can't sit still. Kids are society's problem and when we don't build spaces for them to be kids, its gonna happen.
I prefer to think that kids are society's solution.
This is a great idea.
Re: How to Raise a Creative Child – Step One: Back Off (2016)
#228Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wasn't making the point that society was in charge of my kids, rather that society needs to be tolerant of kids nature and adapt to it to some degree. I can get my kid to sit still, but its not his natural state so I don't often do it. I am glad that there are places you can take your kid to join and indoctrinate them into cultures you want to identify with. I am glad there are options. I would not choose french ci…
I don't think other people should necessarily have to accept that you prefer not to keep your child reasonably quiet, as an example, in public. Understanding that kids will be kids doesn't mean understanding that you as a parent prefer not to teach your kid how to act in public. It might seem harsh, but you really do paint the image of someone who thinks it's fine for his kid to keep screaming and running around in p…
I certainly wouldn't and didn't go as far to say my kid goes around screaming in public. That's quite a leap from what I was saying. What I said was that at the pediatrician's office, my kid runs around and plays rather than sitting still with his hands in his lap. Kids at play -- laughing, running, exploring, being curious, sometimes shouting -- are a beautiful thing that some find annoying and the point is to remember that we were and are all children.
Re: How to Raise a Creative Child – Step One: Back Off (2016)
#229Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Both are geniuses and both hated their childhood. I don't know anything about their respective childhoods, and I have greatly enjoyed some of Mr Trier's films, but I fear this is a dangerously egalitarian notion of "genius."
We can't all be Beethovens.
And that is okay. Labels like "genius" and "hero" get watered down in our participation trophy culture.
Re: How to Raise a Creative Child – Step One: Back Off (2016)
#230Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sometimes, the majority is wrong. There are many kids who might be hyperactive due to a quirk of their mind/body - say ADHD or a hyper fast metabolism. People don't see these things and expect kids who are really different to be the same as the rest. For that kind of a kid, the value tradeoff between keeping still and not disturbing anyone else vs. not can be very different if they cannot express themselves. Society…
> the parent said he can keep his child still, but its not the child's natural state. The child can be in its natural state in the privacy of their own home, not in public where it's a bother for everyone else. If we were talking about a child with real issues that could be blamed on disorders, it wouldn't just be about "natural state" and whatnot, and as you say the parent is able to keep the child quiet, proving it…
I would say that your sentiment encapsulates the attitude I disagree with. Public is, by definition, public. As in, for us all. Your norms are valid, but so are mine as well as my child's. I could make the argument that if you want solitude, you should visit the library where this norm is agreeably enforced by all, but I wouldn't. What I'd say is that the next time you are around a child who you feel is disruptive, go up to the parent and say, "I don't mean to be rude, but I was sitting here reading this book before you got here, would you mind asking your child to play more quietly or play somewhere else". I promise you I would not be offended by this (as a parent very little offends me anymore). Just don't expect the default state of a child to be child in church.