Advice

Something I've thought a lot about is how to educate people, specifically on a larger scale. In general I think it's a really underrated thought-space for tech people, probably because it's a hard problem that most likely won't make you a billionaire. However, in my thinking/reading about this issue, I've discovered that especially at the 10-20 age a lot of time you have to work towards making kids curious and encouraging this behavior without explicitly demanding it. In other words, I think this article is almost better read by parents than the kids themselves.

The average 10 year old will most likely not go out of their way to "aim to read a lot" if it is hard to get books. Fortunately, I had a set of parents that highly valued education, and they really worked towards opening access to books for me and my siblings (we could go to the library whenever we wanted, and they prioritized driving us there). Obviously there will be the occasional 10 year old that will do anything to get more books but I don't think that is average, as are most things on this article.

This follows for most things on this list. Curiosity, taking hobbies you enjoy way way way too far (read that as "becoming an expert"), and "making things" are all things that I think happen better or exclusively under parental guidance. In addition to that, something I think I noticed (and I'd be curious if Patrick experienced this too) but doing most of these activities with my siblings significantly encouraged my habits. I built my first computer with the help of my siblings, and have read dozens of books I never would have without the suggestions of my siblings.

All these slightly random thoughts combine into the fact that my "resume education" did very little to get me to the point that I am today. I didn't learn how to program at school. I didn't write my first program at school. I didn't develop my love of reading at school. I didn't build my first quad-copter there, etc. So, rounding this out, I'd ask the question; what portion of these activities (listed here, or on Patrick's blog) should I have done at school vs at home? Should education move to a more Montessori[0] style to encourage this exploration? Should teachers merge more into parents as is the case in a lot of public schools? How can a company (non-profit?) garner enough of a child's time to encourage these behaviors?

On a more tangential note, have you done anything in the education/parenting space Patrick?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori_education

I can only speak from personal experience, but I have noticed that I easily get excited to learn a shiny new tool or skill, but once I have basic familiarity with it, my eagerness dries up because all that was driving my desire to learn was the intrigue of an unknown experience. Times where I felt like I actually went deep (and it didn't require superhuman discipline to spend time on something I had lost interest in) were when I was working on a problem I was passionate about that required deep knowledge of a certain set of tools or skills. Then I had reason to keep pushing and along the way I realized I had become halfway decent at that tool/skill set.

And the general, consistent feeling of well-being and attentiveness is seductive - it makes you feel like it'll always be there, without any maintenance.

I’d contend you should set aside time to have fun at all ages.

> If you think something is important but people older than you hold don't hold it in high regard, there's a decent chance that you're right and they're wrong. Status lags by a generation or more.

I winced a little bit at this one, though it's worded strangely so I may be misinterpreting it. The way I took it is poor advice -- when there is a mismatch between yourself and another in terms of "what's important" or what should be kept in "high regard", do not immediately assume the other person is a moral failure. This is the kind of thinking that leads to division and mistrust between people. The proper way to react to this is to make a good faith effort to understand why the person doesn't care about the issue you do, and be conscious that you may also change your mind one day. "Strong opinions, weakly held."