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Tech my dad banned in our house when I was a kid

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Re: Tech my dad banned in our house when I was a kid

#241
post #31

I'm with the dad. Not necessarily for the specific choices but for making a choice. Author should have waited another 10 years because this is a shallow and still-immature perspective that underappreciates her dad's principle and integrity. Why should a company that demonstrably sucks for you, continue to get your money? (So your teenage daughter can be like the cool kids?) It's called voting with your wallet, and a…

100 % with you. I mean why would you give money to companies that treat you like a dummy, won't allow you to tinker with your computer, ask for double the money compared to build it yourself, etc. It might be just me getting old but I don't understand the current consumers who don't really demand anything for their money. Is nothing important to you? Do you just buy what they tell you to in marketing and PR?

It might be just me getting old but I don't understand the current consumers who don't really demand anything for their money. Is nothing important to you? Do you just buy what they tell you to in marketing and PR?

They just value different things to you. It doesn't mean they are a gullible idiot. I don't understand why that is so difficult for people to recognise.

Re: Tech my dad banned in our house when I was a kid

#242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100 % with you. I mean why would you give money to companies that treat you like a dummy, won't allow you to tinker with your computer, ask for double the money compared to build it yourself, etc. It might be just me getting old but I don't understand the current consumers who don't really demand anything for their money. Is nothing important to you? Do you just buy what they tell you to in marketing and PR?

It might be just me getting old but I don't understand the current consumers who don't really demand anything for their money. Is nothing important to you? Do you just buy what they tell you to in marketing and PR? They just value different things to you. It doesn't mean they are a gullible idiot. I don't understand why that is so difficult for people to recognise.

What are those things?

I care about price, reliability, ease of maintenance, freedom to modify, etc.

What do you/they care about?

Re: Tech my dad banned in our house when I was a kid

#243

Rules for my kids: If you're over 10 years of age you should know what your limits are. I'm always going to be here for advice and help to get yourself back up from an accident or something that went wrong. I won't block content. I won't demand access to their phones. I won't shame them in any way. I'm also planning on being sex and body positive. Nudity isn't inherently sexual and shame is a social construct. Nothin…

> If you're over 10 years of age you should know what your limits are. Propositionally knowing things is very different than being able to make the right decisions when the moment comes. A 10 year old neither has the fully developed prefrontal cortex of a 25 old nor the required self knowledge. They are not even in puberty and half of their emotions, desires, drives wouldn't have come online yet. They will depend an…

For something to develop it needs to be used. There is no magic switch in your brain that goes from "not mature" to "mature" at the age X. Also, the less responsibilities you give to your kid, the less skill of being responsible they will have.

Re: Tech my dad banned in our house when I was a kid

#244
post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's a clever bit by Douglas Adams, and there's some truth to it in some contexts, but I hate to see it voted to the top on HN specifically. The reason is that our industry right now doesn't make a secret about widespread, accepted ageism. And a common talking-point defense of it is "not learning new technologies".

I think it's clever because we all (at least those of us over 35) recognize this tendency in our own thinking, at least to some extent. It certainly doesn't mean we reject or are incapable of learning new technologies. It's more about introspection—realizing for instance that the fact I have little use for TikTok is more about me than it is about TikTok. Personally I don't feel it needs to have any ageist connotation…

It's not that simple. A lot of technology today is manipulating or is spying on its users.

Re: Tech my dad banned in our house when I was a kid

#247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From a purely pragmatic perspective as a citizen and resident of a five eyes country, I consider it a much lower threat to myself and my career, political life and financial life to have my data in the possession of the NSA than the MSS. I've also previously held a security clearance and worked for a large defense contractor in a network engineering role, so I have some inside perspective on how the sausage is made.…

> From a purely pragmatic perspective as a citizen and resident of a five eyes country, I consider it a much lower threat to myself and my career, political life and financial life to have my data in the possession of the NSA than the MSS. Why is your information being in the hands of an agency of the government that has to break the constitution to have said information somehow a lower threat than a foreign governme…

It isn't in the hands of the former and is actively filtered and modified by the latter.

Re: Tech my dad banned in our house when I was a kid

#248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> From a purely pragmatic perspective as a citizen and resident of a five eyes country, I consider it a much lower threat to myself and my career, political life and financial life to have my data in the possession of the NSA than the MSS. Why is your information being in the hands of an agency of the government that has to break the constitution to have said information somehow a lower threat than a foreign governme…

It isn't in the hands of the former and is actively filtered and modified by the latter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klayman_v._Obama

Re: Tech my dad banned in our house when I was a kid

#249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair enough, obviously OP has the right to parent as he pleases. I think that my tinkering intuition has led me to many of my professional successes, and this talent was garnered by experimentation with computers as a child.

Eh I sometimes wish parents weren't basically given ownership rights over their kids.

They aren't, most developed countries have some form of Child Protection Services for cases of abuse.

Re: Tech my dad banned in our house when I was a kid

#250
post #31

I'm with the dad. Not necessarily for the specific choices but for making a choice. Author should have waited another 10 years because this is a shallow and still-immature perspective that underappreciates her dad's principle and integrity. Why should a company that demonstrably sucks for you, continue to get your money? (So your teenage daughter can be like the cool kids?) It's called voting with your wallet, and a…

I didn't see the article nearly as negative as you did. The last paragraph actually sounded extremely positive:

> Even though he was a pain in the butt about his preferences [...], my dad did right by me by. Instead of just putting me in front of a computer as a kid, he showed me how to make it my own.

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