Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I was forced to be a child star. It was never my dream or my idea

wilwheaton.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

321–330 of 367 posts

Re: I was forced to be a child star. It was never my dream or my idea

#321

Post by bil7 »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #295
bil7 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

pretty hard when about 80% of new films these days are a sequel, remake, or tie into an existing universe[1]. Yes, just watch old films you say, but they're not on the front page of netflix and disney+, where the average person goes for entertainment recommendations. [1] https://experimentalhistory.substack.com/p/pop-culture-has-b...

Aren't there only like 7 actual stories? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Basic_Plots

Doesn't really matter, directors and screenwriters keep finding new implementations of old interfaces that feel fresh and are thoroughly enjoyable. The problem comes when implementations are near identical.

Re: I was forced to be a child star. It was never my dream or my idea

#322

Post by jonjacky »

divs1210 wrote: post #29

Off topic: Though Will is better known for his role in Star Trek, my favorite work of his is a low budget film from the 80’s called The Curse. It is an adaptation of HP Lovecraft’s Color Out of Space, and IMO it’s the best Lovecraft adaptation ever made. (trust me, I’ve seen a lot)

Will Wheaton was impressively good in the popular 1986 movie Stand By Me, also with River Phoenix and Kiefer Sutherland. I believe this was the role that made him famous, years before Star Trek.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand_by_Me_(film)

Re: I was forced to be a child star. It was never my dream or my idea

#323

Post by thematrixturtle »

SenHeng wrote: post #223
thematrixturtle wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never heard of a Chinese/Asian parent forcing the erhu or pipa on their kids though: it's always Western instruments, particularly the violin and piano.

The erhu and pipa were lowly instruments equivalent to guitars of today. The noveau rich are going to want something like the koto. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koto_(instrument)

Approximately nobody plays the koto even in Japan.

Re: I was forced to be a child star. It was never my dream or my idea

#324

Post by staticman2 »

soylentcola wrote: post #294
irjustin wrote: post #8

Wow Will was such a part of my childhood watching Star Trek. Obviously, he didn't appear often but he was memorable simply because there were so few people as young as him on the show. Sad to hear this all around. This also brought back memories of me being required to play piano growing up. I hated piano, performing (recitals), playing in general. I was terrrribbleee (still am) and was put up in lessons for 12 years…

> Wow Will was such a part of my childhood watching Star Trek. Obviously, he didn't appear often but he was memorable simply because there were so few people as young as him on the show. Yeah, he's 5 years older than me, but I remember watching that show and daydreaming about how cool it would be to live on the Enterprise and how I would be best friends with Wesley Crusher. I know adults loved to rag on the character…

I think a problem with Wesley is he seems to have undeveloped social skills for his age (possibly due to a lack of peers his own age to interact with) but the lack of social skills doesn't seem to be intentional on the part of the writers, Wesley is just oddly written.

As someone who struggled with socializing in school I think Wesley was a poor role model.

As an adult rewatching it I don't care, I would just acknowledge how weird/ alien the human characters on the enterprise act.

Re: I was forced to be a child star. It was never my dream or my idea

#325

Post by kzrdude »

jazzythom wrote: post #17

My parents pushed me hard, but sent me to a liberal arts school, and I’m hardwired for engineering. Hilarity ensued. The grinding of gears was a memory I would pay to erase. Deeply resent spending hours every day learning languages for countries I had no interest in visiting and how glaciers formed. What a waste of my finite precious time. If only I could go back I’d run out the gate and get on a train never to be se…

Do you play jazz? I'm an engineer and I play the piano for fun. Just wondering if you have some "liberal arts" in you still :)

Re: I was forced to be a child star. It was never my dream or my idea

#326

Post by MollyRealized »

heyflyguy wrote: post #257

Tough read. Part of getting older seems like letting go of these bothersome memories and loving someone in spite of it. I hurt for this family that may never reconcile. The mom wants to believe she did right and won't apologize. Wil wants her to admit what really happened, which she may never do. She'll die someday and this may still be unresolved, which is the real tragedy. Being the bigger person isn't always easy,…

Respectfully, NO. Atrocious parental behavior is not just bothersome memories that somehow should be prioritized second to a goal of reconciliation. Reconciliation should not be considered a default 'best outcome' for this kind of situation.

Children who are parentified (cf. "parentification trauma") or who are subjected to narcissistic parents never get to be little kids, and that trauma affects them in hundreds of different ways that leaves them a brutally incomplete individual.

In his television interview, Wheaton noted that the only reason he's alive today is that he did not really know how to kill himself as an adolescent.

Re: I was forced to be a child star. It was never my dream or my idea

#327

Post by User23 »

thematrixturtle wrote: post #151
true_religion wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Asian culture simply adopted American and English culture in this regard Since the OP mentioned China specifically, I think it’s good to note that the Chinese elite have venerated art for millennia. Poetry writing, singing, and playing musical instruments were a staple of every young nobles education during the times of the Imperial dynasties. It’s not at all something simply copied from the British during coloniza…

I've never heard of a Chinese/Asian parent forcing the erhu or pipa on their kids though: it's always Western instruments, particularly the violin and piano.

A great many East Asians greatly admire Western music. At it's best it's both mathematically interesting and aesthetically beautiful. Frankly, I admire their utter lack of cultural insecurity.

Re: I was forced to be a child star. It was never my dream or my idea

#328

Post by jazzythom »

kzrdude wrote: post #325
jazzythom wrote: post #17

My parents pushed me hard, but sent me to a liberal arts school, and I’m hardwired for engineering. Hilarity ensued. The grinding of gears was a memory I would pay to erase. Deeply resent spending hours every day learning languages for countries I had no interest in visiting and how glaciers formed. What a waste of my finite precious time. If only I could go back I’d run out the gate and get on a train never to be se…

Do you play jazz? I'm an engineer and I play the piano for fun. Just wondering if you have some "liberal arts" in you still :)

No but enjoy a bit of Miles from time to time :) I love the piano

Re: I was forced to be a child star. It was never my dream or my idea

#329

Post by marklubi »

Balgair wrote: post #313
irjustin wrote: post #8

Wow Will was such a part of my childhood watching Star Trek. Obviously, he didn't appear often but he was memorable simply because there were so few people as young as him on the show. Sad to hear this all around. This also brought back memories of me being required to play piano growing up. I hated piano, performing (recitals), playing in general. I was terrrribbleee (still am) and was put up in lessons for 12 years…

> What is a healthy amount of pushing vs too much? David Epstein somewhat tackles this question in Range [0]. The issue come down to the type of 'learning environment' of the activity you are trying to get the kid into. 'Kind Learning Environments' are ones like golf or chess. The rules are clear, the feedback is rapid, standings are knowable, and the skills are uniform. For Kind learning environments, you just grind…

Thank you for the book recommendation. I haven’t read it yet, but from the description and your comment, it seems like it puts its finger right on something I’ve contemplated for years.

The general ability to excel in a lot of different things, because of exposure to a variety of things, without necessarily being a 10,000 hour master in any of them, goes a long way. Particularly, being able to combine multiple aspects from multiple disciplines to solve a problem from a different perspective.

Edit: To just expand my thoughts a bit further, I think it comes down to sometimes “you don’t know what you don’t know.” Being exposed to more things goes a long way.

Re: I was forced to be a child star. It was never my dream or my idea

#330

Post by nlnn »

benkwokcy wrote: post #31
nlnn wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a tough one. If you discover a passion for something as an adult, you'll often wish your parents had pushed you into it as a kid. I feel this way about music, zero education as a kid, started late as an adult, but feel I'll never catch up. Though there's no way of knowing whether I'd have felt the same as a kid, or pushed back against it at the time.

You don't have to catch up. It doesn't matter how good you are, only if you are enjoying it.

This is true, I am very much enjoying it and not benchmarking my ability against others.

My main frustration is around finding people to play with.

People my age seem to have been playing since they were kids and have high skill expectations.

Amateurs looking for people to play with seem much younger, and in it for the fun of hanging out as much as playing.

Post reply on HN