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

All grown-ups were once children, but only few of them remember it

mathstodon.xyz

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 199 posts

Re: All grown-ups were once children, but only few of them remember it

#61

Post by gattr »

cbolton wrote: post #37
burticlies wrote: post #3

I see this clearly at kids birthday parties whenever there is a piñata. Adults hate them. All they see is the goal and the incredibly inefficient path the kids are taking towards it. But the kids love it, they don’t care when they miss, they are just enjoying hitting something with a stick. And every miss heightens the excitement for the eventual lolly scramble.

It never occurred to me to consider efficiency in piñata, but I dislike them because it's making a game out of violence.

I wouldn't say "violence", rather, an opportunity to demolish something on (good) purpose. Same reason children will be glued to the window if workers outside are going at it with jackhammers, or, better yet, an excavator is crushing and scraping off the asphalt. (Yeah, I remember exactly how awesome that was.)

Re: All grown-ups were once children, but only few of them remember it

#62

Post by WalterBright »

mlsu wrote: post #12

I think Tao correctly sees the problem with AI. It’s not that it is ineffective or has weaknesses. It’s that it’s not human. Like, it ought to be enough to say that the problem with AI is that it’s not human. Unfortunately, we live in a world where many (most?) people have willingly put away the childish things, so as to achieve some goal. The problem is that the point of life is to explore and have fun and have huma…

> the point of life is to explore and have fun and have human to human experiences

Not really. The point of life is successful reproduction. Because without it, we cease to exist. It wasn't that long ago when humans spent their entire lives struggling to live and protect their children.

Re: All grown-ups were once children, but only few of them remember it

#63

Post by setopt »

sublinear wrote: post #15
galaxyLogic wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The British rock-band Traffic said it in their "Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys" : "... we were children once, playing with toys". I wonder if it's true that people don't remember. People maybe remember but don't want to talk about it. It is such a cognitive dissonance.

Everyone remembers, but ADHD is overrepresented in the high-level positions of leadership.

Do you have a source for that? My experience has been that people with ADHD are rather underrepresented, the ones who are overrepresented are rather hyper-extroverts that sometimes present similarly, but that do not have the same impulse control challenges (impossible to focus on boring tasks, hyperfocus on fun tasks) as someone with true ADHD.

Re: All grown-ups were once children, but only few of them remember it

#64

Post by red_admiral »

thin_carapace wrote: post #52
cbolton wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It never occurred to me to consider efficiency in piñata, but I dislike them because it's making a game out of violence.

is play not an indirect method of practicing the physiological mechanisms designed for violence ? baby lions are both happy to play with other animals, and to eat them ... which inevitably progresses to predation only ... and humans are the apex predator ...

Depends. Dolls' tea parties aren't violent.

Re: All grown-ups were once children, but only few of them remember it

#65

Post by alansaber »

ktallett wrote: post #22

I am not a Tao hater but also not a fanboy but this is spot on! He is right, I don't love AI in many states and feel it is used for pointless task, however the beauty of that helping hand supporting you do tasks that you have no idea how to do is the magic in it. As a child we all asked questions regularly of what if we did this instead of this, why do we do things this way, why not try something else. Work and adult…

Exactly, breadth not depth of knowledge, from a tutor with no ego

Re: All grown-ups were once children, but only few of them remember it

#66

Post by WalterBright »

lynx97 wrote: post #38
apt-apt-apt-apt wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think everyone wants the experience of living, but it's not a great one without money, and money commonly requires full-time work until financial freedom. But that point usually comes at 65. So it's not that only children appreciate life, it's just that adults have to deal with that whole money problem, while children don't.

I take a 8 hour work day over being subjected to more or less random weirdness from "adults" every day. IOW, not everyone has this rose-tinted view of their childhood. I still remember adults saying "you will once look back at your childhood and miss the times". Turns out that was totally and utterly wrong. I even have bad dreams about my school/childhood time every few months. I am sooooo glad that time of being sub…

I miss the 70's when I was in high school. I had a great time. It's one reason why I drive a '72 Dodge. I feel like a kid in it every time.

Re: All grown-ups were once children, but only few of them remember it

#67

Post by WalterBright »

orlp wrote: post #26
ryuuseijin wrote: post #6

This reminds me of a video I saw from Alan Watts [1] where he talks about how from childhood it is hammered into our minds that we must work we must do this or do that or we will be punished. And he talks about how you can choose to change your perspective or mindset and see work as a form of play, where you live in the moment. This is probably harder to do than to say, but this video resonated with me because your m…

That's a nice story and all but it isn't a reality for most people. For most people on this planet it's work or starve on the street.

Somebody's got to work. Look at all the nice goodies we have.

Re: All grown-ups were once children, but only few of them remember it

#68

Post by SlightlyLeftPad »

cbolton wrote: post #37
burticlies wrote: post #3

I see this clearly at kids birthday parties whenever there is a piñata. Adults hate them. All they see is the goal and the incredibly inefficient path the kids are taking towards it. But the kids love it, they don’t care when they miss, they are just enjoying hitting something with a stick. And every miss heightens the excitement for the eventual lolly scramble.

It never occurred to me to consider efficiency in piñata, but I dislike them because it's making a game out of violence.

I dislike them because someone inevitably gets sacked in the groin.

Re: All grown-ups were once children, but only few of them remember it

#69

Post by ErroneousBosh »

imawakegnxoxo wrote: post #42
317070 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Overestimate their understanding, underestimate their vocabulary.

Kids are so much smarter and more capable than adults give them credit for, and it is stunting society as a whole I think infantilisation is a huge part of the reason we're where we are today - kids 100 years ago were working harder jobs than most adults today (not implying child slave labour is a good thing, just making a point) Kids today, though, are given exactly 0 responsibility and treated like babies the whole…

One of the first emails from the school when my small son was in Primary 1 was that they'd been making some pancakes in class and he'd picked up a Big Sharp Knife and began slicing some strawberries to put on them, and this was Very Much Not Allowed!

Children should not be touching the Big Sharp Knives!

Yeah, did he cut himself? No? Was he holding the knife and the strawberries carefully, so he didn't cut himself? Yes?

Want to take a guess as to why?

He's five. He knows how to chop vegetables. My parents taught me how to cook from a young age, I am teaching him how to cook from a young age. I'm raising a *man* here, not a perma-infant.

Although, between you and me, I think he could stand to use a bit less oregano in his pizza sauce. I'd never criticise his choices, I think he'll figure it out in time.

Re: All grown-ups were once children, but only few of them remember it

#70

Post by BLKNSLVR »

ErroneousBosh wrote: post #54
317070 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Overestimate their understanding, underestimate their vocabulary.

"But it's okay if a battery goes on fire daddy, I'll put carbon dioxide on it!" - EBv2.0, aged 3 and a half

I think the first time my son said the 'f' word, he got the tone and the body language exactly right for the context in which he used it (a frustrated/resigned "fuck's sake", with roll-eyes and throw-head-back, look up to the sky). He might have been five years old at the time. And back then, I really didn't say it around them very much (out of an attempt to be somewhat responsible).

They're absorbing everything. They're scraping the entirety of your personality to build their own.

Post reply on HN