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What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?

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Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?

#91

Post by sgt101 »

drakenot wrote: post #72
tjradcliffe wrote: post #62

Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, particularly: "Mort" and "Reaper Man"; "Guards! Guards!", "Men at Arms", and "The Night Watch"; "Wyrd Sisters", "Witches Abroad" and "Lords and Ladies"; and "Small Gods" and "Pyramids". The first two are about Death, the second three about Samuel Vimes, the third group about Granny Weatherwax, and the last two are stand-alones. All the books are worth reading, but those are some of…

Which one would you suggest starting with?

I loved the Colour of Magic when I was 14

Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?

#92

Post by acheron »

astrange wrote: post #79
crazy1van wrote: post #60

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card The story of a genius child training to battle an alien species. Not only very entertaining but also critically acclaimed. It won the Hugo and Nebula and has been on several military leadership reading lists. [0] I loved it as a teenager and recently reread it and still loved it. [0]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ender%27s_Game#Critical_respons...

He wrote himself into a corner within two sequels, so try not to read any of his other books afterward.

I still think Speaker for the Dead is worth reading, and there's no reason you can't stop after that.

Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?

#93

Post by sgt101 »

MollyR wrote: post #56

Socrates, Plato, Aristotle Essentially start with the classics of philosophy. Its my biggest regret I wasn't introduced to them as a child.

Let's do some logic.

1. For 2000 years people have read and thought about these books. Much new thinking has taken the ideas in them and developed these ideas out of all recognition.

2. The human condition is not as it was when these books were written. We do not have slaves, nor do we have a farm with olive groves and stuff all else. We have cars, tvs, computers and THE INTERNET.

3. The person we are talking to is 14.

If Socrates were to read this thread he would start looking for you so he could shout at you. Plato would dip his cup in the wine and shake his head and Aristotle would skip around waving his arms and hooting like an owl.

Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?

#95

Post by abecedarius »

johan_larson wrote: post #32
jeffreyrogers wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, the more math I learn the less useful I think it is for most people, but if you enjoy it it can be rewarding to study on its own. I think some more practical stuff would be great, unfortunately I can't remember ever coming across a good introduction to programming. The way I learned was just by finding example programs and then modifying them to do something different. That's a hard skill to teach though.

I wonder what a clever 14-year-old would make of an advanced introduction to programming, such as SICP. It's written for students only four years older, although those are very important four years. Has anyone tried pointing a highschool student at that book?

I'd suggest Turtle Geometry by Abelson and diSessa -- yes, same Abelson as SICP's. I only wish I'd had it as a teenager; it was still interesting when I got it in my 20s.

Less advanced but also plausibly worthwhile: Brian Harvey's Computer Science Logo Style.

Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?

#96

Post by thisandthat »

I believe what's important for bright young kids is to first really have them explore many areas that they might enjoy, whether it be sports or art. As an adult, I don't think we have the right to steer them in direction the way we want them to, but we have the responsibility to put them in a path where they can have a fulfilling life. It's hard to just put a finger on certain vocation that these bright kids should be placed in, because just like anyone else, they may have their own personalities which motivate them to do some things that certain adults may consider as a waste of time. Say that a 14 year old math&physics genius loves the subjects (but doesn't want to spend his life studying them), and truly loves playing sports and is particularly talented in basketball and he really wants to get into the NBA in the future (he really does have that potential), would you force him to study math&physics?

Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?

#97

Post by NhanH »

doctorpangloss wrote: post #53

I wish when I was 14 I was exposed to more contemporary literature, instead of great classics. And I have no regrets about missing out on math books—most of my friends went to math camp for that kind of knowledge. I'd recommend David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest; Junot Diaz's This is How You Lose Her; The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis; Haruki Murakami's Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. I wis…

I'm 25 and I have no understanding of human, sexuality, rich people, old people etc... How do I catch up?

Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?

#100

Post by rndn »

seanlinehan wrote: post #33

I would definitely recommend How to Win Friends and Influence People as an addition to the list. I'd say that learning how to deal with people and communicate ideas effectively is at least as important as learning how to think. This is also a book I recommend reading, re-reading, and then re-reading again for people of all ages. Edit: I'd also probably recommend Innumeracy[0] which is a fun book about dealing with nu…

Here is a summary of HtWFaIP that I stumbled upon the other day: http://www.westegg.com/unmaintained/carnegie/win-friends.htm...
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