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Adults think that the best thing you can do for a child is to turn the child out like them. Think about that, that's got to be one of the dumbest ideas ever. - Alan Kay ... via https://github.com/globalcitizen/taoup
"A programmer's perspective" but nothing unique to a programmer parent. I assumed it was going to be about all of the bad habits that go with being a dedicated tech worker, because there are lots of them.
> The good parts and the bad parts. This is why it’s very important to stop and ask yourself if your behaviour is the right behaviour you want emulated in your children.
That is like something I would say and people around me wonder what I talk about. Maybe he meant this
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Adults think that the best thing you can do for a child is to turn the child out like them. Think about that, that's got to be one of the dumbest ideas ever. - Alan Kay ... via https://github.com/globalcitizen/taoup
The big advantage of turning out a child like yourself is you can support them very well. A lot of top performers in sports, business, politics, etc. had a parent who did the same thing and was able to massively help them from a young age.
Even if she is interested in programming, I'd warn her about burnout, about the ultra long feedback cycles, about the exhausting rate of technology progress. Make sure she knows the path ahead. It's weighted, I know, because I can only tell her about this path and not others. On the other hand, there's weight to the other side by seeing me doing that, being able to get advice and direction.
I want her to be happy. Fulfilled if possible. Good work-life balance, preferable on the side of "life" than "work". If I can leave her enough money to choose her profession rather than have to follow the money.
My 0,02€: Having become a dad late in life, I have plenty of perspective. When discussing our 3yo with my wife, I note that I've identified a couple of deficiencies in my own upbringing & school-age experiences that I don't want my kid to have to repeat. Just trying to leverage the benefit of experience.
Didn't have kids young, and man they're tiring, but in exchange for energy I can see what I want my kid doing and NOT doing. And really, it's mostly the NOT-doing stuff I'm worried about.
The kid will be into what they are -- it would be nice if they're into the same stuff as me, but it's fine if they aren't. But there are a bunch of situations I wish I didn't have to go through that I'd like to spare them from. Biggest one being a military brat and moving a lot, and never really being able to dive into a hobby or group.
In terms of programming, if my child wants to imitate me and learn to code, then fine, but doing so is riddled with problems. Firstly, code is so unforgiving, unlike art, where mistakes in art can be tolerated and even add to the aesthetic of the art, but one single misplaced comma in code ruins the whole program. Then there's the countless times you have to bang your head against the wall whilst coding because of so…
Not to mention this whole LLM thing people are talking about...
Someone is going to have to tweak that AI but it may be more like a handful of highly-skilled and razor-sharp AI surgeons instead of legions of hackers.
Or cuz the AI will wake up and exterminate us like a bug...
In terms of programming, if my child wants to imitate me and learn to code, then fine, but doing so is riddled with problems. Firstly, code is so unforgiving, unlike art, where mistakes in art can be tolerated and even add to the aesthetic of the art, but one single misplaced comma in code ruins the whole program. Then there's the countless times you have to bang your head against the wall whilst coding because of so…