What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old? • Hacker News Board

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

#61

Post by eli_gottlieb » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 6:43 PM UTC

drhayes9 wrote: post #35

The first three books of "The Wrinkle in Time" series. The first three books of the Earthsea cycle by Ursula K. LeGuin. These both skew young but I valued re-reading them as I got older: The Dot and the Line: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dot_and_the_Line The Phantom Tollbooth: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_Tollbooth

>The first three books of "The Wrinkle in Time" series.

Why does everyone keep recommending books for teenagers that I read in elementary school?

I mean, hell, if we're going for epic high fantasy set in the (recognizably) modern world, try So You Want to be a Wizard by Diane Duane.

And to those of you who tried taking the Oath when you were a child, yes, the rest of us did, too. Pity it didn't take.

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

#62

Post by tjradcliffe » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 6:45 PM UTC

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 the most engaging and compelling, and they teach skepticism, humanity, kindness, courage and absurdity in equal measures.

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

#63

Post by gorkemyurt » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 6:45 PM UTC

- play sports

- have as many friends as you can, girlfriends/boyfriends, don't be shy, drink beer before its legal

most importantly have self discipline. If you manage to have self discipline everything else is easy in life

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

#64

Post by rayalez » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 6:46 PM UTC

"Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" by Eliezer Yudkowsky - the most brilliant book I've read this year. I wish I'd read it 10 years ago.

And Atlas Shrugged - controversial, I know, a lot of people here hate it for some reason, but it was incredibly influential on me, inspired my passion for entrepreneurship and science and philosophy. Still is one of the best books I am aware of.

If I could send 2 books back in time to the 14-year-old me - these would be it.

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

#65

Post by ChuckMcM » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 6:50 PM UTC

This is such an important question. There are three things you can do for your kids,

1) Let them understand that asking any question is ok

2) Seeking answers to questions informs you about your world.

3) Anything really is possible with infinite time and money, use those goals as vectors to move your life forward.

In terms of recommendations I was pretty blown away by Buckminster Fuller's An Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth[1] as he has such a great way of looking at things differently and to pull you out of your own preconceptions.

I would also recommend an encyclopedia, because frankly it is a great way to get answers to questions and way less dodgy than trying to figure out good data from bad data on the Internet (not to mention few people have gotten into trouble getting caught with an encyclopedia in their room, which can not be said for an Internet connected computer in their room.)

Understanding how to ask questions, how to test your understanding, how to theorize and make predictions and test those theories. Those are the life skills that turn a bright child into a force to be reckoned with early in life.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Operating-Manual-Spaceship-Buckminster...

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

#66

Post by frikk » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 6:55 PM UTC

rayalez wrote: post #64

"Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" by Eliezer Yudkowsky - the most brilliant book I've read this year. I wish I'd read it 10 years ago. And Atlas Shrugged - controversial, I know, a lot of people here hate it for some reason, but it was incredibly influential on me, inspired my passion for entrepreneurship and science and philosophy. Still is one of the best books I am aware of. If I could send 2 books bac…

I read Atlas Shrugged as a 15 year old, and again as a 29 year old. I think it's better suited for my 15 year old self, as I found the historical context of the book more interesting than the philosophy this time around. It also just goes on and on and on -- you get the general premise early on and it feels overly verbose by a factor of 2-3x. The characters don't age well either, my older self has found them to be kind of flat and boring.

Still, it's a good read. Especially the economic mechanics of the universe -- it's fascinating to read about the technology, culture, sexism, and politics from the first half of the 20th century. That alone makes it worthwhile. For example, the characters are constantly smoking cigarettes, to the point where pivotal moments in the plot are revealed, more often than not, because of a smoke break.

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

#67

Post by miket » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 6:58 PM UTC

Not beats experiential education and building an early network if intellectual peers.

I'd recommend to a 14-year old an AI camp being offered by the Stanford AI Lab: http://ai.stanford.edu/sailors/

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

#68

Post by neilparikh » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 7:00 PM UTC

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 read a little bit (only section 1.1, if I recall correctly) in high school (in grade 11, I think). I didn't get very far (mostly due to being busy with school work/forgetting about it), but I didn't find the parts I read too difficult. It doesn't assume much prerequiste knowledge.

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

#69

Post by eli_gottlieb » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 7:09 PM UTC

Well, I suppose I might want to try something like Coding the Matrix: Linear Algebra through Applications to Computer Science, or a book on games programming -- if I was trying to interest the kid in math and CS subjects.

For fiction, it's damned hard to say. My own personal top influences in fiction form were the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane and, weirdly, the anime/manga Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. It's actually very, very hard to find good fiction for kids, since you're trying to inspire or teach rather than just entertain. Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching arc is good for younger kids, with the later books having the star character as a young teen.

For nonfiction that isn't just math/science/technology, how about the Communist Manifesto?

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

#70

Post by shanecleveland » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 7:12 PM UTC

Resources to discover books they are interested in ... a good bookstore, library, amazon, etc. I was a "reader," and while I had the ability to read above my grade level, I didn't want to. I would have been bored to death by most of these recommendations. Enjoying and appreciating reading is important. Their interests will evolve and grow from there.