Laura Deming, founder of the Longevity Fund, on being homeschooled • Hacker News Board

Re: Laura Deming, founder of the Longevity Fund, on being homeschooled

#91

Post by nathanbarry » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 9:08 PM UTC

bgutierrez wrote: post #55

nathanbarry wrote: post #6

Such a great interview. It's fascinating to see how different education styles can have such a big impact. While homeschooling isn't the right fit for everyone, I was homeschooled and it had a huge impact on me. My habits now for constant learning, working to complete tasks quickly, building projects with my hands (remodeling, woodworking, etc), and my desire to start companies all came from the time and energy that…

After homeschooling, I also have a hunger for learning. It is the hunger of someone that did not always get enough to eat as a child and isn't going to let calories go by uneaten. The hunger of someone who suspects others know how malnourished they were as a kid and is afraid to look skinny. A hunger that keeps them up at night, telling them to eat and eat until sleep seizes them, then wakes them up early in the morn…

Interesting. That wasn't my experience at all. Maybe hunger is the wrong word: love of learning is better.

I grew up to truly love learning and be excited for our weekly trips to the library to get more books. Then when I had access to the internet I spent so much time learning code and design. My parents taught me how to learn and then gave me access to whatever I needed (mostly just the library and a computer).

Re: Laura Deming, founder of the Longevity Fund, on being homeschooled

#92

Post by mrfusion » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 9:09 PM UTC

speeder wrote: post #11

I want to homeschool my future kids but it is still illegal in my country (illegal as in: if you attempt it, the government will arrest you and send the kids to an orphanage) Thing is: public schools here outright suck, teach lots of bullshit and are dangerous. Private schools are crazy expensive, and although they are more useful they still teach a lot of bullshit. Also the educational style of all schools here is o…

I’m really curious what country that is. But how about a starting a coop with other parents. Or starting your own private school?

Re: Laura Deming, founder of the Longevity Fund, on being homeschooled

#93

Post by yourapostasy » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 9:11 PM UTC

ballenf wrote: post #79

JoshTriplett wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why don't we see how valuable aging and death are? Because they're horrific tragedies that we should be fighting tooth and nail until they're extinguished and nobody ever has to deal with them again. They should be consigned to the history books. > Aging is a process of coming to terms with death. Aging is a biological problem that we continue to debug. And nothing should make us "come to terms" with being oblitera…

I worry about what immortality would do to our legal system, moral judgments and overall progress. If a life is immortal then life preservation actually becomes priceless in a non-hyperbolic way. And that means it really does outweigh everything else -- including wellbeing and the cost-benefit of taking risks gets very lopsided. People could still do risky things individually, but any business that had inherent risks…

Then move onto the next "immutable law of the universe" to make cry in submission: figure out how to backup mindstate and restore it into a resheathed young blank mindstate clone. Chances are good we'll have to solve both relatively simultaneously, as well as the problem space of what to do with memories/experience, which I suspect are all entangled together.

Re: Laura Deming, founder of the Longevity Fund, on being homeschooled

#94

Post by AnimalMuppet » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 9:13 PM UTC

vslira wrote: post #15

newfeatureok wrote: post #8

Is homeschooling actually better once you control for the types of people who are capable of doing it? I would imagine a good chunk of people who homeschool their children are incredibly active in their children's education, by definition. These children I would argue, would be fine with or without homeschooling. Homeschooling also just seems unsustainable. Modern society generally requires two parents to be working.…

Yeah, it seems like an anti-pattern. Also, it's supposedly better for children to be educated by a great educator and most parents, like most people, are not. The fact of the matter is that the implicit assumption of many pro-homeschoolers is that most professional educators - either for individual or systemic reasons - are also not good educators, and would rather take their chances. I can't entirely blame them.

Well... If a child is "different" (Aspie, say), or bullied, or had serious health issues, or even just really gifted, homeschooling might be the best answer.

But even if none of those things is true, I keep hearing about classroom size as one of the key determinants of educational outcomes. Well, what's the classroom size for a homeschool? It's however many kids you have. Let's use the standard family size, 2.3 kids. The average school classroom size is around 20 in the US. Well, how much does 2.3 vs. 20 make up for the parent not being a great educator? And what if the person with 20 isn't a great educator either?

Re: Laura Deming, founder of the Longevity Fund, on being homeschooled

#95

Post by ksdale » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 9:16 PM UTC

DavidVoid wrote: post #60

flyingfences wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In some cases it will not be better. In some cases it will be better. It is important that homeschooling remains an option for those cases.

Is it though? I feel like this is a strong case of "what is best for society is not best for each and every individual". If allowing homeschooling will help 100 kids to learn faster and be happier, while at the same time causing another 1000 kids become socially isolated by giving their parents the authority to more easily cut them off from the rest of society and indoctrinate them, then is that trade-off really wort…

I believe if you think that 91% of parents are going to indoctrinate their children in a way that harms society, that society is probably doomed, as that 91% should theoretically have control of the government already...

Re: Laura Deming, founder of the Longevity Fund, on being homeschooled

#96

Post by JoshTriplett » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 9:18 PM UTC

comboy wrote: post #83

JoshTriplett wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why don't we see how valuable aging and death are? Because they're horrific tragedies that we should be fighting tooth and nail until they're extinguished and nobody ever has to deal with them again. They should be consigned to the history books. > Aging is a process of coming to terms with death. Aging is a biological problem that we continue to debug. And nothing should make us "come to terms" with being oblitera…

Until we go fully digital this makes no sense. Brains develop in a specific way. We become more wise during our lifetime but we keep getting worse at learning. It's not as easy as "let's fix dying neurons". Society without death would be quite retarded compared to the one we have. Retarded i.e. one that is learning much slower. You and your beloved ones are going to die. Just accept it. This is as big of a fact as gr…

It's going to take a long time to move past the limitations of biology, and in the meantime we need lots of work on biology to save people we have today.

> It's not as easy as "let's fix dying neurons".

Fortunately, people working on the problem don't think it's that easy either. They're also not giving up on it just because it's difficult.

> You and your beloved ones are going to die. Just accept it.

Why is it important to you that people accept that particular premise (which I will never do), and thus stop working on the problem or supporting those who do? Why is it important to you to make this argument?

The first step towards solving a problem is refusing to simply "accept it".

> It's just that on long enough time probability of your pattern being destroyed goes to one, whether you are a living organism, a program or some handy-wavy.

We will have a very long time to deal with problems like the heat death of the universe, or shorter-term problems like our sun burning out, once we've dealt with more time-critical problems. We're not going to be able to suddenly flip a switch and everyone lives forever, but we can save as many people as we can and help them live longer and ultimately put the probability of everyone's continued survival as close to 1 as possible.

Imagine, just for a moment, a world in which actual death is so incredibly rare that one person dying makes news around the world, and after time is spent figuring out what went wrong and how to prevent it from happening again, people mourn the senseless tragedy.

> And if you really want to fight biology, why put longevity over decreasing suffering?

What makes you think I do? They go hand in hand. A huge amount of suffering arises from aging-related degeneration. People working on extending lifespans are in the process extending healthy life.

Re: Laura Deming, founder of the Longevity Fund, on being homeschooled

#97

Post by potta_coffee » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 9:19 PM UTC

TrackerFF wrote: post #33

swiley wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who was homeschooled and socialized almost exclusively with other homeschoolers as a kid, I was on the fence about it. Then I grew up and met people who went to public school. Holy cow I can’t believe people think it’s ok to put their kids through that! I can’t believe we collectively accept children being exposed to the violence and other problems that are pervasive there! It’s not surprising so many peop…

> I can’t believe we collectively accept children being exposed to the violence and other problems that are pervasive there! It’s not surprising so many people become criminals now. But on the flip-side, would you want to go your entire life without facing any conflicts? FWIW, I was bullied in middle school, and pretty much had to fight my way through. As in fist fighting. As an adult, I don't tolerate any bullshit -…

Kids were knifed and shot at my high school, which wasn't even in a city that's considered unsafe / high crime. There was a race war there too, in which dozens of kids brought baseball bats and put each other in the hospital. A kid was put stabbed with screwdriver and another kid was hit so hard in the head he had a seizure. These kinds of experiences led me to homeschool my own kids.

Re: Laura Deming, founder of the Longevity Fund, on being homeschooled

#98

Post by 1123581321 » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 9:23 PM UTC

newfeatureok wrote: post #40

1123581321 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She doesn’t describe anything expensive or exclusive. Homeschooling typically does not have a cost beyond materials. What struck you as exemplary?

Homeschooling also generally has cost of lost potential income for the one doing it.

Certainly the biggest expense.

Re: Laura Deming, founder of the Longevity Fund, on being homeschooled

#99

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 9:23 PM UTC

JoshTriplett wrote: post #26

scandox wrote: post #9

> But with longevity and other deeply existential problems, the horror of what’s happening has been tragically normalized. I will never understand this attitude. Why don't we see how valuable aging and death are? How can we possibly reframe this as a "horror". The horror is this idea that personal identity can go on indefinitely. Aging is a process of coming to terms with death. None of this is being "tragically norm…

> Why don't we see how valuable aging and death are? Because they're horrific tragedies that we should be fighting tooth and nail until they're extinguished and nobody ever has to deal with them again. They should be consigned to the history books. > Aging is a process of coming to terms with death. Aging is a biological problem that we continue to debug. And nothing should make us "come to terms" with being oblitera…

[deleted]

Re: Laura Deming, founder of the Longevity Fund, on being homeschooled

#100

Post by 1123581321 » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 9:25 PM UTC

morelisp wrote: post #36

1123581321 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She doesn’t describe anything expensive or exclusive. Homeschooling typically does not have a cost beyond materials. What struck you as exemplary?

Come off it, she had access to a research lab at age 12! Even she said it's extraordinary. > I really felt like I got a cheat code to life early on. It was like being Ben Franklin’s daughter or something... When I first met Cynthia Kenyon... I was 12. She very kindly offered for me to just work in her lab as a normal intern,

That opportunity is certainly extraordinary. We probably disagree on whether it’s normal for wealthy homeschooled children or should even be thought of as part of a school cirriculum.