David_Gerard comments on Extenuating Circumstances - Less Wrong

34 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 06 April 2009 10:57PM

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Comment author: David_Gerard 22 February 2011 12:30:06PM *  1 point [-]

So people who didn't start well, maybe need to pause, and restart, slowly but surely, building up their own momentum, doing it right this time, and forgetting as fast and thoroughly about their past failures as they can.

Yes. One of the most important things to teach people is that they can actually succeed at something - anything.

Examples:

  • a friend who teaches music to poor kids at a sink school. He shows up with a mohawk and teaches them how to make good noise. The light in their eyes is so rewarding he puts up with the stifling bureaucracy.
  • student newspapers, which to a large extent exist to be written rather than to be read.
  • sports clubs for kids, even.

Teaching people what success feels like is really important. Really, really important.