= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
datadataeverywhere comments on Open Thread, September 15-30, 2012 - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (206)
My 7-year-old son likes computer programming and I suspect has a lot of innate aptitude for it. We have worked out a system that for every X minutes of learning he does with me he gets X minutes of computer gaming time. What kind of learning exercises could help him be a better programmer when he becomes an adult? Should I focus on him doing lots of coding or, for example, would he be better served by learning additional math?
For those of you who are adult computer programmers (and please identify yourself as such in your response) what, if anything, could you have done at a young age that you think would have caused you to now be a better programmer?
I'm a hobbyist computer programmer considering a career in it.
When I was 6, I met a friend who was into star-trek and science and such. We used to talk about science stuff and dig up "dinosaurs" and attempt to build spaceships. I think a lot of my intellectual personality came from being socialized by him. The rest came from my dad, who used to teach me things about electricity and physics and microeconomics (expected value and whatnot).
I learned to program when someone introduced it to me and I realized I could make video games. (I was 18) I absorbed a lot of knowledge quickly, and didn't get much done. I would find some little problem, and then go and absorb all the relevant knowledge I could to get it exactly right. Even tho I didn't accomplish much, now I know a lot about computer science, which is helpful. Having some thing I was trying to do put a powerful drive behind my learning, even if I didn't actually act in a strategic or effective way.
My dad occasonally told me the importance of finishing the last project before beginning the next, but I don't think it properly transferred. I still have lots of trouble shipping.
One thing that bit me a lot was regressing into the deep wizardry tech instead of focusing on the end product. Architecture and tech are a lot more interesting than the mere surface of the product, but what matters is getting the thing done. The tech side is the dark side. Lots of interesting insight on this on prog21.dadgum.com (a blog)
I wish I'd encountered Paul Graham's essays a lot earlier. They have a lot of good advice about programming and growing up in general. I caught a lot of my ambition from there. The wider hacker news community is great too. Really inspiring and helpful community.
Overall (TL;DR:) Teach him to ship. This is important. Start with trivially small things if you have to, but make sure stuff gets to version 0.1 (releasable) at least. Do what you can to encourage friendships with other smart kids who are into science. Find something he's interested in and wants to build, or the rest of it will be directionless. Focus on the creative output, not on the tech. Get him reading interesting and inspiring battle-wisdom like paul graham and prog21. Don't make him hate it.
Of all my flaws, I currently consider my bias to thought (and study, research, etc.) over action my greatest. I suspect that LessWrong attracts many (a disproportionate number of) such people.