Comment by GFischer | Hacker News Reader

Comment by GFischer | Hacker News Reader

Anecdotal evidence: my father raised me exactly that way.

No TV (that was in the 80s), no newfangled Nintendo thingie (I got one when I was ten, and was allowed only during the weekends)

And an all-you-can-eat collection of books, by an Argentinean editorial that included books by Jack London, Mark Twain, Jules Verne, Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens and Emilio Salgari and many many others.

Plus, my mother re-married and her second husband is a huge science fiction fan, so I got acquainted with Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and others also from an early age (it also set me into my career path, so maybe it wasn't that healthy :) ).

The result: I'm about the fastest reader I know of (whenever they offer me a fast-reading course I see the benchmarks of what you can supposedly archieve are a bit lower than what I already do archieve), and when I moved I had to leave 14 boxes full of paperback novels (about 300 books) which I had read - add to that a few thousand I've borrowed from family, friends and libraries or read as e-books, and I'd say that my father's experiment turned out a success as far as book-reading goes.

On the other hand, I'm often "out" when it comes to discussing movies or old TV shows and other shared cultural experiences, which makes me think I missed out some things as well.

Anecdotal evidence:

I've owned every video game console made in the last 15 years or so (While I was growing up). I had a TV in my own room and my own computer with broadband as soon as it was available in our city. I skipped classes to play video games in high school. I played video games into the wee hours of the night for all of high school and college. I've seen all the latest movies and TV shows and enjoy critiquing them with friends.

On the flip side, I have some 20 or so boxes of books I've completely read... I average maybe 2 books a week and have done so since I was old enough to find what I wanted at the library. I read faster than anyone I know. I read books from all genres for fun, and always have. I managed to do well in college which got me into grad school with a stipend.

The point: anecdotal evidence is not very useful. Also, the article and your comment seem to take a very naive view of human development. There is a lot more to this than just "video games made my son stupid".

anecdotal evidence is not very useful.

Which is probably why the article mentioned a study that examined the link between access to video games and academic performance?

Sorry, I was mostly referring to the parent comment and not the article. Inreference, to the article though... The bit about the study doesn't really have much meat.

"Boys with video games at home, he found, spend more time playing them than reading, and their academic performance suffers substantially. Hard to believe, isn't it, but Science has spoken."

There is a lot left unexplored here. Was the problem the video games or the fact that they didn't read? Reading vs playing video games is a false dichotomy. They aren't mutually exclusive and the problem probably just indicates parents aren't taking an active roll and doing the sorts of things other commenters are suggesting.

"The point: anecdotal evidence is not very useful."

Indeed, I'm not arguing that, I just wanted to share my anecdote because it was relevant to the article.

"Also, the article and your comment seem to take a very naive view of human development. There is a lot more to this than just "video games made my son stupid"."

Sorry if it sounds that way, I didn't want to imply that (though my father does believe it). I'm pretty sure there are lots of people that played video games a lot and turned out well.

Also, all I have to show for it is an improved reading ability, I don't think it made me smarter or anything(1). I'm extremely bad at personal interactions, communications and other stuff, which is why I'm still programming and not in a managerial position.

I will try out doing a startup on my own, but I doubt I'd climb the career ladder in a "traditional" way - I'm always being overtaken by the arrogant, self-confident, usually way less technically capable people-talkers on the way up, at least on the big corporate environments I've worked in (finance and insurance).

(1)Edit: see these two other posts by maxawaytoolong and awakeasleep which seem to agree on it not being that useful:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1724089

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1724269

>I'm pretty sure there are lots of people that played video games a lot and turned out well.

Not only that, there are lots of people who had access to video games restricted and ended up worse off for it.

I had a computer or some other electronic gadget since I was 7. I also played insane amounts of computer games (sometimes they had to take away computer from me).

But just like you I read insanely a lot - I had whole school library read by the time I was 10 - literary everything. When I had reading streaks I'd just pack my schoolbag chock full of books and bring them back in 2 weeks (I read the whole LOTR trilogy in 2 days! when I was 12!!!).

Computer games only gave me the chance for greater immersion. I also learned English all by myself just through trying to hack the computer and by playing games.

How it all came to be? Our home was full of books. My parents both read a lot (newspapers, novels, poetry...) and they were both formally uneducated. I also "inherited" boxes of 80's pop-tech magazines form my older brother and lots of novels from various people. My parents always showed that they were proud of me for reading a lot. I was also lucky that the dude who stocked me with games (pirated I must say!) had excellent taste - so I started my gaming career with Ultima Underworld 2 (not knowing English at the time), Colonization, TIE fighter,...

So if somebody were asking me for advice - I'd say: 1. Stock your home with loads of quality literature. 2. Commend your kids on reading. 3. Your kids WILL play games (else nowadays they will be considered dorks) - so you better stock some quality video games (RPG and strategy if possible). 4. Do not own a TV!

There.

I had a very similar experience. Video games were not allowed in my house, but my neighborhood friend had 4 different consoles and tons of games. Many an evening was spent playing nintendo; my parents joked about my friend's family adopting me because I was over there constantly. I turned out just fine, and said friend scored a perfect 1600 on his SATs.

Yeah wow, same here. I wasn't allowed to watch TV in the family house until age 14 (minus the random Nature/Nova special.) I am also lacking pop culture knowledge from the late 1980's and early 1990's. That was a (self-created) "big deal" in early education, but now I think it's a benefit.

Ontop of the no tv, we were also raised with only creative toys. Instead of GI Joes we got kickass (really they kicked ass) wooden blocks. LEGO instead of nintendo. Shit LEGO was my life.

I can't thank my parents enough for that decision as the effects are clear: I am thankful for the skills I have with my hands and mind.

But dammit, there were many times I wished I could join into the discussion about what happened on 90210 last night without faking it.

I also had Legos, you're right :) - I loved LEGOs, both me and my brother used them, but it seems we had different inclinations from a young age, I loved building things while he used them as a stage and made them act :) (now he's into the publicity business)

Yeah!

I doubt I read as much as you did - I spent much of my unsupervised time taking things apart that I shouldn't and building really silly shit in my dad's shop. The effect is in the same vein as your reading abilities: I feel confident in my abilities to repair or build almost anything, even with no previous domain experience.

Did you consciously train speed reading? I read a lot too when I was a kid, but I still spend hours on a book, and a lot more for non-fiction.

Do you have nay indicators on your retention? Do you feel it's sufficient or not, or do you have a feeling on how you compare to others?

I have pretty bad retention, I usually can remember the general plot but not much else - heck, I very often re-read the books (I re-read the Wheel of Time series about 8 times, every few years when a new book came out).

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