The most surefire way to kill a young hacker’s spirit is to force them to hack on things they don’t care about. This goes with anything, not just computing. To whit, a childhood friend of mine was a gifted pianist who really loved jazz. His parents forced him to study with a classical teacher. Guess who doesn’t play piano anymore?
as a kid who played chess, the kids who were 'forced' to play chess -- the ones who came from a long chess playing family and had different scenarios drilled into their head from the day they could talk -- were much more talented at chess than I.
Their talent persuaded them to continue pursuing it far longer than I ever did, with many of them still involved.
The most involvement I have now is a friendly lichess game every few months.
It was their talent that allowed them to find more enjoyment within the pursuit than I ever did, and that talent was essentially forced by their immediate family.
So, essentially, I am just saying that forced persuasion thing that parents' sometimes do is a double-edged sword; it can create animosity and bitter hatred but it can also create the drive and motivation for boundless talent and personal satisfaction.
There’s such thing as pushing too hard, but nobody got buff without being pushed by those around them
This is completely contrary to my experience. The successes I’ve had were my own motivations and drive.
I sincerely hope that you were just ignorant of the help you received along the way. A child with absolutely no support or encouragement is a very depressing thought.
And I did not have bad parents. Many actually hinder their childrens development, instead of being ambivalent to it.
Isn't the general term for that a "problem with authority"? ;)
- Dad, I'm so done with this Snake game, give me some other task?
- Ok, how about making that LZW thing we talked earlier?
- Cool.
I picked up skills after my parents because I was curious and they were both knowledgeable in their respective fields(my dad, a medical equipment engineer, could repair a TV, which for a five year old amounted to a superpower).
I was never forced to do anything and yet had the exact same headstart you're talking about, but in e.g. school math.
Of course that did a lot of damage to my work ethic, but the point is that kids are naturally curious and, at least initially, want to do what their parents do.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judit_Polgár
Judit Polgár (born 23 July 1976) is a Hungarian chess grandmaster, widely regarded as the strongest female chess player of all time.
Polgár and her two older sisters, Grandmaster Susan and International Master Sofia, were part of an educational experiment carried out by their father, László Polgár, in an attempt to prove that children could make exceptional achievements if trained in a specialist subject from a very early age. "Geniuses are made, not born," was László's thesis. He and his wife Klára educated their three daughters at home, with chess as the specialist subject.
I’ve seen him play at SF Jazz a few times and it seems like his loves his job.