Re: Raising kids [was Re: Freedom or death? ]
Dan Clemmensen (Dan@Clemmensen.ShireNet.com)
Fri, 15 Aug 1997 21:17:21 -0400
Robin Hanson wrote:
>
> Dan Clemmensen writes:
> >The biggest lesson I have learned while raising kids is that adults
> >consistently underestimate kid's intelligence and overestimate
> >their knowledge.
>
> I'd say this lesson applies to adults as well. When we're confused
> about why someone does or says something, its way too easy to
> attribute it to stupidity. Usually something much subtler is going on.
>
True. I guess I can generalize this a bit. the really neat thing about
interacting with kids is that they are somewhat simpler than adults.
You can learn a lot about people in general by working with the
simpler model. The big problem for me is that they aren't necessarily
simpler in the ways you think they are or "should" be.
Another thing I've learned is that teaching is a very good way to
learn. I suspect that those of you in academia already know this,
but it's true even when teaching little kids: my mental math skills
are a great deal better than they were before my first kid was four.
I suspect that this will remain true even when our "children" are
new computer algorithms.