We don’t let our kids on to TikTok, but all their friends are on and it surprises me how much they take whatever advice is shown them as gospel. Lucky for me my kids will tell me “Hey, Johnny said the best way to get ripped is X” so I get the chance to teach proper research techniques (for the level they are at). Two of my four kids are avid readers, mostly fiction but some not, the other two I am really struggling to get them engaged.
After being forced to read books in high school over the summer (school mandated summer reading) I got turned off on reading for years until I picked up Harry Potter. That changed my perspective and I read gobs of books now. I actually prefer to read information mostly than to watch a video about it.
Solution for my kids was buy or borrow whatever books they show interest in.
If they like reading comics, then get a stack of comics.
I allowed them to stay up later (if they want) but the condition is that time only can be used for reading. They really enjoyed that and it helped.
In time they traded the comics to fiction novels and their reading ability kept improving.
They now get books from the library on their own and read quite a lot for their age. No parental pressure needed, they are addicted.
High school also killed my love for reading. I really regret that I didn't start reading again outside of assigned works until I graduated college. Now I read a pretty significant amount, and it's a joy to me! Something about how school analyzed literature and required you to read what they dictated didn't align with me.
I just finished the Odyssey, a required book in high school, after I previously finished the Iliad, which wasn't required in high school. Reading those two together after reading Stephen Fry's Mythos and Heroes books was a wonderful experience that I felt could have been replicated in high school rather than the whirlwind of bouncing around to unrelated books like the Catcher in the Rye.
One idea I read somewhere (online) is to financially incentivize them once they get an understanding of cash/money. No clue if it would work or how effective it would be.
My kid is on the way and my spouse has zero interest in reading.
We read to them from the time they were born. Simple stories and picture books at first. I think exposure is key, but I’ve also found that kids learn way more with what they observe than what they are told to do. So they see mom and dad reading is going to have a much larger effect than just telling them to read. We take them to the local library and let them pick whatever books they want to try. One of ours took a long time to ever find anything, then discovered he loved dragons, so for a year he devoured any dragon book. Even graphic novels, which I had thought “Isn’t my 12 year old to old for these?” Primed the pump and she’ll go through 2-3 chapter books per week.
We also made age appropriate audiobooks available to them and all 4 adore listening.
Congrats on your baby! I’ve never been more exhausted in my life but I’m loving it.
In the context of kids, note that those books essentially legalize rape by saying the humans telepathically connected to the dragons mating just have to also do the deed.
Maybe go through them yourself first to decide when is appropriate, and talk about how compilations of old thoughts can be good and bad at the same time.
100%. Imho, parents should generally at least skim books before giving them to younger children, if only to know what topics their child might ask about after reading.
As a YA author at a recent con panel put it: "I let my kids read any book they want, but I describe the themes. Sometimes, they decide they might not be ready for specific topics"
Help kids censor for themselves, if they choose. (Personally, less-so on censoring for them, especially books)
I'm thinking less censorship and more understanding of when starting to think about something is appropriate, how to build a healthy worldview, and how to communicate about uncomfortable things. Like, A Song of Ice and Fire is a great world with captivating storytelling where some nasty things happen, and its characters can sometimes be "bad people", and that's part of the story! It's fine that books also portray things that are not just happy endings. GRRM is a good enough writer to make that improve the story.
(The author of Dragonriders of Pern, unfortunately, is not a good enough writer that her addition of certain topics into the books could be said to improve the books. I'll leave you with <https://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Tent_Peg_Statement>. It's still a fun series, even if the author is not someone I'd invite for dinner!)
Unilaterally deciding as an adult "when" is censorship.
A big discussion point in the panel, which I agree with, is that kids will move on to more mature themes when they're ready (and not before).
Retarding that development process by deciding what is and isn't age appropriate for them (a) breaks down trust and communication and (b) substantially raises the risk of their doing so secretly, which increases the very risk you're trying to prevent.
We may have had different childhoods, but no bans my parents put in place that I felt strongly about weren't circumvented.
My philosophy on parenting is that you should support and be involved in your child's development, at the pace they choose, not plan and meter it.
I think you're projecting your own background into my words. Adjust your bias from "parental decision to censor" to "things to think about and discuss" and re-read.
It's a synonym of "suitable" or "fitting". I don't really understand what you're asking. Are you expecting me to lay down some strict rules that people under the age of X must not be exposed to topic Y? I'm not American/religious enough for that kind of thinking.
Personal anecdote: Before I could read, my mom would sit down and read Donald Duck comics with me. It started out as looking at pictures for a few minutes, soon was her reading a whole comic book aloud in one sitting, and when I eventually learned to read myself, the teacher's feedback was that I read out loud to the class in a way that brought the story to life, where others were just reciting the words.
To think of replacing that shared time with a financial incentive comes across as really cold. (Sorry.) Also, way too late!
I find that the yogurt is thicker when I initially heat it higher. My understanding is it changes some of the proteins, resulting in a higher curd yield.
Visually impaired guy here, always excited to see things that make my life easier. Also great that it shows blindness is a spectrum, not a binary condition.
Kudos to you! Even just being more aware of your mental state is a step in the right direction. Reminds me I need to be more proactive in this area.
Dunno if it helps, but just know most of us are at least a bit of a mess. Life is messy. I once took two years off of regular work (we were fortunate to have enough savings to do it) and made two music albums, the first album based exclusively on hard things that either I or people very close to me went through. The process of fleshing out the songs and lyrics was incredibly therapeutic for me.
> Dunno if it helps, but just know most of us are at least a bit of a mess.
Years ago, I tried to quit my job because I was feeling terrible about how I was doing. My boss gave me one of the best pieces of advice anyone's ever given me:
"You know, Rachel, the suicide rate among founders is..."
This probably sounds like one of the most unhelpful things someone could say in that situation, but it was EXACTLY what I needed to hear. I didn't need someone to say "oh, it's ok to feel bad". I needed someone to say "feeling bad doesn't mean you're not strong enough to be great". I needed to hear that ambitious people who are trying with all their might to be better are still constantly struggling with the idea that they aren't good enough.
YC's own founder school doesn't quite put it in those terms, but there's a LOT in there about the importance of human factors. Arguably more than there is business advice, actually. They explicitly say, for example, "don't pick a co-founder who has complementary skills, pick one that won't drive you insane, because breakups and not lack of skill are a more common failure mode". And there's like half a dozen videos on how to keep it together when you're stressed beyond breaking. It's pretty reassuring.
To really make the point: my company became profitable for the first time yesterday afternoon, and I spent a good chunk of the 24 hours since then ruminating on how now we might fail because I'm not sure where the next bit of revenue comes from. Never mind that the things I was worried about one, two, three, or four months ago have all gone better than I feared - anxiety doesn't care about that. It'll just glom on to whatever excuse it can get - see e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40191179
Personally, I think it’s easier to be extreme than balanced. Like a see-saw (or teeter totter depending on where you are) it’s way easier to sit on one end or the other. To try to stand on the middle and balance is hard.
A friend of mine met Patrick Moore, former President of Greenpeace, and asked Moore why he started supporting nuclear power, he told him essentially “It’s easier to be against everything than to be for something.”
I think it's the other way around. It's definitely easier to walk around under some sun shopping groceries and occasional brunch, than go to extremes and hide under some cover all the time, or sunbathing the whole day.
No because most people have jobs and limited money.
It’s easier in most people’s existing lives to avoid taking extreme health measures. Most people don’t go to a gym or exercise for the suggested min/day, but most people go to their job instead of staying in bed.
Edited OP to clarify, but mainly this. Work/Life balance, workplace politics, ethical practices, managers who care vs will do anything to get ahead, executives who are in-touch with the day to day of the company, do you get treated like a real person or a cog in the machine?
* company: 65K employees, US based international conglomerate, most are remote
* work/life balance: remote. I have been remote for the last two decades. I can take time here and there for personal things to be taken care of, as long as delivery, budget, etc. are done. Standard holidays (9 to 10), and PTO matching industry.
* workplace politics: this is unavoidable as companies grow, ranging from a low murmur to straight out face stabbing.
* ethical practices: highly regulated. none seen.
* managers who care: yes, in general it is to our benefit to keep our staff through positive reinforcement, including promoting them in other areas if they want to switch teams.
* in-touch exec: mostly, but c-suite tends to deal with high level strategic activities not tactical details.
I have found that platforms are almost always compared to AWS as it is the most mature. Azure still doesn't have complete feature parity with AWS, and GCP doesn't yet have feature parity with Azure or AWS. So in terms of importance to know, its AWS>Azure>GCP. Not all apps need all that AWS can do, but AWS by far has the worst UX of any of them IMHO. For APIs, DigitalOcean would be the contender to beat. They have beautiful APIs.
After being forced to read books in high school over the summer (school mandated summer reading) I got turned off on reading for years until I picked up Harry Potter. That changed my perspective and I read gobs of books now. I actually prefer to read information mostly than to watch a video about it.