
Why Gates and Jobs shielded their kids from tech - dsr12
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/10/why-gates-and-jobs-shielded-their-kids-from-tech
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indigochill
I think we shouldn't (as I posit the title is doing) conflate "technology"
with "attention-fueled consumer products". I'd like my (future) kids to be
able to work with technology, but not waste (too much, whatever that means)
time on time-filling consumer content online.

My hypothesis is that by giving them games and toys that are explicitly
designed for them to modify for their own entertainment, they will learn to
make technology in their image rather than the other way around.

For example, Minecraft is hugely popular with kids (or at least was the last
time I looked), and can be a gentle introduction to concepts that can be
applied to technology. I grew up on Lego Mindstorms, which blew my young mind
when I could build and program a Lego robot to do whatever I could figure out
how to program.

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jamra
LEGO mindstorms is a product that you assemble and program.

Minecraft is designed to fill your time. Though there is thinking involved,
it’s a time sink.

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indigochill
Vanilla Minecraft without guidance isn't especially educational. But my
impression at least is that players often add mods, and then might want to
make their own. And there are opportunities for programming inside of
Minecraft. And some of the more impressive "creative mode" constructions rely
on scripts to automate much of the grunt work. For instance:
[https://nostarch.com/automateminecraft](https://nostarch.com/automateminecraft)

My inclusion of Minecraft is about the ease and support of
modding/scripting/botting rather than the vanilla game. There's a certain
subsection of professional developers who got their start by modding their
favorite games.

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dreit1
I mean it's simple. Once you see how the sausage is made you obviously don't
want your kids involved. Fundamentally most tech products are made with the
goal of exploiting human behavior in order to increase engagement with the
product.

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JustSomeNobody
I don't think it's that, really. I mean to some degree (there's a blurb in the
article about Gates limiting screen time due to an unhealthy attachment to a
game), but not completely. Both Gates and Jobs saw the transition of no
Personal Computers on up to smartphones, etc. Because of that I think they
still understood the importance of going analog. Being in the field they
understood there's more to life than computers.

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szbelieves
Its important to note that: A. This is utterly unproven, much like non
ionizing radiation, there's a movement dedicated to scaremongering about tech,
Its fine as is but always keep in mind that more often then not the research
is not as thorough as one of such magnitude should be, "Veratasium" did a
video about cellphones and brain tumors, a very interesting and topical watch
B. Who are Steve jobs, Page, Zuckerberg, And Gates? They are mostly smart,
hard working individuals who quickly adapted themselves and the tech to the
public, using their invention for personal profit, "Conglomerateion", charity
work and research. Their success isn't some magical virtue, they were lucky
enough to be at the right position to size opportunities the rose, through
their dedication they still are somewhat relevant today. They are NOT great
educators, nor do they claim so I believe, advice on how to use tech they've
created should not be taken from them, nor should advice on raising children,
based upon those children they probably did not raise. Nearly anyone knows
about Kennedy's sister today because the Kennedy's had a name to protect, much
like the British royal family, and the families of those corporations heads,
we don't hear about their failures, we certainly shouldn't take tips...

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bitwize
I think the ideas of the people who are talking about cellphones and tumors
can be traced back to _Johnny Mnemonic_ , where an illness caused by EM waves
from electronics was a major plot point. Gibson in turn got the idea from
Pana-Wave, a Japanese cult who lived in the mountains, wore white robes and
lived an austere life avoiding electronics, whose waves they said were
poisoning them.

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dominotw
Rich people have nannies/caretakers to keep the kids entertained. For regular
folk its too tempting to 'catch a breath' by using electronics to keep the
kids quite for a minute.

Especially bad in USA where you can't just tell your kids to 'go out and play'
and leave you alone. Thats what we did when we were growing up, come home,
finish homework and head out to play. Parents had it good back then :D.

