
Ask HN: How Would You Explain HN to a Two-Year-Old? - themakermark
I was on HN this morning and my 2 yr. old son asked me &quot;What&#x27;s that orange thing papa&#x27;s looking at?&quot;<p>I answered &quot;It&#x27;s a place where people can talk to each other about things they find interesting.&quot; He didn&#x27;t get it, which makes sense since it isn&#x27;t really a &quot;place&quot; and there are no visible &quot;people&quot; here.<p>So I figured I would propose it to you all, how would you explain HN to a 2 year old?
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jolmg
If I had the time (and I probably would because I consider it important), I
would just go down the rabbit hole and explain the internet in the simplest
terms possible. You press some buttons and other people around the world see
the buttons you pushed and they press some buttons and you can see them too.
With every new inevitable question, just keep explaining in terms the child is
able to understand, and keep going until one gets tired of it. You can then
say it's enough for then and you can continue some other time.

I consider curiosity in a child to be a valuable resource to nurture. If you
make it a positive experience for the child, he'll want to do it again.
Careful not to appear annoyed, because then, as it resulted in a negative
experience, the child will know to avoid doing such things in the future.

~~~
avip
2YO kids do not ask that because they are curious to know how the internet
works. They could not care less about the internet. They care about their
parents' attention.

~~~
jolmg
Right. And the parent can take advantage of that to nurture their curiosity.
Asking questions and learning (however little or even just trying) == having a
good time with dad.

Making them associate that behavior of curiosity with having a positive
experience is what I consider to be important here.

Plus, you also get to flex those brain muscles. Even if nothing seems to stick
now, I imagine it does help them learn in the long-run.

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kazinator
> _He didn 't get it, which makes sense since it isn't really a "place" and
> there are no visible "people" here._

Looks to me like the two-year-old is the one explaining it to _you_.

~~~
themakermark
This is definitely true. Every time an explanation falls flat, I realize how I
don't really understand the thing I am trying to explain...

~~~
kazinator
That's why you catch bugs when you document code, or explain it to others in a
review process.

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hysan
If he’s seen a bulletin board with fliers pinned to it or if you put things up
on the refrigerator with magnets, bring him there. Then hand him, you, and
anyone around a stack of post-it notes. Explain to him that HN is a place
where anyone can put up something to show people. If people want to respond,
they can write their name + message and attach it to the posting or another
post-it note. BUT it’s on the Internet! That means that anyone from anywhere
at anytime can put up postings and post-it notes!

This opens up a bridge to him asking, “what’s the internet?” To which you now
have endless possibilities on introducing your son to the wonderful world of
technology :)

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lastofus
My 2 year old is just happy to talk on the computer mouse like it's a phone.

Not sure where I would start other than "daddy reading".

~~~
curtis
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9kTVZiJ3Uc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9kTVZiJ3Uc)

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p0d
I’d take him outside and give him a stick to play with instead :-) That used
to bring a smile to my 2yr old’s face who is now 22 and finishing a computing
degree. It’s a special time when the kids are that age.

I remember when my son was little having him help me pull ethernet cable
through our roofspace ceiling. As the cable kept coming through the hole in
the ceiling as he pulled he shouted up to me, “Dad, is this magic?” :-)

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avip
When a 2YO asks you something like that it's time to close the laptop and
switch to something he can relate to.

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hluska
"You know how, in daycare, you read stories, talk with your friends and play?"

"HN is like daycare for me! I come here to read stories and talk to my
friends, but my friends live all over the world."

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vbuwivbiu
"A horrible place where people go to misunderstand eachother"

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empath75
“Just something daddy likes to read”

My kid is a few months shy of 3 and I don’t think there’s anything of value to
tell him about the internet at this point. Once he can read I’ll probably
explain more to him.

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benj111
My son's 2, I just tell him I'm reading. Unless there's pictures he isn't
really interested.

I'm not sure I could get into much more detail than that, perhaps a library
metaphor?

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facorreia
I'd say it's where dad talks to other grown-ups.

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j45
If a 2 year old understands stories, HN is a place where people read stories,
share stories, talk about stories and pick their favorite stories.

If a 2 year old is interested in HN, it might be because he/she is trying to
see what's more interesting than them.

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sandwall
A digital bulletin board, show him a real one the next time you are at the
coffee shop.

Under each posting, which are articles (shared information) not solicitations
(asking to buy or sell services), people are having conversations.

You could give the example of people leaving post-it notes for each other.

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h1d
Different case but I usually open up HN while eating in non English speaking
restaurant alone and the staff wonders what I'm reading and I just say tech
news site.

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js2
"It's a web site where people discuss stories. Here, let me read to you some
of the things people are writing to each other. If it's not interesting, we
can read something else."

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muzani
You know how books have stories? This is like a lot of books, where the
stories are told by people like grandma. We can just pick which story we want
to read and ask them questions about it.

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thinkingemote
It's a website for boffins to talk to other boffins. You can then follow this
up with explaining what a boffin is and if daddy is one!

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uberman
Your son wants to engage with you in a positive way.

Children at this age ask "why" questions often in rapid succession. I am not
sure it actually matters what the "best answer" is. What is likely important
to him is that you are engaging with him.

~~~
js2
The why comes a bit later, around 4. Is it still ok to link to Louie CK?

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8idwyuVJ4ug](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8idwyuVJ4ug)

~~~
schwartzworld
My 2.5-year-old asks why after every sentence, including the answer to the
last time she asked why.

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hombre_fatal
I just saw you ask this question yesterday. On your profile it says indeed
that this thread is a day old. But here it says it's two hours old. And all of
the old responses from yesterday have had their timing reset, "10 minutes ago"
\-- I definitely remember that boffin comment from yesterday because it made
me look up the word.

What happened?

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jolmg
You're right. I didn't write my comment today (it was either yesterday or the
day before). Yet, I see it says I wrote it 12 minutes ago. Weird.

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themakermark
After I explained what HN is to my son he hacked into the db and started
messing with time stamps

~~~
themakermark
But seriously that is strange

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yesenadam
I've noticed similar things before a couple of times. (Like a comment changing
from a day to 10 minutes old) Maybe they're doing site maintenance or changing
stuff at the time...

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Adamantcheese
People write about cool things and you can read about cool things. The cooler
a thing is the more people look at it.

Keep your vocab limited when explaining to kids. Otherwise you'll go down a
rabbit hole of "what does that mean". Which is fine if you want to do that,
but a 2 year old isn't going to remember a lot of it.

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dgarud
Tell him its kind of like Lightning Mc Queen connecting to Mater and gang to
ask for help when he is out racing and has trouble winning.

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Animats
Three more years and the kid will be online on his smartphone. Don't worry
about it.

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Endy
I don't know - I was aware of BBS'es by the time I was 2; that's where I got
my games from! I'd just say that you talk to other people through it, because
they show you fun things to read.

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dx7tnt
My advice, as the father of a ten year old, would be to get off hacker news
and enjoy every second of having an amazing two year old! It's a wonderful
time and it flies by.

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slack3r
I would say it's a place where people who spend a lot of time on the internet
try to gain status by posting comments which they expect to be upvoted.

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tanseydavid
It depends which toolset the 2 year old is currently using.

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themakermark
His stack is basically: Brio, Lego, Crayola, and Hotwheels.

~~~
thorin
Full stack then, he can build stuff fully from the ground up!

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thiago_fm
Maybe just play with him, I bet he doesn't care at all about some bullshit
orange thingy, but your attention.

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aviv
"A place where people can leave notes to others that can also read them on a
computer like mine."

No need to overthink this. Kid just wanted your attention.

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rad_gruchalski
A website where people post random stuff on. People supposed to discuss on
topics posted but the discussion deviates in random directions anyway.

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helij
I find it amazing that your son was able to say "What's that orange thing
papa's looking at?" at only 2 years.

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johnwheeler
Tell him it’s how Daddy sucks his thumb

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segmondy
I won't.

