(04-11-2023, 12:39 PM)PerdioPal Wrote: All kids are scientist/engineers (two in one) until school beats it out of them
When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school
It's a wonder I can think at all
Kodachrome Paul Simon
Despite having woodwork and metalwork shops at school when it came to careers the mantra seemed to be 'don't do stuff with your hands [especially if it is dirty stuff]'.
Hard for kids today. Building my first crystal set (with twisted together wires) was exciting - even if I could only get the Light Programme rather than Radio Caroline - when there was only one radio set in the house. I had my very own private entertainment that I hadn't before! What could I make next?! Today, kids have phones - I wince when I see little more than toddlers in the supermarket glued to what is rattling on their little screens while their parents shop - tablets and televisions in their bedrooms so they will hardly see the point of building something that seems Stone Age. They also have TV, etc., all day whereas we had to find something to do in the holidays when programmes didn't start until 5pm.
The other thing for most of us on here is that we grew up in an analogue world where things were made out of 'big' and obvious parts and at a basic level comparatively simple in operation and it was relatively easy to learn what went on 'under the hood'. I mess with vintage things - radios, cars, cameras, etc. - as they are the only things I now understand. I've worked using a computer for assistance for decades but it's all too clinical. Digital has got no soul. Plus it's a constant upgrade rat race where anything you learned three years ago is useless and worthless. The only satisfaction I get out of working with computers is 'beating the system' by installing the latest Linux on a twelve year-old machine that the manufacturer wishes was in the tip.
I have no grandchildren but one Christmas I remember being around at friends and spending time with their son who had - though he didn't realise it - a recycled present of a Lego kit from his father's childhood. We had an afternoon figuring what we could make with me prompting or asking questions and avoiding doing it for him. He would have been about six or seven. We had a fine time but it didn't stick - he ended studying politics or something.
Another issue is that in our culture, engineering and the like is poorly regarded. Much better to be something in a suit.
Like most of us I from time to worried about growing old but for this and many other reasons I am glad I was born when I was.
Paul Simon was glad of his Kodachrome but even that has succumbed to clinical digital. My mobile phone camera is for making a record - nothing else.
Sorry, I'm a grumpy old man!
Nick
