Happy Birthday, Loey!

One year ago, Loey Lucille Silva was born. My first grandchild. So exciting!

 

We had a fantastic birthday party, very impressively organized by Loey-Mom Lauren. Loey had a three hour nap before it started, so she was in fine form throughout, plus there were a half dozen other kids for me to play with, ranging from 10 weeks to 11 years old. Great fun! Here's Loey in her tiger outfit:

It's such a pleasure and honor to take part in raising a child. Everybody talks about how grandparents are so lucky: they get to spoil the child and then leave it to the parents to do all the "heavy lifting" (disciplining the child, for example).

I suppose...I certainly have no intention of interfering with Chris and Lauren as they make their decisions about how to raise their child. I want to help them in whatever way they ask.

But my commitment to Loey and to any child I meet is this:

I give you my unconditional love, and I give you my full attention. When I am with you, I am entirely with you, listening and responding to your gestures and words (or pre-word noises; I have had the most delightful "conversations" with five-month old babies), encouraging your development.

Whenever I am in a group of people and see a baby not being held, not being talked to, all I can think of is: "Wasted opportunity! Why isn't someone holding that baby, interacting with her, making sure she is engaged and learning?"

And so that's what I will do - or at least I will greatly want to do that. I have learned over the years that I can't just walk up to complete strangers and start a direct line of communication with their baby. But, as members of my family will tell you, I sure do try!

Anyway, as Loey begins to walk and talk, all I can think of: we have so many wonderful years ahead of watching her grow up, helping her become a compassionate, smart, engaged, funny and healthy human being.

A Conversation with Teenagers

I was invited by a friend to talk with a group of teenagers about what it's like to be a computer programmer and why they might want to do the same. There were over 50 kids present, ranging in age from 12 to 18. They were great fun: enthusiastic, curious and engaged.

I decided to go light on the actual programming aspect (what code looks like, how you write it) and instead take a fairly big step back/up and talk about some big picture challenges. And to avoid boring these over-entertained kids out of their skulls, we played games - Mastermind and Set. They really enjoyed that.

Afterwards, I sent a note to the principal of the school, with my thanks and a summary of my main points, to send out to the kids. I thought I'd also offer it here:

Make Your Brains Strong

I talked about the importance of logic and rational thought (you can't have iPhones or laptops or buildings or cards without it), and also that the brain is a powerful pattern analysis engine. It accepts data (sights, smells, sounds, touch, tastes), identifies patterns, and then we use those patterns to help predict the future, to make plans, to build and - unfortunately - to destroy.

So, first of all, make your brain as strong (good at rational thinking and pattern analysis) as possible. That way it will be harder for others to take advantage of you, and more likely that you will be successful. This doesn't have to mean you need to do boring things. That's why I showed everyone Mastermind and Set (www.setgame.com). Mastermind is a game of deductive logic; if you can't play Mastermind well, I told them, then you can't quickly and easily think your way from problem to solution. Which means that, among other things, it will be easier for people to take advantage of you. Set is a subtle, stimulating game of pattern analysis, which is a fundamental activity of sentience. The better you are at detecting and resolving patterns, the more likely it is you will thrive in this world.

Second, remember the saying "garbage in, garbage out". If you spend too much of your time watching videos, playing video games, watching ads on TV, then your brain will inevitably start to absorb those patterns (Buy! Buy! Buy!) and that will be reflected in your behavior.

Third (I didn't really get into this in the class), minimize distractions - strengthen your ability to concentrate, focus and then create. If you are constantly being distracted by texts and Facebook updates and emails and phone calls and cat videos, you will find less time for your own thoughts. Which means that you will increasingly be just following the thoughts and ideas of others. Instead, take some time out each idea to disconnect from the electronics and get out into your beautiful world. Walk on the beach or a forest, away from machines and concrete. Let your mind wander and sort things out, all by itself. You will be amazed at what your brain is capable of, if you free it from "attack" from the outside.

Read Books

I stressed the importance of reading books, how that will help strengthen your ability to think, to write, to speak, to be creative.

I will be happy to recommend books to any student who will send me an email (my address is steven@stevenfeuerstein.com) with a list of the things in which they are interested in (example: "I like science and I like mysteries" or "I am really interested in birds.").

Computer Programming is Easy

Well, easy compared to lots of other things you have done and will do in your life. For example, it is much harder to learn a second human language than it is to learn a computer language (all these students were fluent in both Spanish and English). Remember: computers think fast, but they are dumb. They can only do what you tell them and they are easily confused. So computer programming languages are relatively simple, inflexible languages. Easy for you to learn. And if you have a solid foundation in thinking logically, you can thrive as a programmer.

But keep in mind that what you will be doing as a programmer is learning to think like a computer - a fairly rigid, deterministic way of thinking. And that may then affect how you view the rest of the world.

Go Deep

This is an exciting, but also tough time to be growing up. So many possibilities have been opened up the global communications and economic systems, but this also means that you are competing with people around the world. The best way to ensure your success is to "go deep" - find an area of interest and become an expert in it.

There's More to Life Than Entertainment

I didn't talk about this in my time with all of you, but I think it's important, so I will add it now: I don't watch a lot of television, but when I do - and I am stuck watching ads - I am amazed at how much in this country we equate success with being a famous entertainer - singer, actor, artist, etc. I like to be entertained as much as the next person, but surely we can agree that there is more to life than that.

You should be able to turn on the television or visit the Internet and watch celebrations (walking down that red carpet, hundreds of cameras flashing) of the scientists and doctors and nurses and, yes, teachers who make our civilization as wonderful as it is today.

So don't be fooled by the models of success presented to you, at you, by the media. They like to show you these because, well, frankly they can make more money from you if you get all excited about actors than if you get excited about scientists.

That's their agenda - what's yours?

Happy Birthday, Dad

My father, Sheldon Feuerstein, would have reached the grand old age of 83 on Sunday, October 7.

Two weeks after I turned 54.

It got me thinking: my dad was  just shy of 30 years old when I was born (my father's second child and only son). And when I was just a little bit younger (29), my second (and only biological) son was born (Eli, now a musician and APEX developer).

When I was born, my dad worked as an accountant for a CPA. Two years later, he got his law degree (but never really used it; turns out he didn't like being a lawyer very much - and didn't like being an accountant a whole lot more). He later partnered with his brother-in-law, Max Schuckman, and spent decades more crunching numbers, entering himself by teaching himself programming (first on an HP programmable calculator and later on IBM minicomputers - RPG, no less!) and painting.

When Eli was born, I was a low-level programmer consultant putting in my time at the big, red CNA skyscraper in downtown Chicago. One year later, I started working for Oracle Corporation, which led to major changes in my life.

Now I have a baby granddaughter, just like Dad had a baby grandson. But I am lucky: my lovely Loey lives just six miles away. I very much plan to be a big part of her life (and vice versa). Dad and Mom lived in NY while I had moved to Chicago, so they were only able to make occasional appearances in Eli's (and Chris's) life.