Hacker News with Generative AI: Childhood

The Totalitarian Buddhist Who Beat SIM City (2010) (vice.com)
I’m English, but when I was twelve I lived in North Carolina and went to an inner-city school a bit like that one in The Wire. I only have two memories of that time.

Culture, Society, Biography, Childhood

99 points by Tomte 7 days ago | 25 comments

Why Narcissists Emerge as Leaders Even in Childhood (scientificamerican.com)
Narcissistic leaders both fascinate and repel us. They can be charming, act assertively and articulate visions that may inspire confidence, especially in times of uncertainty. This can attract many followers.

Psychology, Leadership, Childhood, Narcissism

7 points by bookofjoe 16 days ago | 1 comments

Mike Wood, Whose LeapFrog Toys Taught a Generation, Dies at 72 (nytimes.com)
Mike Wood was a young father when his toddler’s struggles to read led him to develop one of a generation’s most fondly remembered toys.

Obituary, Toys, Education, Childhood

72 points by nxobject 19 days ago | 7 comments

Attention Spans for Math and Stories (2019) (jeremykun.com)
There was a MathOverflow thread about mathematically interesting games for 5–6 year olds. A lot of the discussion revolved around how young age 5 really is, and how we should temper expectations because we don’t really remember what it’s like to be 5.

Math, Education, Childhood, Cognitive Development, Games

91 points by ibobev 23 days ago | 15 comments

Playing in the Creek (hgreer.com)
When I was a really small kid, one of my favorite activities was to try and dam up the creek in my backyard.

Childhood, Memories, Nature

347 points by c1ccccc1 28 days ago | 115 comments

Raising Kids to Have an Analog Childhood in a Digital World (joshuakennon.com)
One of the questions I get constantly, both in-person and online, is how we went about arranging our household once we became parents.

Parenting, Technology, Digital Age, Analog Experiences, Childhood

135 points by walterbell 40 days ago | 76 comments

"Infantile amnesia" occurs despite babies showing memory activity (arstechnica.com)
For many of us, memories of our childhood have become a bit hazy, if not vanishing entirely. But nobody really remembers much before the age of 4, because nearly all humans experience what's termed "infantile amnesia," in which memories that might have formed before that age seemingly vanish as we move through adolescence. And it's not just us; the phenomenon appears to occur in a number of our fellow mammals.

Memory, Neuroscience, Childhood, Psychology, Animals

7 points by nobody9999 47 days ago | 1 comments

Small Archives (helloruby.substack.com)
My name is Linda. I write a bi-weekly newsletter about computer science, childhood, and culture.

Computer Science, Culture, Newsletters, Childhood

31 points by benbreen 54 days ago | 11 comments

Childhood and Education #9: School is Hell (thezvi.substack.com)
This complication of tales from the world of school isn’t all negative. I don’t want to overstate the problem. School is not hell for every child all the time. Learning occasionally happens. There are great teachers and classes, and so on. Some kids really enjoy it.

Education, Childhood, Opinion, Substack

9 points by apsec112 63 days ago | 0 comments

Dangerous Playgrounds of the 1970s: Photos That Prove Safety Wasn't a Priority (rarehistoricalphotos.com)
In the 1970s, before strict safety regulations and cautious parents redefined playgrounds, neighborhood parks were filled with towering jungle gyms, scorching metal slides, and hazardous contraptions that somehow doubled as childhood entertainment.

History, Photography, Childhood, Safety

15 points by fortran77 66 days ago | 11 comments

Drawing Animals with Margaret Mead (psychologytoday.com)
On Saturday, April 13, 1963, the great baseball player Pete Rose, later disgraced for betting on his own team, hit the first of his record 4,256 hits; the USSR launched its Kosmos satellite from Kapustin Yar near Volgograd; the wreckage of the Dutch ship Vergulde Draeck, sunk in 1656, was discovered; chess champion Garry Kasparov was born; and I was 10 years old, drawing animals on napkins with the most famous public intellectual in America.

Art, History, Childhood, Anthropology

13 points by prismatic 123 days ago | 7 comments

Having Your Tonsils Out as a Child May Have a Drastic Impact on Your Life (sciencealert.com)
In the US alone, around 300,000 children each year have their tonsils surgically removed to improve breathing while sleeping or reduce recurrent infection.

Health, Childhood, Science, Medical Procedures

10 points by amichail 138 days ago | 0 comments

Kid Pix: The Early Years (red-green-blue.com)
Ben: Dad, what have you been doing upstairs? Dad: Writing a short history of Kid Pix. Ben: Do you really think anyone is going to want to read that?

Nostalgia, Childhood, Software, History, Personal Projects

12 points by mysterydip 140 days ago | 3 comments

Why so many families are "drowning in toys" (vox.com)
America is in toy overload, and it might just be ruining fun.

Parenting, Consumerism, Toys, Childhood

66 points by gmays 168 days ago | 83 comments

Where Does the Magic Go as We Grow Older? (2020) (medium.com)
It is hard to say when I stopped building blanket forts for my own amusement. It is even harder to pinpoint why I stopped.

Childhood, Personal Growth, Nostalgia

18 points by yamrzou 180 days ago | 22 comments

We All Scream for Ice Cream (thecookscook.com)
One of the happiest memories of my childhood is hearing the tinkling melody of the Good Humor ice cream truck coming down our block.

Food, Nostalgia, Childhood

36 points by mooreds 180 days ago | 32 comments

The truth about latchkey kids (nevermindgenx.substack.com)
Gen Xers like to boast about being left unsupervised after school. But there was a grim side to it that has left many determined not to repeat the sins of their parents.

Parenting, Generation X, Childhood, Social Commentary

30 points by paulpauper 184 days ago | 32 comments

Ask HN: What book had a big impact on you as a child or teenager? (ycombinator.com)
I grew up in a house full of books that shaped my interests. I have two young children and I'm building up a library for them. I'm curious to know what books stood out in your childhoods?

Books, Childhood, Reading, Influence, Parenting

77 points by pjacotg 215 days ago | 154 comments

Being Raised by the Internet (jimmyhmiller.github.io)
I grew up relatively poor. I was fortunate enough to have a roof over my head, clean water, electricity, a computer, internet, and cable tv. But food was often harder to come by. This may seem like a contradiction, but when your mom has left to marry her uncle and your dad has schizophrenia, you aren’t really in charge of how the money is spent.

Childhood, Poverty, Technology, Internet

15 points by jimmyhmiller 227 days ago | 2 comments

Early Scenes: Remembering a Childhood in the South Bronx (newyorker.com)

Childhood, New York, South Bronx, Memoir

11 points by benbreen 256 days ago | 2 comments

Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood (croatiaweek.com)

Nostalgia, Travel, Croatia, Childhood

186 points by gascoigne 278 days ago | 212 comments

What adults lost when kids stopped playing in the street (theatlantic.com)

Childhood, Urban Planning, Social Change

95 points by jseliger 283 days ago | 107 comments

Centuries of Childhood (resobscura.substack.com)