I always thought that to use a computer you needed to be literate. But it does not look like it anymore. The kids today are starting to run all kinds of electronic devices practically in their cribs. They hold a nursing bottle in their left hand while making deals on a smartphone with the right hand.
Many adults still don’t know how to use a computer and are afraid of even trying it. By comparison, kids jump fearlessly into cyberspace with the exuberance of young goats. They are not afraid to make mistakes and they will write code before knowing how to ride a skateboard.
“Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live.” – Martin Golding
By the way, I find tele-learning quite entertaining and effective. The teachers are doing an outstanding job and the kids seem to enjoy it.
Today, everything changes very fast and you need to constantly update your knowledge to keep up and stay in the race. Our elders learned a trade at a very young age and could easily survive a lifetime by doing the same thing over and over again.
Today, it is almost impossible, for kids will have to compete with very smart robots. And employers greatly favor uncomplaining machines over ever-whining people.
But kids (besides being hyperactive) are resilient and creative. Impossible is not part of their vocabulary. What we thought impossible twenty, thirty years ago, is quite feasible for them. They are talking about Mars like it was next door. Their motto is:
“If at first, you don’t succeed; call it version 1.0”
It is fitting because they will have to be extremely resourceful in the coming decade. Pandemics and their associated ills are quite real and could surge again at any time. Trying to deny it or ignore it, is utterly foolish and dangerous. Most everybody understands that it hurts business, but what good is a business if all the potential customers are sick or buried?
By the way kids, we don’t need a businessman or an autocrat to run America. What this country wants is a blend of a skilled diplomat and a fair, compassionate human being.
Alain