Then they should be able to accelerate your learning! My sis never played until this year and she’s kicking ass on bass! It’s a drudge for a bit though, no doubt.

There are several tracks of learning musical instruments, at least the way I see it. Learn to play other people’s stuff for fun solo, compose and record your own stuff, or jam with a group of buddies.

I’ll be honest I never got into playing other people’s music but composed in the past. That was nice because you had absolute control but it also limited the creative input and stunted my own growth in music theory that becomes a must when jamming.

This past year I’ve played more than maybe my entire life with jamming with family. It has been by far the most fun. We just make up our own simple shit and grow together.

My daughter around this age loves to draw, dance, dress, up in constumes (dinosaurs and what not). She is definitely interested in science and we have little lab kits and what not. I highly recommend Snap Circuits which should be in your budget. As with most things, important to do it with her at least once to help guide her and create that spark.

People underestimate kids. Whenever possible get them the real real of something, even if more limited. For instance my old man got her a real (cheap) cordless drill and a toolbox and she loved it. Kids know fake from real.

At this age interests come and go and it’s more about breadth / exposure / exploration.

6 is a perfect time to introduce them to a musical instrument. Or music genres themselves! Chess with uncle? Use this chance to both bond and expose her to one of your interests, with mentorship.

Get her Minecraft; set up Scratch programming for her.

Haha, that was a top one for me, too! Also the DK visual encyclopedia and Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia.

Out of curiosity, do those who read quickly type or write more slowly than you?

Hey thanks! I appreciate it! So far do they seem responsive to feedback?

The cost of the gift is frankly irrelevant and completely relative to their own family’s wealth, not yours. That’s for the boy to decide whether the penguin pebble gamble was worth it, and for the boy’s parents to decide how to deal with. Financial power plays to secure romantic relations never bode well.

Good financial lesson for him just the same. If it makes it easier, just give the gift back too.

Hey sorry, just wondering if it’s still possible to get an invite link to Digg? No worries if not, thanks.

Sounds like they wanted to angrily vent, but not also take accountability for what may be their own mistake. People are extremely poor at confrontation, and so often resort to these cheapshot hit-and-run tactics. They MUST have the last word, so they get their little dig in, then block very quickly. I just roll my eyes.

Yeah I have a similar mindset. I honestly have a lot of people tagged on here from some pretty rough debates at times. But weeks, months, years later I still up vote some of their stuff.

Very well said, and I think that’s a reasonable take. A balance between protecting yourself but also not necessarily promoting a self-validating echo-chamber. Temporary blocks are genius.

It’s funny you mention the AI thing. I’m no pro or anything but I am a software engineer and was recently blocked by someone for just noting that AI has its uses in the fight against extremist hate and online discourse and that we shouldn’t necessarily limit our tool box in the fight against fascism — especially when it’s being used against us. That’s actually what spurred my thinking about these knee-jerk blocks.

Honestly, turning inwardly to my family has been great. Especially given the political climate and my general disappointment. Finding “your people” is quite pleasant. Tribalism is sort of ingrained into us at a primate level, I suppose.

Still, I guess I try to strike a balance when all possible because I know the traps of building one’s own silo and the consequences that can have.

There’s such a massive disconnect there, though, isn’t there? I agree the slow deliberative process is key; but there is clearly a missing piece of the puzzle to bridge that gap between experts and laypeople that unfilled leads to well… All this.

Follow-up to this question after seeing many responses (and thank you): What is your default mode for self-doubt when engaging in discussions?

That is, no matter how confident you may be in something, do you maintain an open door, or are your beliefs you block over completely set in stone?

For me, little terrifies me more than becoming the thing I hate; to be clouded by my own cognitive bias; to inadvertently throw myself into an echo-chamber of self-validation. As such I try my best to always maintain at least the slightest bit of doubt in even my strongest beliefs, and to that end to at least let dialogue challenging that come through.

Only way around this is editing your previous comment, though I’ve been told that can sometimes lead to a ban? Never happened to me though.

What really annoys me about that is that it prevents you from replying to anyone ELSE who replies to you in that thread, which is completely absurd.

People are trying to ‘win the argument’ for personal satisfaction. They’re not trying to self-correct or seek the truth.

How do we promote more people to cooperate instead of compete in the mutual pursuit of truth while maintaining humility and introspection that their own views could be incorrect?

I think there are many people out there who could.

To me, the problem isn’t being a benevolent dictator; it’s getting a benevolent person there in a benevolent way.

Upvoted for citing reasonable source.

Personally, it doesn’t really matter much whether he was left or right since it’s very clear that right-wing extremist violence makes up the large majority of these incidents.

Thank you! I believe it was Meshtastic but will compare the two.

It’s been my goal to make an effort to reconnect with people through the months of September and November. We’ll see how it goes.

I tried to reconnect with an old good friend of mine but he has kind of gone off the deep end, deep into drugs and conspiracy theories. We used to see eye-to-eye on things. Used to be compassionate, informed. Kind of a burnout now.

He asked me recently what I thought about “the shot” knowing my partner and I both worked in hospitals during that time. He got immediately cold when I was blunt about my pro-vaccine stance after he prodded. After he got cold, I reciprocated and that’s that. Oh well. Hope he finds stability. I can’t put out everyone’s fire.

My sister is another story that I started to write about, but I think I’ll save that for another time. That one naturally hurts the most.