trishussey
on - last edited on by
JS
That’s right, I said hacking isn’t bad. Messing around with sites, electronics, toys, or anything is a good thing. It’s intellectual, it’s creative, it’s challenging and it can be very fulfilling. I’ve seen it in my own kids as much as I’ve seen it myself. I learned HTML and site design like most everyone else: view source, copy, paste, experiment. Hacking isn’t about breaking the law or doing things to hurt people, it’s about understanding how things work and often approaching problems from a new and different angle. Yes, sometimes that “approach” might be considered “breaking the rules”, but challenging the “rules” is how great inventions come to be.
A small computer that an average household could own? Preposterous! Computers need to be giant machines in basements!
Create a website without knowing how to code? Being able to publish your works online without a degree in computer science? Never! Blasphemy!
You can’t possibly send signals through the air between two points for communications! It won’t work Marconi!
Yeah you get the idea.
So if my kids said, “Dad let’s go to DEFCON!” I’d be all for it. I want my kids to learn how to be safe online (my daughter as already used social engineering for good to bust a kid impersonating a friend of hers). I want my kids to learn how computers, websites, and electronics work. I want them to be able to feel they can challenge the status quo and strike their own path.
Yep, I encourage my kids to be hackers.
And I think they will become better people for it.
