20:36: When You Know More

When my son was two years old, he came into my study and found my computer sitting, disassembled, on the floor; having never seen something like that, he asked "what is it?". "It's daddy's computer", I said. "Oh! Daddy's computer! Like Mommy's computer! Wanna play a game!", he said. He'd played Frozen Bubble with mommy on her laptop.

Now, I use this computer almost exclusively for:

• developing software
• editing paintings

So I said:

No, there are no games on this computer.

But, then I caught myself and had to make a correction--because, well, what's the difference between work and play, anyway? I've been telling people for years, "Yeah, I play a Massive Multiplayer Online Game: open-source software development!". And, it's true--hacking FOSS is a lot like gaming (and the painting, too, might as well be a game).

So I corrected myself:

You're not old enough to play these games.

Except, that wasn't right either. It's got nothing to do with being old enough. So I corrected myself again:

You haven't yet learned enough to appreciate these games.

"Oh", he said. "OK. Maybe later."

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