I think that is over simplifying things a bit.
The truth is there’s at least hundreds if not thousands of times more things to be “curious” about than there was 30 years ago.
Just because kids are not curious about many of the things we were doesn’t mean they are not curious.
We are in an age of information overload. We can’t begin to be truly knowledgeable in all areas of history, science, industry, culture - you name it.
The age of the renascence man in actual application is at an end. Technical jobs now mostly require specialization because there is far too much to follow/keep current on in a broader scope.
Twenty five years ago I had practical knowledge of just about every non custom semiconductor available from discrete devices to integrated circuits. No human can begin to do that today. It just isn’t possible.
I can’t even remotely keep up with all the developments in electronics these days. I now make little attempt to. Instead I research specific information for a specific problem I’m trying to solve, solve it and move on without trying to retain what I discovered in fine detail. Each problem is different and requires different information to solve. Books, notes, computer programs I’ve written and the Internet are my long term memory now.
Times have changed and we have to adapt.
“Just because kids are not curious about many of the things we were doesn’t mean they are not curious.”
I never said they weren’t curious, but learning about some of the things they are curious about doesn’t give them sentence structure and an understanding about history. There are advantages to technilogical education, but you can’t forego the foundation of learning to just zone in one specific industry.
I have to agree. My mother’s generation tended to view the walk on the moon as the most incredulous thing ever. My sons know about it and they realize that at the time it was pretty amazing but they have grown up with people in outer space all the time. And they know more about electronics (computers, languages, CD-ROM, http, the whole alphabet of the pc world,) than I could ever hope to know.
My oldest graduated with an AD in computer programming from a local technical college. But somewhere along the line, he fell in love with the world of psychology. He still lives at home because he has a local PT job and he commutes to the University of DE, an hour each way. He was 21 when he started at UD and didn’t want to live on campus because he ‘didn’t want to live with a bunch of 18 year olds away from home for the first time and partying all the time.’ He is bound and determined to become a psychologist, have a practice and hopes to participate in studies and research some day.
I know his schedule is grueling and the commute doesn’t help. But he wants an education, not a dormitory experience. There are good kids out there learning every day.
Let's see: 2N3904. 2N3906. 2N3055. 1N914. 1N4000. SN7400. SN7402. LM741. 7805.
By golly, you're right. There wasn't much more to know!
≤]B^)
≤]B^)
I, too have been amazed what a massive and diverse repository of solved problems resides in my old computer programs.
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Of course, I would bet that you and I were of the "old school" wherein we wrote our own "subroutines" to accomplish specific tasks -- efficiently.
"Programmers" nowadays spend most of their time trying to find a pre-written ("one size fits none") "object" in a long list, and then in applying "exceptions" until the code is sufficiently 'bloated' that it fits "well enough".
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Few activities are as educational as teaching oneself programming languages and then using them to solve real-world problems (efficiently)...