>turns out the Office team had a single Alpha in their pipeline, set to compile -O0, and pretty much said "this is there to check the lawsuit checkmark"
what does this mean? compile -O0? lawsuit checkmark?
-O0 means compiling without optimization. Presumably they were contractually required to have a version Office for Alpha, so they did the minimum effort thing to produce one.
That was a later Edit. The original did not have the word "not".
I make these errors sometimes too and need to edit. HN's method beats Twitter, but it would be nice if we could see a versioned history of each message...
this tool seems to optimize practicing logic more than enjoying logic.
i think kids will find greater success in life with logic if they're taught to enjoy it before they're taught to master it.
why do i think this?
my dad wrote a "computer game" in 4th Dimension in the late 80s that was just randomized arithmetic problems. i had to get a certain score before i could play outside etc. i got really good at answering his program's stupid questions. i also learned to resent him for it and have negative associations w arithmetic to this day.
i also quickly lost my "skills" and am bad at arithmetic now.
it was a nice idea but please don't repeat his mistake.
This might be true if the idea of this app was something you were supposed to put your kid in front of for a few hours a day.
To me it is just one thing, one of many, many things a kid will encounter, that help them understand concepts. It's not that different from the typical ad hoc "games" I play with my daughter, often while in the car. From "I spy with my little eye" to "what's the opposite of X" to "I'm thinking of a movie where there is a...." to "how many points on a star? how many wheels on a bicycle?" and so on.
I'm not sure what sort of "enjoying logic" you are expecting from a 2-4 year old. Solving little puzzles actually seems pretty enjoyable to them, from my experience. This is not to suggest that it should come at the expense of more "natural" ways of learning logical concepts.
> I had to get a certain score before i could play outside
Your intrinsic motivation was killed with extrinsic motivation. That's the lesson here. Exercises are okay. Children kinda like exercises - even stupid or pointless ones.
On the other hand, my parents found a computer game where arithmetic problems fell from the top of the screen and you got points for solving them quickly. My siblings and I loved it and played it whenever we were allowed - it wasn't a requirement for us to play it but a treat.
not direct citation, but relevant