Re: OT: Quick Lego Survey

[Tim Chambers]

> From: John Yates <address@hidden>
> Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 21:24:28 -0400
> In-Reply-To: <address@hidden>
> Message-ID: <address@hidden>

> Too old to have played with Lego as a child.  My equivalents were Lincoln
> Logs, Tinker Toys and especially Erector Set.

I had Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, Erector Sets, *and* LEGOs growing up in
the 70's. Also had LEGO gears.

> By the time I became a father Lego had appeared[.] Both my daughter and my
> son received many Lego sets.

My neighbors had more than me, so I vowed when I had kids that there would
be no such thing as "too many LEGOs."

> From: "Eric S. Raymond" <address@hidden>
> Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 04:40:12 -0400
> In-Reply-To: <address@hidden>
> Message-ID: <address@hidden>

> Tassilo Horn <address@hidden>:
>> ... here in Germany that's probably the most  common toy after teddy
>> bears, so I wouldn't look for some correlation between playing LEGO and
>> becoming a hacker or engineer.
>
> Interesting.  Legos aren't quite that common in th the U.S., and
> *are* commonly thought to be something you give your kid if you want
> to encourage engineering tendencies.

And hacking. My first exposure to programming at MIT was a student
mini-course on Lisp. Many LEGO metaphors were proferred.

I have two sons. They had oodles of LEGOs. Both went to MIT. I'm convinced
LEGOs helped. #1 son studied Aero-Astro, focused on UAS auto-pilot
software and is a Java hacker in Cambridge now. #2 is in his senior year
studying MechE.