> Since all of us kids were from very, very poor families, this was a particularly incredible opportunity that I didn't fully appreciate until I was an adult.

It's interesting having been early and poor (or relatively so), isn't it? We had a computer because my parents were horribly irresponsible and did things like starve themselves and fake weighing enough to give plasma to get money for tech. Grocery budget? Warm coats for our children when we live in MI? NO. Shit food and 10 dollar coats that do nothing. But computers! And we will have sleep for dinner before we cut the amount of Internet hours we pay for!

I was lucky enough to have been born into a hacker family, I can't imagine I'd have had access otherwise since we were rural, poorish, and I was a girl. It definitely made me aware of class issues at a young age.

> That sort of thing is career guidance, not encouraging exploration, play, and deep learning.

Given that making money online wasn't a normal thing at the time, it wasn't even career guidance because none of them knew what a career in Web technologies would look like. It was outright Machiavellian: Cozy up to the kids, see which of them might accept your help to build something, and wait for them to have an idea you think is commercially viable and then swoop in to be on the ground floor. A lot of fake interest in you, a lot of fake emotion. But yes, now it's very much career guidance. "Maximize your earning potential!"

> The guy who took us to play with the mainframe knew us because he was a teacher in an afterschool latchkey program -- so he wasn't an unknown to our parents.

That's part of what makes it harder: The people with tech skills aren't in schools showing 10 year olds around. They aren't doing what my mom did and going to the local elementary school so the 6 year olds can learn to use the computers (because none of the teachers knew how so if the kids wanted lab time, they needed a competent adult and my mom was it). They're on the career ladder, and time spent on intangibles like 'growing community' and 'planting trees whose shade you'll never sit in' will not get you promoted. Nobody who can code now is encouraged to go into teaching. So those connections and those lay experts who held the cultural knowledge so the geniuses could concentrate solely on the work are gone. No teacher messing with a mainframe: The school district contracts out its tech to outside companies whose workers never interact with the children and wouldn't be trusted with them.

> Perhaps the way I can give back is to go through them. Maybe start a "hacking program" or something. Seems better than just being a random creepy old guy befriending young children.

You might want to check out your local library as well.

> Thank you for this discussion, by the way. You may (or may not) have been rambling, but your comments sparked a lot in my brain, brought me a bit of enlightenment, and you have planted a few seeds.

I'm so glad! I feel likewise: I've very much enjoyed this conversation, especially since I often feel crazy. I think we need to decouple our cultural insights from specific tech skills and teach them to everybody. Not everybody can code, but my family is full of non-coders who can still utilize systems-thinking to help them navigate the world and who have good trouble-shooting heuristics. A bonus to this would be that parents could identify hacker children much like they can other types of talent such as athletic ability.