Re: OT: Quick Lego Survey

[Tim Chambers <tbchambers@gmail.com>]

> From: John Yates <john@yates-sheets.org>
> Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 21:24:28 -0400
> In-Reply-To: <043EC533-79C5-4C55-9CD1-C5FE9A6CB075@swipnet.se>
> Message-ID: <CAJnXXoioB8XUkK5tn0h7hUwsA=7JDpPWeCzRqTzsppryp71moA@mail.gmail.com>

> 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" <esr@thyrsus.com>
> Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 04:40:12 -0400
> In-Reply-To: <87tx5ackpk.fsf@thinkpad-t440p.tsdh.org>
> Message-ID: <20140818084012.GA21644@thyrsus.com>

> Tassilo Horn <tsdh@gnu.org>:
>> ... 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.