Right? I typed out a similar response and then decided not to bother.
Not to dogpile on the dude, just speaking in general terms - I think not enough people's parents left them to figure things out on their own. Set an example, give a little guidance, but leave them to their own devices to learn.
Two big moments in my life, courtesy of either parent -
1982, I was 12. Mom came home with a brand new PC. It was an NEC PC-8801a and it ran CP/M (predecessor to DOS.) Very expensive. Salesman told her, if you have kids in the house, don't let them touch it. She parked the boxes in the living room and told me the manuals are in there, if you want to check it out. She went out on an errand, by the time she got back I had the thing fully assembled and running its built-in diagnostics while I dug into the CP/M, BASIC, and WordStar manuals. This led to playing with computers as a hobby for years, and eventually a 17-year IT career.
2003, age 33, I had quit my final IT job and came home to TX to help the old man with his wrecker service and used car lot. Very first day I'm back he gets a call for a wreck, we jump in the rollback and haul ass. We get there and find an old man had passed out and ran his Caddy off a country highway into a huge culvert and flipped it, and it was bumper to bumper suspended over the water on either end of the concrete sides, upside-down. Guy was OK and they had hauled him off in the ambulance already. Trooper clears us to recover the car, old man steps back and tells me, "Go get it." ... and I did, with minimal secondary damage, considering the circumstances. A year of running wrecks, police tows, and repos for our car lot - and I struck out on my own after building my first wrecker (the white GMC) and began a private property towing and repo business with a family friend. We since disbanded that but I stayed in the business and have been at it ever since with just small breaks doing other things, so nearly 17 years of car snatchin' now.
How's that for a threadjack? Hope it was inspirational..
Richard
