Comment by marquis

I was brought up by an awesome dad like the one in the story in many ways, he just exposed me to everything that he was interested in. We had computer guts all over the floor, the garage was full of electronic parts he was fooling around with. No 2nd-hand television lasted that long in our house. A really strong memory for me as a young child was just hanging out with dad making/breaking things, and my dad not in any way playing favourite over me and my big brother (though I was only allowed to watch when they were putting computers together). I am positive that just this exposure gave me the impetus to follow my inclination into the world of making stuff as soon as I became dexterous enough to do so (whether it was anything I found interesting in a 'make stuff' book, treehouse expansions, modding my bike, breaking electronics). I think of it as having the 'scare' taken out of me - just being exposed to a technical workshop from birth meant that I didn't have to make that leap from 'I want to make stuff' to 'how do I make stuff' because my dad and brother had shown me that you just, well, make stuff and figure it out as you go. Now my nephews have the same life - I'm so proud of my 4yr old nephew when I ask him for a specific wrench size or anything from the workshop. Just through exposure he's learnt what all the tools are and what they are for. If he wants to grow up and be a hacker, that's great but whatever he chooses to do in life he'll always know that if something breaks he can try and fix it, or (hopefully) break it himself for his own needs. If your daughter is interested in being a hacker she'll let you know.