selfmakable

One of my earliest memories is looking at my toys and realizing I could never make objects like that. When I asked my mother the explained that they come from large factories. I thought that no matter how well I learned to make things, I could never create anything like a lego brick.

I could build stuff with lego bricks but they never looked real. The learning curve was too steep to engineer real objects and the equipments were unobtainable.

Kids a hundred years ago probably grew up with stuff that looked a lot more make-able. If it was made of wood, you probably knew a carpenter or saw family members carve wood. Even if it was made of metal you'd probably see a blacksmith or someone casting metal. Making these things looked more relatable and you might chose to work in that field when you grow up.

When I was 9, I got my first computer and I was happy that I could make software simply by writing code. I never got beyond the Basic programming language, but the programs I made did not look that different from professional software you could buy. At least it did look good enough to impress grown ups who have barely seen computers.

Today, the games and apps look so sleek that they might be as discouraged to learn how to make software. The learning curve is incredibly steep. The bright side is that today's kids can have the equipment to produce good software. Computers, tablets and phones are cheap compared to a factory.

I wonder if today's tools that enable kids to build software feel like lego-bricks to them.. Or do kids get the same sensation I got when I made my first sprite fly across the tv-screen with my commodore C64?