Raise Creators of Technology, Not Just Consumers

The lonely creator. From Moby's recent video criticizing our obsession with Smartphones.

Once upon a time, children played outside, at parks, in the neighborhood and in the schoolyard. I know, seems like a fantasy from some twentieth century dream, but they honestly did play, lots of them, screaming, yelling, falling down, running and laughing. Yes, they got hurt, but they slept well. 

Evidence of 20th Century children playing

There was a time when children slept? I swear to you it's true. They went to bed after a hot bath and a good story and slept till the sun came up. Sometimes nine hours.

This of course, is a legend, almost a myth, from a time before the Smartphone. In 2001, the year my second son was born, the iPod was invented. It was pretty cool, but storing 10,000 songs on one small device wouldn’t be the game changer here. Six years later, the iPod grew into the iPhone, and this invention would disrupt the life of the child more dramatically than anything else since the invention of electricity.

Kids these days?

There are plenty of articles written about the issues that can arise when kids and technology mix. One of the best articles I’ve ever read is a Medium article titled, "Porn is Not the Worst Thing on Musical.ly" by Anastasia Bell. A must read for all people with kids. With over 22K claps, it appears she really hit the nail on the head. The data is still out, but the rise in pre-teen suicide, FOMO anxiety, and self-harm have all been linked to a blend of too much time online and lack of sleep that comes with screen time. Put a kid to bed with his iPad rather than a hot bath and a story, and he’s very likely to Snap or play games till the wee hours, only to be awakened to go to school, whether he likes it or not. Adolescents and children are vulnerable to everything they see, hear, touch, taste and smell. This is because their sensory experience of the world is literally nature's way of programming their brains. The way they think as adults will be determined by their experiences during this critical time of brain development.

However, there’s one aspect about kids and technology that doesn’t quite get as much attention—the consumerist nature of the culture they are literally immersing themselves in. Our world is less safe when too many of our kids are in mental agony, the increase in suicide, self-harm and mass shootings point to this. Yet our world is even more dangerous when too few of them are unplugged for another reason as well—as our minds consume more and more ideas from others, fewer of us are actually creating anything ourselves. 

We may think watching an arts and crafts channel on YouTube is creative, but if you never make the craft and just watch others do it, then nothing has happened at all. If the online community is more about logging in and letting others do the thinking for us than it is about sharing ideas back and forth within creative groups, with time there will be fewer and fewer content creators, and those few will be the ones with the real power.

It’s important that a healthy percentage of the next generation unplugs and creates, otherwise the world will become one big YouTube unboxing episode, and do we really want our creative capacity as a species to devolve in such a way?

The job of parenting is to create a nurturing space for our children to mature so that one day they can join us in the work of the world. To make civilization, we need creators, not just consumers. This used to be a natural part of growing up—the kids played, built things, did their chores and imitated the adults around them. In this technological age, parents now have to be conscious of the online world their children are so drawn to, and step-in, so to speak. Not only to save their childhood, but to also teach them about the real power of technology. For those who know how this network is built and can create new content in the Information Age will shape the future for us all.

So how do we do this? There are plenty of books and TED Talks on this subject, but honestly, the method for raising creators is fairly simple—delay the introduction of personal technological devices until they’re old enough to drive, play with them until then and make learning about technology a family affair.

Let’s break these three things down.

Delay Personal Devices (i.e. gaming systems, computers and Smartphones) Till the Kid Can Drive

I’m sure most people think this is counter-intuitive, this is after all an article on how to raise content creators in the 21^st century yet my first suggestion is to become Amish? However the fact is plain and simple, the moment you put your iPhone in your children’s hands, you have lost them to the content already created by someone else online. Some of this content is inspiring, but most of this endless data stream is blather and unworthy for most adult human beings, much less our children. I’m not kidding here. Perhaps if we'd listened to the Buddha and trained our minds in the practice of right thought, things would be different. Even if you set your children’s accounts to private, they’re still online, CONSUMING EVERY BYTE of information that any old person throws out there. Ms. Basil says this best:

"Pretend you can turn your kid invisible. Pretend you drop your invisible kid off at a warehouse in downtown LA. You have no idea who’s inside — fingers crossed it’s packed with Nobel Peace Prize winners, board certified pediatricians, and J.K. Rowling. Pray it is not packed with the worst of humanity. No one can see your kid, but your kid can see everyone and hear everything.

Would you do it?

Of course you wouldn’t. Most parents are careful about who and what their child is exposed to. Setting your child’s account to private may make him invisible, but he’s still there, fully present, taking it all in."

She goes on to suggest the #16by16 plan, where you tell your kid that if they can make it without a smartphone and computer in their room till their 16, you’ll pay them $1600. It’s not a crazy idea. My own sons were 15 when they got computers, 16 and 18 respectively when they got their first Smartphones. They survived without and I didn't even have to pay them. 

Delaying the technology forced them to wire-up their minds to the world around them BEFORE they linked up to the hive-mind of the internet. During this time, they learned to play with others, manage their time and institute good study habits. How in the world did I keep them entertained? It’s not really my job to entertain them, it’s my job to love them, feed them and drive them to school. Just as they’re not responsible for my happiness, I’m not responsible for their entertainment. However, there were a few things I did to make their lives enjoyable without electronics…

Play With Your Kids

Ms. Basil suggests that, “Kids should be watching witty cartoons, riding bikes, making slime, doing art, playing Minecraft, learning chess, and boring us with bad magic tricks. They shouldn’t be stopping other kids from killing themselves.”

Childhood is about play!!!! And Ms. Basil’s suggestions are exactly the things we can do with our kids. Make slime and playdough, ride bikes and learn bad magic tricks. Teach them to juggle or ride a unicycle. What are you good at? Can you tumble? Then buy a mat and give them that skill. Can you build structures? Then get them at your side while you build a shed. Can you knit, or write, or put on a good puppet show? Essentially play to your strengths and invite the other adults in your lives to do the same. What our kids learn from their grandparents is precious, and the children will cling to those memories of learning from grandma as the elders pass away.

Kids also need to play with each other, even if it gets rough sometimes. But small kids love nothing more than being with you, so read books together, build blocks and Lego sets together, and play board games. This is fun and all of them build social as well as problem solving skills. Family dinners are also wonderful when no Smartphones are at the table. Want to go out to dinner but you have a two year old? Leave them at home with a sitter. Wait till they're four, then bring them to the nicest restaurants and start teaching them manners. But don't put the phone in their hands so you can have a moment to talk as adults. You have a lifetime to be with adults and you will regret it when they're teens and refuse to talk to you, because that's going to happen no matter what. But when they're small, they're open to learning to communicate and want nothing more than to tell you their latest knock-knock joke at the dinner table. Give them a phone instead of your attention and you miss the best chance you have for building a line of communication between you.

I mentioned that our kids learn by imitating us, so this means that in order to play with them in this way, we too have to be unplugged. I myself didn’t get a Smartphone until the eldest was 16 and they never used it. I did however share my computer with them because while it’s important to build up their minds and bodies spatially and through their experiences in the real world, there does come a time where kids need to learn what exactly makes the Information Age tick…

Make Learning About Technology a Family Affair

My father was a geek who spent a lot of time in his office either on his Ham Radio or building electronic Heathkits. One day when I was about ten, I wandered in from playing with the kids, tired and sweaty and looking for a break from the summer heat. I found him soldering together a bunch of electronic parts. I asked what it was and he told me he was building a binary clock. For work? I asked. No. For fun.

Fun?

I asked him to show me how and by dinner I had not only built my first computer, I’d also learned to count in 1’s and 0’s. It was thrilling and from that day on, my father did everything he could to share technology with me. No, he didn’t run out and get me an Atari. Instead he gave me a TI-99 and I taught myself to code in Basic and thus began a life-long interest in computers and how they worked.

My totally adorable first computer. I still have it, in case the Smithsonian calls.

And note, this wasn't a computer in my room. I had to hook it up to the family TV in the living room and only got to use it in a public place. This meant I could easily ask for help, because Dad would often walk by and ask me what I was doing.

I think it’s important for everyone to know how information systems work. From coding to network protocols to the hardware behind the gadget in your hands, we all need to ask, How? So don’t be reluctant to teach your kids how to program if you don’t know how. It’s never too late, so start yourself!

Play Minecraft with them. Don’t plug them in without you, sit with them, build worlds with them, maybe even build modpacks with them. There are a few cute visual programming languages like Scratch. Instead of giving them an iPad, get an Arduino Lego project going. Take them to a Maker Faire. Build their first computer with them. Please don’t think of these activities as only for those who are “smart” or “geeks.” In this century, we’ve got to know how to make our kids tech savvy, so that means we should learn it as well. The more informed our citizenry is about the network that now governs the very political discourse of our democracy and controls the Electoral College, the better.

Most of All, Be Worthy of Imitation

Is this what we want to share with our children?

The most powerful thing you can do as a parent when it comes to raising a creator is to become a creator yourself. So close the Facebook app and make your own chatbot. Look up from your phone and instead look at what’s under the hood. It’s a powerful world inside of there, trust me.

Go on, take a peek. Then share what you've discovered with your kids.

Resiliency Is a Choice—Not a Skill

Life is difficult.

This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult—once we truly understand it and accept it—then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.

Thus begins, The Road Less Travelled, by M. Scott Peck, one of the greatest and most accessible books on the human condition that I have ever had the pleasure of reading. My therapist gave it to me when I was twenty-two, just hatched from college and home, and out in the “real world” for the first time. I remember reading this passage over and over, knowing it was true from the get go, but wanting to deny it none-the-less. It would take the next two decades to finally surrender to it.

Life is difficult, it’s the nature of living in a body. At its most basic, energy and effort are required at every turn to care for and manage the physical form, to keep it fed, clothed and safe. Add to this other bodies to take care of, as well as a community to build, and lastly the things we want to make/sell/buy and all the effort that goes into our possessions…indeed life is difficult.

And I haven’t even mentioned the emotional difficulty of being in relationship with one another. Having a form takes effort, yet it seems that for many of us, we see our difficulties as abnormal, as a punishment, as if life should be easy. The paradox is, once we accept life isn’t easy, we actually begin to live with ease.

Lately, I’ve seen a lot written about how younger generations aren’t developing resiliency, the character trait in which one meets a challenging task and rather than give up, keeps trying until the task has been completed. Instead of seeing a difficult homework assignment as important, today’s kids tend to become anxious and are scared of failing. Rather than keep at it, they give up, or blame the teacher, for their inability to see the task through to completion. There’s abundant advice out there on how we can teach children resiliency, such as giving them chores to accomplish at an early age, or supporting them with difficult tasks as they navigate the complexities of their school and social lives. We’re told we need to teach them to “never give up” and that if we don’t, they won’t be able to face the challenges ahead.

It does fall to us to teach our children well, but I don’t think resiliency is a skill, rather it’s a choice that each of us has to make. We don’t learn to never give up, we accept that doing is the nature of life, because life is work. There is no escaping it, indeed there is no other path than to keep going and never give up.

The choice to accept that life is difficult is the moment one becomes resilient.

What if our kids aren’t able to face the stress, pain and work before them because we, the adults of this age, aren’t able to face the stress, pain and work before us? Instead of meeting the difficulties, we act as if they’re temporary, something that shouldn’t be, and tell ourselves fairy tales that someday we’ll get to a point where all the difficulty falls away, and we never have to struggle again. We avoid facing the truth by telling lies to hide the fact that life is difficult and there’s no getting around it. And we teach our children the same lies, destroying any chance at developing the resilient character needed to master life.

Our culture does not reward hard work. We resent those who enjoy working, calling them workaholics and accusing them of avoiding leisure. Something must be wrong if you’d rather work than sit around and binge Netflix. Work is seen as an evil that must be eradicated. We hold dear the idea that once we achieve whatever goal we have, we will never work again. That somehow, work will disappear, if we follow the rules of engagement. When we’ve made it, life will be easy and we’ll sit around all day and play golf. Out there, in the future, is a world where no one works, and everyone is happy.

This, my friends, is a lie. There is no future where no one works, because life in the body requires work. Even the richest among us must clean their bodies, wipe their asses after a shit, and chew and swallow their food. They have to exercise and eat right, which takes work. Ask any homemaker and they’ll tell you that work never ends. If you’re awake, something needs to be done, because life is work. Only the dead can truly rest.

I hope I don’t sound old and grumpy. I’m actually quite the opposite. I still don’t like to work, and there is some work I’d rather do (like write my novels) than others (like cooking dinner), but after all these years, I finally don’t resent the fact either. Rather than seeking to find a day when all work stops, for after thirty plus years of adult life the work just keeps coming and coming, or to organize my time to the minute in order to maybe get some time to do what I want, because the moment I sit down to do what I want someone will always need my help, I’ve begun to meet each moment and ask, “What needs to be done now?” In this way, I no longer resent the fact that life is difficult, nor do I resent those who don’t “do their fair share.” What is anyone’s fair share really? If something needs to be done, then someone needs to do it, even if that person is me.

I’d agree that our children are anxious because they lack resiliency, yet I'm not convinced the reason for this is because we’ve spoiled them. Perhaps, rather than teach them the truth that life is difficult, we've lied to them, and taught them that in order to be truly happy, the work of life must be avoided. We do this with the subtle tales that we ourselves believe and actually glorify. Perhaps if we take the time to look at these lies, and the stories we tell each other, we can begin to see the truth of life and make a choice to accept its difficulties and thus, become resilient.

Here are three of the biggest lies perpetuated in our society that teach us that the work of life is unnatural and something to be avoided at all costs.

1.       Happily Ever After

We all know this one—the entire wedding industry, as well as every Disney tale, is based upon it. The reason for our unhappiness is that we’re alone and the moment we find the perfect person, we’ll be happy. Moreover, the only effort that needs to be put forth is buying a diamond ring and planning a nice, big wedding. This lie teaches our children that falling in love is easy and without effort, you’ll know he’s the one at first glance. It will also solve all of your problems. Life ceases to be work if you’ve found your one true love. If there are arguments, he’s not the one. Romance doesn’t require work, just a kiss. Once the honeymoon phase is over however, the real work of love sets in, and many of us panic, assuming something must be wrong. Unhappiness festers, we’re no longer glowing. Soon we either constantly fight, or avoid one another. After that, many divorce. Our love stories often imply that we will struggle in other relationships until we find our soul mate, and then everything falls into place. You’ll find that prince and live happily ever after, knowing his every desire and meeting it with perfection. And if that’s not the case, if instead it takes effort to keep the flame going, then someone has done something wrong. Either way, blame begins and as soon as that happens, we breakup, hoping to find someone else who can be our ideal partner and make life easier. This lie teaches our children that love and sex don’t take any effort at all, and that in fact, if they do take effort, then something is wrong with you.

2.       Retirement

An economic concept that is only a few generations old, this is the idea that if you save your money for forty years while working for the man, you can retire when you’re sixty and never have to work again. While many men born in the thirties through the fifties actually have experienced retirement, but most of us born since 1965 will not have this luxury, and it’s driving Gen X and Y crazy. Two recessions have decimated their retirement plans and pensions. The cost of living is so high, very few will be able to retire like their fathers did. The fact that we won’t be able to spend our golden years golfing under the Florida sun may feel like a failure, as if we’ve done something wrong. But here’s the deal, any woman in the early Boomer age group will tell you that they never actually retired. The work of the house continued, even after the breadwinner left his traditional job to live off his pension. Her work actually increased because she had to take care of him all day, in addition to the household work she’d been doing since she married. Retirement has been, for the most part, a white, male dream. And here’s something else, the idea of refraining from “work” for the last thirty years of your life is an entirely new concept. Prior to 1935, if you lived, you worked, most likely on a farm, or factory, or if you were rich you managed the farm and factory until your last breath, or until your health rendered you incompetent and your children took over while you wasted away in a rocker on the front porch, talking nonsense to the grandchildren. Regardless, you worked until your body no longer functioned. Then came the baby boomers, leaving work by 60, some even younger, and building 55+ communities in the sunniest places across the nation. Suddenly, after thousands upon thousands of years of working till death, we no longer had to. Caring for our elderly makes sense, but the myth of retirement has taught us that to work is a curse that you must plan to leave as soon as you can, and that if you play your cards right, you’ll be sitting pretty the last thirty years of your life. It’s a myth that teaches all of us, including our kids, that life shouldn’t be about work, and that the only reason we do it is to make money. This completely ignores the fact that we actually work to live, and live to work, regardless of our retirement schemes. Even if you quit your job, you will still work. Our communities, homes and families need our efforts, and taking care of those aspects of life can be very difficult, at any age. Regardless, after a mere seventy years, the retirement myth has already begun to fall apart, because we lack the economic discipline to make it a reality.

3.       Robotic Utopia

The myth that work is beneath us is what drove us to enslave one another in the first place. Work is for the “working class” and the elites have long tried to avoid it. First they captured people from other nations to use as labor, buying and selling human flesh to avoid the grueling work that needs to be done to support homo sapien life on Earth. They also created class systems to provide a plethora of human capital to do the dirty work of life. When nations began to make slavery illegal and then formed unions to protect worker’s rights, we turned to machines and enslaved them. Today the fairy tale of our times is a utopia where none of us works at all while Rosie the Robot does everything, including wiping our asses as well as providing orgasms. We’re both excited and fearful of this future—for if robots can do all the work, then what will we do? Oh, how will man live if he is idle? Again, any homemaker will tell you that work continues, even if you don’t go into the office. It is nearly impossible to be idle if you live in the body. It will wake you to pee and your stomach will grumble until you get some food. You must care for yourself and the home around you. Yes, machines make that labor easier, but the labor of life still exists. We must work at our relationships (see number one above), we must raise our children, we must learn to communicate, we must put on our clothes and clean our bodies. Robots can’t save us from the work of life, so far they’ve just allowed us to get more of that work done in a day. This is wonderful, I can do all my laundry in three hours rather than three days, but the clothes still need to be put in the hamper and washed. Longing for a future where no one does anything while machines drone around us doing the work of life teaches our children that the efforts they put in right now are beneath them, work that someone, or something, else should do, and will in the future. At which point, all their efforts in school and work are useless, if they’re just going to be replaced by machines. How does a generation remain hopeful when they’re constantly being told that they’re not really needed, because robots are just going to take their jobs?

There are many other lies about work and the effort of life that we tell ourselves, but these three—perfect marriages, retirement, and a future where robots do all of our work—encourage us to meet the work of the now with suspicion. We’re constantly trying to avoid the work, or be more efficient, or assume that if something is difficult, something is wrong. This is the root of all suffering—attachment to the idea that life should be easy.

Plain and simple, life is work and trying to avoid work ruins our relationships, our creative endeavors and our internal spirits. Depression seeps in when we realize it’s never going to be better than it is now. We get angry at others for not doing their share, or worse, for asking us to help. Our children need our time and attention, our spouses need our love, our parents need our help, our communities need our efforts and above all, our democracy needs our engagement. All of this is difficult and takes effort.

The paradox, according to M. Scott Peck, is a simple one. Once we accept that life is difficult, the work just is. Nothing more, nothing less. Meeting each moment and doing the work that is needed brings ease to the worried mind. This is resilience, and rather than try to teach it, life asks that we embody it, one activity at a time.

Rebel Parenting—Raising Scientists and Artists in Our Homes

Let’s face it, science and the arts are under attack in America right now. Many have begun to portray science as a liberal conspiracy and view the arts as a liberal social experiment hell bent on ruining society with its loose morals. Recently, the Trump Administration released recommendations for major cuts to scientific research as well as the National Endowment of the Arts.

In a world where most blue collar jobs, and soon many white collar jobs, will never return due to automation and advancements in artificial intelligence, careers in science and the arts are some of the few that will be left for humans to do. Why then is America so determined to shoot itself in the foot and encourage both fields to perish?

For the most part it’s an ideology not unlike the one that ruled the Dark Ages. Art allows freedom of the mind and expression of one’s divinity, without the need of a church or organization. When participating in the arts, a person can find great spiritual fulfillment. Thus, the mind that creates is one that can’t be controlled with fear of the afterlife, because they live so fully in this life.

The same goes for science, which is the investigation of, “Why?” Scientists, like artists, see the world through curiosity and awe, and seek to use objective methods to explain why things work the way they do. Innovation begins in the realm of ideas. It’s said that Nikola Tesla would design and test every machine he ever invented in his mind first, before building it. Like a story or a painting, cures for disease or new machines are born within the imagination, and then through human will, become manifest.

And like art, those who study science are also hard to control. They question everything, and seek answers beyond yes or no. Thinkers are the neutralizers of the binaries, and thus a challenge to any system that seeks power through control.

Thus in these times of alternative facts and fake news, we need artists and scientists more than ever, and it’s no coincidence that funding for their programs is on the chopping block. This doesn’t bode well for our country, and I for one will not sit by and watch it happen.

There is one group of people who can combat this desire to squelch curiosity and awe: Parents. Yes, teachers play a crucial role, but many of them are beholden to the budget cuts that are coming down the line. Parents are still free to create homes where exploration, curiosity and the burning desire to ask why still exist. In our homes we can create spaces to encourage our children to become artists and scientists. This is not only a civic duty, but it is also to protect them, for this generation will need the ability to adapt and be creative in a world where robots perform most of the work humans are now paid to do. Art and scientific discovery will be the last bastions of human domain, and what parent wouldn’t want to prepare their child for such a future?

While the world around us seems to be in chaos, now is the time to dedicate ourselves to homes that create the thinkers of the future. I’ve raised two scientist/artists myself and while we’re not done, both are well on their way to entering careers in science and technology, while also acting and playing music. There are many things we can do as parents to encourage this, but here are some suggestions to get your own inspiration going.

1. Read your children fairy tales

Albert Einstein once said, “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” Since I’m a voracious reader, I wanted to share stories with my kids early on. We started in-utero, with my husband reading to me, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams, while I was pregnant. While that’s not really a fairy tale in the purest sense, it did give both my boys the sense of humor they now carry, as well as their love of science fiction, I’m sure of it. When the eldest was born, I continued the habit by reading him “The Little Prince” while nursing. This solidified the ritual of reading to our children and soon after we got our hands on every fairy tale we could. And not the watered down Disney stuff, my kids were raised on the Brothers Grimm and know the true story of the Little Mermaid (spoiler, she’s not that nice). Essentially, reading fairy tales to children opens up their imaginations and allows them to think the unthinkable, which is the beginning of all innovation.

2. Throw out the TV and computer

Children need to be encouraged to have their own thoughts, and today this is harder than ever. TV, YouTube, the smartphone, all these things seek to program our minds. The more you let your child participate in being fed information rather than creating it, the more you dumb them down. This is fairly intuitive, but if you need facts to convince you that screens are not a child’s friend, then simply Google the effects of screen time on your child’s brain. Don’t worry if your kid gets bored because that’s number three!

3. Let your kid be bored

Don’t entertain them. Limit their after school activities. I know that seems counter-intuitive, don’t you need to have them in coding camp, art lessons and dance class by age 6 to be successful? No. Studies actually now show that the busier the childhood, the less motivated they are as students in high school and college. Better to let them be as children and give them space for unsupervised play. Fill the house with quality toys that encourage imagination: blocks, costumes, puppets, balls, jump ropes, items they can make obstacles courses with, dolls and craft/science supplies. Let them experiment. Let them take apart the broken toaster. Let them get dirty. Let them eat bugs. Let them be kids and let them be bored. When my sons asked me to entertain them I’d say, “That’s why there are two of you, now go play with each other.”

4. Let them play an instrument

You don’t have to start young, but don’t wait too long either. It’s worth the investment. Even if it only happens for a few years, it will encourage them to be more than just good at math and taking tests. And at the same time, it will make them better at math and taking tests.

5. Don’t give them the answer when they ask why

This is so hard, but very effective. When our kids ask why and then we tell them word for word all the details long before they’re intellectually capable, we break their imagination. Again, we fill it with facts, which are rare these days, I know, but young children need to be in awe. Let them figure it out. Instead of telling them, ask, why do you think it is? A young child will have all sorts of crazy answers, let them be. As they get older, they will ask again, and this time have more to say about it. Eventually, they come to find out the answer themselves, either through school, or through reading about it in a book, or hearing the answer in a conversation. Then when they ask why, the time has come to correct them if they have the wrong information, and discuss it further to encourage scientific dialogue. “Why?” is the most important question, especially now, so encourage it by asking them and teaching them to use their minds to create hypotheses, and then discussing those together until the correct answer is found.

Being a parent isn’t easy, but we are our children’s first teachers. Our homes shape society more than any vote we cast or organization we belong to. Within our homes we fashion the minds of the citizens that will inherit the earth. Lao Tzu wrote, “In family life, be present.” 

This then is the great work — raising philosopher scientists — which isn’t only important, it’s also a lot of fun.