I recently read this post by Nina Panickssery on advice for children. I felt that several of the recommendations are actively harmful the children they are aimed at. I am going to assume that this advice is targeted at children who are significantly more intelligent than average and maybe 7-12 years of age? It may be worth reading the original post beforehand, or maybe having it open in another tab while you read through this one.
We'll go through the points one by one:
- "Don't be a sheep". There's a difference between noticing when other people are wrong and actively assuming everyone else is dumb. This leans towards the second.
There is a huge amount of evolutionary pressure that has gone into designing kids' behaviour; survival past childhood is pretty important if you want to have kids of your own.
Simple examples of childhood behaviour, such as playing, are good illustrations of this design, but even seemingly idiotic activities like eating dirt can help you develop the antibodies you need as you grow up. As a kid, even a smart one, I would basically expect following the crowd to produce better results than figuring everything [...]
The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.
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First published:
April 6th, 2026
Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/B6PFgvy2hz9wKfq94/contra-nina-panickssery-on-advice-for-children
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
