Mason  🏃‍♂️ ✂️

I get the feeling you fundamentally object to the notion of a good use of one’s time. Is this just with respect to kids or adults too? The rejoinder “but people like trolling” is in a sense unanswerable but people liked public executions too

I think it’s reasonable to be suspicious of any designation of time well spent, but that doesn’t mean we won’t look back and judge all the same

I don't know why you're dodging my question or concerns, here; they're critical to what you're saying now. I don't think anyone is in a good position to evaluate a "good" or "bad" use of time if they think they're merely caught in inescapable evolutionary loops.

Learning to fish (on YouTube) is obviously a good use of time if it puts needed food on the table. That’s a sound metric. Adults are more motivated to minimise regret; kids less so, but both can be hacked

What's a sound metric? Roughly what percentage of people who have regular access to youtube will ever fish because they won't be able to eat otherwise? If I don't learn to fish, what are the odds I will go hungry as the result?

More importantly, is there room for childhood at all in a world where the worthiness of any person's activities is evaluated on their potential to meet a plausible future need, however unlikely?

I understand your concern, but I think we can make judgements that still allow huge scope for freedom: that making a TikTok with friends is better than an hour of following recommended links on YouTube by yourself, for example

I can imagine plenty of cases where the latter is "worse" on my terms than the former, the former "worse" than the latter, and neither/both worth the time. Rather than go neurotic over it, I do what I want to do within semi-reasonable bounds for health, safety & sustainability.