https://ritchie.page/blog/i-reject-artificial-intelligence/

In this piece, Ritchie writes (among many other things):

"It sounds childish, but when you’re disabled, the feeling of being able to do something you thought you couldn’t is extremely empowering."

I think this both isn't childish at all, and also isn't specific to disabled people.

The reason, I believe, this can come across as childish is simply that there are so many things small children do that they've never done before and that they weren't aware that they could. Some of them require practice and effort, though definitionally in proportions that isn't out of reach for a child. So kids get to have that feeling of empowerment *a lot*.

I'd go so far as to say that adults only stop having it if they stop challenging themselves. For most of my adult life I've had it pretty regularly.

Obviously I can't be *sure* that this isn't a disability-specific thing, since I've been disabled my entire life, but it seems to me that able-bodied and -brained people get that feeling too. I've taught programming and maths to adults (most of whom were not disabled), and seeing how *proud* they are when they've managed to master something complex and difficult is not to be trifled at! In fact, I think that one of the ways to keep students motivated is to try to lay out a progression so that they keep getting that feeling intermittently.

But there is one way where it is perhaps more important to kids and the disabled, for the simple reason that both kids and disabled people are quite aware that they are surrounded by people who can exert power over them at will.

@acidiclight I've had that exact interaction on a few occasions (both with code and with pixel art), and it is quite upsetting. I don't really know how to counter it properly.

But, weirdly enough, I think I used to know, back when I was a little kid. There's a story in the family legendarium that my mother likes to tell about me - she used to take me along to early home computer trade shows (she did a bit of moonlighting writing for a computer mag), and I got to see the very first Macintosh in Denmark. So little 5-year-old me walks over to the exciting computer, fires up the paint program and starts drawing a bicycle!

The Apple salescritter saw the obvious marketing pitch opportunity and seized it - "so easy even a little kid can use it!". And when he was done impressing the spectators, he came over to me and told me that if I used the circle tool rather than freehand, I could get perfectly circular wheels.

"I know that", I said, "but then it wouldn't be *my* bike."

A very childish response! But now, I think 5-year-old me was a lot wiser, in his own way, than 46-year-old me is.

@acidiclight There was a time in my life where I think I'd have met "I bet Claude could have done that in 3 seconds" almost instantly with "But it didn't. I did. And I enjoyed it." - but now I'm all worn down from years of being told I'm soon superfluous and the like, and I haven't really gotten my bearings again yet.

@datarama @acidiclight

> I've had that exact interaction on a few occasions (both with code and with pixel art), and it is quite upsetting. I don't really know how to counter it properly.

In my head, there's enough people who will not say "Claude can do that" that you can focus on engaging on those people first, and talk to the claudicators once you've finished all the possible conversations you can have with the non-claudicators.

@coder @acidiclight Claudicators! :-)

@datarama @coder @acidiclight it's sad because I have some memories of watching "I, Claudius" as a child. I thought:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudication

would have some relationship to Claudius' limp, but I don't think there is :(

@coder @acidiclight I did this terrible thing yesterday:

https://hachyderm.io/@datarama/117452450940099094

@datarama @coder @acidiclight hah, yes, I voted all of the above and it might have rekindled my interest in the word "claudicare" :)

I'm thinking now of the Roman empire. Wait, I meant thinking of watching "I, Claudius".

@coder @acidiclight @datarama btw, in Spanish the verb "claudicar" mostly means "surrender", the dictionary has the medical term and limping, but I think most people only know it means surrender.

@coder @acidiclight That is *extremely* appropriate!