Babies... 1..

**This whole series about babies came about from me having a baby, and from having read a lot of material with which I passionately disagree. Some stuff I disagree with on a personal level, other on ethical, and some I consider just inhumane. This is all my opinions, written late at night, often after having a nice glass of Islay. If you don't agree with something, and feel compelled to comment, do it!!!**

What about babies? Well, over the last year I've been spending a lot of time marinating on what does it take to make my kid smart.

Smart is a vague definition and mine probably has no relation to yours. It has nothing to do with ability to get into Harvard, or having an IQ of 700. My definition is more about a toolbox of skills with critical thinking as a main tool.

I've long held a view that IQ is a stupid fucking measurement, but it's not until recently that I've started seriously thinking about the topic. Don't get me wrong, it would be awesome to take some test and score off the chart. However, I have a lot of friends who do in fact score off the charts, and they are nothing special, literally. That... and the fact that a number of recent studies explored the topic of IQ and found that in fact, high IQ has no relationship to actual intelligence, motivation, or the one thing everyone wants, success.

I could go on about college and my complete and utter disappointment with formal education and "teaching to the average". And I could talk well into my 10th beer about wasted years of college and my passionate desire for teachers to actually fail students for fucking around, instead of giving them Cs and Bs without teaching a fucking thing... I have no idea. Not a slightest fucking clue, why schools wont allow students to test out of a class. Why should a student waste his time 'learning' about a subject when after just a few days of studying they could pass all of the tests in the class. WHY???

all that bs considered I was wondering to my self, what could I do to set my kid into the world prepared to deal with all this bull shit. I dunno.. but I am gonna figure it out over the next few years.

and as I do, i'm going to grab a glass .. albeit a large one.. and throw some stuff on paper so 20 years later I can read it, and say, fuck yea, i'm gonna publish it as a book and use the money to go skydiving with my kid .