Get out of the Way

Nate, our first-born son, showed great interest in playing computer video games as soon as he understood the DOS commands. His passion, even in second grade, is reflected in the plate he made in art class. All the second graders made plates. Even Nate’s brother Chris made a plate when he became a second grader three years later. I cherish his, too.

The subject matter Nate chose has him sitting in our dining room at the computer table. At the time, this was a 486 CPU with a 14″SVGA monitor, 4 mb of RAM and a 120 mb hard disk.

I didn’t go anywhere near the home computer and I thought Nate was wasting him time. Parents can be wrong, especially new parents. I was rolling tape from my own childhood channeling my father always telling my brothers and I to get haircuts, you know, just being a dick by default. But, parents can, will, and should learn. It took years to redefine our relationship.

I drew pictures for a living, an industrial designer. But, the day came when all the designers at my firm were told we were going to learn 3D modeling software and render our concepts on computers. A frightening task at first, we realized we were to become sculptures in addition to illustrators. My phobia of technology evaporated. If you can fly 3D modeling software, a home computer is child’s play.

Then, two important things happened. Nate would watch me working in my home studio on hobby or work projects and began to draw. And, I purchased some Rhino 3D software for him to play with on our home computer. I had set an example, fueled his passions, and began to get out of his way.

The first model he built wasn’t something simple and geometric, it was a jet aircraft with all those complex surfaces. I knew he had the gift. He would hone his skills in college and a masters program. Our relationship is solid.

Nate’s continues to sit in front of the computer. Only now, he’s an Art Director conceiving content and running a global creative staff for video game startups. Except now, he has 48 mid tier Dddr5 gb of ram. That’s 11,000 times more ram than in 1994.

The same thing he was into in second grade.