Instead of pushing my kids, I try to help them find the interests that will pull them. History suggests pull has more power.

Was explaining to my 7 yo the dumb things teenagers do, and realized most are caused by caring too much what their friends think.

One of the most dangerous things to lose as you get older is your willingness to look like a fool.

Something I recently taught my kids: Like other animals, people are most dangerous when they feel threatened.

Don't mock anything done in earnest just because it seems weird.

New game with 5 yo: Make an animal noise, then describe the imaginary animal that makes it.

Something I taught my kids last night: Everyone has something they're unusually good at. When you meet someone try to figure out what it is.

One of my tricks is to treat them like adults intellectually. It's remarkable how often it works. Adults talk down to kids way more than they need to or even realize.

A simple rule I taught my 9 yo today: If you can't figure something out, figure out how to figure it out.

Whenever I teach little kids something, I'm always trying harder to teach the meta-lessons, like breaking down a problem into smaller parts, or that practice makes you better.

A competition where 10% of kids win awards is ok, and one where 100% do is ok too (though it fools no kid over 4), but a competition where 80% of kids win awards is cruel.

One of the best things you can be for your kids is an audience. Which doesn't mean being uncritically approving. That doesn't fool kids over 2. It means caring about what they care about.

To lecture someone on morality is implicitly to assume moral superiority over them. Adults do this to children, but not (unless they are clergy) to other adults.

One of the most surprising things about being a parent is the amount you have to improvise. Way more than in anything else I've done, despite this being probably the most commonly done thing I've done. I think it's because kids are incomparable generators of chaos.

Kids think their parents are experts, but in many respects they're complete noobs. If you're the oldest child, you're probably the first n-year old your parents have ever had to deal with.

Good thing to do with a 6 yo: type stories they dictate. At that age, the physical act of writing is a bottleneck, so this can release a torrent of imagination. They love seeing their stories printed, like “real” stories they read in books. And it's a fun thing to do together.

Good game to play with small children: go through the alphabet naming some category of things (countries, animals, professional football players) beginning with each letter.

When your child is 5, the two of you are actors in a play. When he's 10, it's more often the case that he and his friends are the actors, and you are the stage crew. One tends to mess up this transition. My trick is to make a conscious effort to notice which times I'm stage crew.

One of the surprising things about being a parent is the degree to which the instinctive protectiveness that kicks in transfers to other kids. You don't just notice when your kid gets too near the curb; you notice when any kid does.

Taught my kids a way to trick bad people. Most bad people assume everyone else has the same motives, so they'll believe you want to do x if they'd want to. E.g. a selfish person will believe you'd want to do something selfish.