On one hand, Geek Dad: Awesomely Geeky Projects and Activities for Dads and Kids to Share is a most wonderful book. It's filled with great ideas to tackle with kids, ranging from outdoor games to making your own comic books. If you're a dad, uncle, or just have the occasion to be around kids, it is essential reading. I found it to be real page turning, if only because I'm looking for the next hack to try.
On the other hand, the book is definitely a source of what I call Geek Dad Guilt. "You haven't taught your kid to program yet? You mean, you guys don't know how to solder? You just go outside and throw the football around, why don't you fashion your own set of rules and light ball up with LEDs?" True, no one has ever said these things to me, but it's impossible for me to read a book like this and not have them floating in the back of my head.
In other words, I think an unintended consequence of the Geek Dad movement is to complicate matters. Call me crazy, but we get incredible mileage out of many of the basics: reading comic books instead of creating them, playing board games instead of inventing them, that sort of thing.
Still, the book really is a must read. And I give credit to the author for defining the term 'Geek' large enough that anyone with a strong interest in anything can rightfully claim the title. And from there, be inspired to make their passion kid friendly.
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