[natmaka]

This sort of thing seems also useful to teach to the youngster, upon the time he understands/learns that he was tricked, that even folks may lie to him (deliberately or not).

In a society truth is less important than relationships, communication, shared "knowledge" (myths).

It may be one of the reason why the Santa Claus character (among other ones) stays "alive" in the culture.

[caro_douglos]

I’ve been rewatching a lot of older movies lately given the Rona sitch...one of the scenes came to mind when reading your comment. You can’t fool me!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_Sy6oiJbEk

Ps. Watching this scene feels like almost all the employee stock option situations I OH in the Bay Area. Thankfully Carta is there to show you how little you get as an employee if and only if you go public.

[jon_elbrook]

>In a society truth is less important than relationships

Then he should have create a relationship of honesty. it's good to know that somebody wont lie to you, even to make you happy.

[chongli]

It’s not lying, it’s called make believe [1]. Children play this way all the time. It’s a healthy part of development. Adults play along with Santa Claus, the Easter bunny, and the tooth fairy. When kids get older and figure it out, they generally have fond memories of it. The only cases I’ve heard of where it was upsetting was when somebody else spoiled it for them, just like how people spoiled the end of the 6th Harry Potter book.

Adults do it all the time as well, when we consume fiction. It feels good to escape our current reality and inhabit another, magical reality, if only for a while. It’s a healthy thing to do as long as it doesn’t lead to a breakdown in our relationships and other aspects of our lives.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_believe

[natmaka]

Interesting and useful information, thank you!

I'm really more and more convinced that each and every human group has such foundations ("myths"), and that the larger the group, the larger the distortion between the myth and reality.

[lowdose]

You have to read some of the work of Douglas Holt, cultural branding.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Douglas_Holt3/publicati...

[08-15]

"If the child believes that the make believe situation is reality, then he/she is misinterpreting the situation rather than pretending."

Are you sure Wikipedia supports your assertion?

[rclayton]

Did this happen to you?

[natmaka]

I think so (not sure about this).

There is an hypothesis about the origin of the "hacker" state of mind (as a strong urge to understand how things work) stating that many of them think/thought that, as youngsters, they were lied to (cannot find the reference, though).

[ethbro]

Available informative resources played a huge part in mine. (One of the reasons I despair about the modern internet filling kids' time with cotton candy trivia)

With a pathologist father, 3rd grade biology questions digressed into two hour linked list lectures on biochemistry.

I distinctly remember the joy inspired by finding out about the-thing-behind-the-thing though!

[msie]

:-/

[ethbro]

^ When your 11 year old son finds "that website dad is always on" and this is the first comment thread he reads...

[the-peter]

This isn't the website dad is always on. Son will find that one when he hits puberty.