Das Googlekind und die Pokemon

Ian was left to his own devices, of late, in Amy's office, ostensibly watching a Pokemon video. But the lad is savvy, and extremely driven, and the he isn't likely to be content merely gawking into a YouTube screen.

For that reason, it shouldn't have surprised me when I "checked up" on him, in my vaguely libertarian-parenting way, and saw him sitting in front of something slightly different, although consistent with the theme, on the screen of Mommy's laptop:

He was on the "Google Advanced Search" site, and, in a screen full of highly-customized search criteria fields, he had specified, in one:

pokemon free episodes

I am olde. I work with software. I have a computer within a foot of me the majority of the 24-hour cycle - sometimes the great majority. And yet, I wasn't familiar with "Google Advanced Search." And yet, our Pokemon Wunderkind not only knew the feature, but was leveraging it for his own, single-minded purpose.

As I always say, there ought to be a Chinese curse about having children smarter than yourself....

(January 26, 2012)