我记得我有史以来的第一套乐高乐园。那是我的第五个生日聚会，我的朋友诺亚（Noah）给了我消防车。这些是早期的早期的乐高积木。场景中的数字没有手臂，没有腿，也没有脸。他们看起来更像是不露面的自动机，而不是实际的消防员 - 与现在的乐高生物制作的形成鲜明对比。这些块也非常基本。但这开始了我对乐高积木的长期奉献。实际上，乐高积木确实是我的第一台计算机。从传统意义上讲，它们不是微型计算机，但它们非常适合模型。从本质上讲，您拥有要建立的目标的块和目标，并且必须在系统中工作才能达到该目标。您可以以完全相同的方式描述计算机编程。这就是为什么当您与程序员或工程师交谈时，您经常发现我们许多人在与乐高积木一起玩。 Legos binds us together — pun intended.
当然，如何与乐高积木一起玩的人差异很大。我最喜欢的方法 - 也许是我对大学历史的预兆 - 是安排我精心制作的所有人，车辆和建筑物，从一端的乐高城堡到月球基地，另一个。然后，我将带走不同时间段的人，将他们带入不同的时代，然后使他们互动。远胜于回到未来的第三部分呢但是，乐高积木的真正乐趣不是游戏，而是结构。重点不是结果，而是用于到达那里的过程。虽然我不想听起来像一个老人对今天的乐高积木，但在我的日子里，我们没有那些花哨的作品。你想要一个窗户吗？您必须为它构建框架，该死。但这使整个乐高乐园的体验变得更好 - 您学会了如何通过发明围绕它们的方式来应对系统的缺点。您学习了系统本身。它正在学习如何处理真正使乐高积木的系统。由于某种原因，我们喜欢对系统进行分类，学习系统的规则并在其中工作，或者在我们需要时围绕它们进行工作。我知道这对我来说是正确的 - 学习将导致坚实的乐高建筑与不稳定的规则，就像构建稳定的Web应用程序或任何其他计算机程序一样。 Playing with Legos helped prepare my mind for dealing with computers and finding ways to work within their rule systems.Playing with Legos also taught me that if you are running out of one-by-six pieces, you can combine smaller ones — say one-by-fours with one-by-twos — to get more materials. And that you should make sure to stagger those with stabilizing blocks, like your remaining one-by-sixes.Now that I have a child of my own, I’ve been rediscovering the joy of Legos. Perhaps it’s just my adult perception, but today’s toys seem to require much less imagination. Still, watching my four-year-old daughter build homes for her dolls out of Lego’s Duplo blocks gives me hope. Legos are different. They require interaction, and it is that interaction that makes them the best toy around.We are currently microtiming our children’s lives, and we’ve cut out too much play time, especially with truly interactive toys. Toys that preach interactivity are often anything but — computer games that only allow you to do certain things, electric pianos that require you to follow along with a song. As a result, we are cheating our children out of real play. And cheating ourselves too.I’ve kept all of my Legos, and my daughter and I will continue to play with them. Even that faceless, limbless fireman.Jeff Bates (hemos@slashdot.org) is a cofounder ofslashdot.org，一个大量贩运的技术新闻 - 新闻集合和评论网站（其标签线：“书呆子的新闻，重要的东西”）。贝茨还负责VA Linux Systems Inc.拥有的OSDN的所有在线站点，该网站现在还拥有Slashdot.org。他住在马萨诸塞州牛顿。