I was out for a walk a few weeks ago and came across the house pictured above, under construction in my neighbourhood.
This reminded me that my Dad would often take my brother and I on walks in the evenings or on weekends, and we’d end up exploring a house that was under construction. The neighhourbood I lived in was growing rapidly, so there was always something being built.
At the time (this would have been the late 80s or early 90s) you could go exploring houses in various stages of construction without getting into trouble. Sure, it was probably dangerous, and illegal, but it was also very educational.
As time went on, you started to see security guards driving by, fences erected, and CCTV cameras added. The days of learning how houses were built by exploring construction sites were over.
Around the same time, he introduced me to the local PC Users Group meetings. Back then, you’d go and maybe listen to a presentation, trade Shareware on floppies with other attendees, and meet other geeks you could help you learn whatever you were interested in.
This led me to programming, running a bulletin board system (BBS), and getting into the world of open source software.
Now, a lot of online life in is closed gardens – Facebook, X, TikTok, etc. I even see a lot of programming is being done in web-based editors. Our phones are sealed boxes, and a lot of our computers aren’t easily repairable or upgradable either.
I think I preferred a time that was more work, but you learned a lot more in the process.
And I miss those construction sites too.