Loving your child's mind: Would you like to be famous?
Three children debate whether they want to be famous. Sankara dreams of space travel like Elon Musk and visiting Titan. Marwa refuses fame because of constant cameras watching her. They discuss ambition, with Sankara naming space exploration and math as his goals.
Chapters
today. We'll go ahead and get started with Alana. The question I was wondering about today is fame. Do any of you want to be famous?
No.
No.
Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. Um, Magat, do you want to be famous?
Yes.
Okay, um, so let's go back to Sankara. Why do you want to be famous?
Because if you become famous, then you get a lot of money, and then you can do lots of stuff. And I want to be like Elon Musk and go to space and stuff.
I see. So lots of money, lots of stuff, and do lots of stuff like Elon Musk. Got it. Do you know what you want to be famous for?
Going to space and doing like being the first person to walk on some planet or so.
Oh, okay, being the first person to walk on some planet. Um, any particular planet?
I'm thinking of not Saturn, but Saturn's moon Titan, because It's suitable for life.
Got it. Even if it takes— I think it's 3 years to get to Mars. It might be, I don't know, 7 years, 10 years, 15 years to get to Titan. Would you be willing to spend that long in a space ship?
Um, yeah.
Okay. Um, well, I would be annoyed.
It would be annoying hearing my friends shouting Shouting because, because something wrong happens.
Got it. Well, I want to check with Marwa now. Marwa, you do not want to be famous?
Yes.
Why do you not want to be famous?
So they don't want to.
Do you like the idea of being, um, kind of secret and unknown so nobody knows about you?
Yes.
Do you know what you might want to do when you're grown up?
No.
But can you say why you don't want to be famous?
What are the reasons? Maybe because I don't want to be recognized every time. You don't want to be recognized? With cameras all around me.
Aha, that's very interesting. That's very interesting. So you don't want to be recognized every time with cameras all around you. That makes a lot of sense to me. Um, Magat, can you say why you want to be famous?
Yes, I want to be famous because if I am famous, I am going to have a lot of money and I am going to—
Marwa, could you turn your— I'll mute you because I couldn't hear Magat. Sorry, Magat, his— from his, um, audio. So why— can you say again why you want to be famous, Magat?
I say I will be— I want to be famous because if I am famous, I— my family will not be— wouldn't be I have a lot of money and my family can't be poor.
Got it, got it. Okay, that's a reason to be famous. Um, do you know how you might want to be famous?
Yes, I want to be famous to work a lot. If I, if I work a lot and to be, and be serious serious in my, my job, I'd be famous one day.
Got it. Excellent, excellent. So it sounds like Marwa says a downside of being famous is that all the cameras would recognize you and so forth. Are either of you who want to be famous concerned about the downside of being famous, that is cameras and recognition? Go, Sankara.
I think it's fine because then I get all the attention, and if it gets too much, then basically what I'll do is break the cameras.
You think you can break all the cameras?
Yeah.
Um, what if— I think actually, I think London has some of the most cameras of anywhere, In London, I've heard that there are cameras on almost every street corner. Do you know if that is the case?
Yeah, yeah, because I'm used to cameras now, because every time my dad does something wrong, I tell him, you know, the police are looking.
So how could you break all the cameras? If you're famous, then everybody will know everything you're doing all the time.
I live in space.
Oh, I see. You escaped the cameras by living in space.
Yeah.
Okay, okay. Um, Magad, would you be concerned about cameras watching you everywhere if you were famous?
If I— can you read please?
Yes, so Marwa had said the problem with being famous is cameras would watch you everywhere. If you're famous, people are watching you on cameras everywhere, and he does not want to be watched everywhere. So would that bother you if cameras were watching you everywhere?
I think that I'm going to, to break up, to break all of our camera.
Okay, you're with Sankara trying to break all the cameras, and I was pointing out to him in a place like London there's so many cameras you can't possibly break them all. Go ahead, Sankara.
Wait, I've rethought my idea because even though I live in space, there must likely be cameras that come with— on the ship I'm on to make sure nothing goes wrong. So I'm just gonna live on Earth and just have to endure all the cameras.
Okay, so you're just going to endure. You're right, by the way, if you're in space, I bet, you know, astronauts, we watch the astronauts all the time. So yeah, I— so you're just going to endure all the cameras?
Yeah.
What were you saying, Magat?
Me, I'm going to the— in the moon.
In the moon? And then are you okay with cameras watching you when you go to the moon?
They, they can't watch me in the moon.
They can't? Okay. Um, and Marwa, are you still with me? Are you still here? Your video left out. Yes. So Marwa, um, do you think that, um, I mean, Sankara says he could live with cameras all the time. Could you imagine just having cameras on you watching you all the time? Or does that seem like a terrible life?
Terrible life.
Why would that be a terrible life?
Because I'll get so many headaches of all the flashes. And—
got it, headaches from the flashes. Suppose there are no flashes, then would cameras be okay?
Yes.
So with no flashes, then you'd be fine with cameras watching you all the time? Yes. Okay, so maybe now you can be famous as long as there are no flashes, then would you be okay being famous?
Yeah.
And why would— what would you want to be famous for? If you could be famous for anything, what would you want to be famous for? I don't know. So I think it's interesting. So what's Does anybody, um, Sankara mentions Elon Musk as somebody famous. Marwa, who do you think of as somebody famous?
Usain Bolt.
Usain Bolt, he's definitely famous. Maga, who do you think of as somebody famous?
What I think Somebody famous.
Yeah, who is— who can you think of who is famous?
I think somebody famous.
I didn't hear you. Who did you say?
He had a lot of money and, and don't know what to do with.
I had to turn off Marwa's video audio because Marwa's audio was making noise. So just one more time, what was the name?
Okay, I repeat. Yeah, I said, uh, uh, somebody famous had a lot of money and You don't going to know what to do.
That's right, that's right. Well, great. So I think it is interesting to think about fame and the role of fame and if you want to be famous or not. Relatedly, how about ambition? I just want to check in quickly on ambition. Sankara, can you explain what ambition is?
Ambition is Some is when you really want to do something, like you would basically do anything to get that, to get, to get it.
And would you say that you are ambitious?
Yeah, it depends what, what I'm doing.
What kinds of things are you ambitious about?
Space and maths.
Space and maths, fantastic. Those are two great things to be ambitious about. Marwa, are you ambitious about anything? No, you're not ambitious about anything. Okay, I'm going to unmute you. What are you ambitious about?
Nothing.
Nothing? Okay, that's okay. You don't have to be ambitious. Totally fine. We can think about it. Magat, are you ambitious about anything? You're muted, Magat.
If I am ambitious to do Something ambitious to be something. Yes, I want to— I am ambitious to do a thing. It is to, to be a good— to do a lot of mathematics, to do a lot of things.
A lot of— Excellent. Okay. In which case, I will let you guys go. Great to talk about fame and ambition. And we will think about other things about your future and the future you want to create. So have a wonderful time in Vienna and have a wonderful time in your respective homes. And we will see you next week.
Bye-bye.
Bye.
