i learned people are keen to freak out about how other people are overprotecting their kids.

that Braincrave link has five examples of regulations it doesn't like, and most of them are tinfoil hat bullshit or overreactions:

1. 'the EU has now banned children under 8 from blowing up balloons or blowing on party whistles for fear they might choke' - links to a Telegraph article with headline 'Children to be banned from blowing up balloons, under EU safety rules.' i'm fairly sure that headline is just a total lie - download the directive's PDF at http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/toys/documents/direct... and check out annex one on page 20. it's a 'List of products that, in particular, are not considered as toys within the meaning of this Directive' and the first item is 'Decorative objects for festivities and celebrations.' that means party balloons and party whistles are explicitly not banned by the directive. the Telegraph's lie doesn't even make sense based on the Telegraph's quote from the directive's guidance notes: why would the EU say children should be supervised when blowing up balloons if the EU was going to ban them from blowing up balloons completely?

2. 'grade schools banned tag for fear of being sued by hurt kids' - a grand total of 4 schools across the U.S. there are idiot school administrators everywhere and always have been. when i was a kid my school banned pogs because the kids got into fights over them. it's silly but neither new nor widespread as far as i can see.

3. 'Girl Scouts are taught to put their knee down when roasting marshmallows over the fire for fear they might fall into the fire' - open the PDF, it's a Girl Scouts of Central Illinois pamphlet: 'Suggest that one knee is on the ground to maintain stability.' that's all i can find. it's not even a national level directive, it's not even a hard rule, it's a bit of advice to volunteer leaders. and quite sensible advice, really. why is this worse than a volunteer telling kids to 'stop drop and roll' if they catch fire?

4. 'Boy Scouts in the United Kingdom can't carry pocket knives' - links to a knife blog quoting an unlinked, undated Telegraph story. see point 1 to get an idea of why i don't take that seriously.

5. 'the earliest episodes of Sesame Street are "for adult viewing only" for fear they will give kids dangerous ideas' - i'll give them this one, although the 'for adult viewing only' quote is made up.

clearly there are a few people out there who make up stupid rules for the sake of avoiding litigious parents or because their ideas of what's dangerous are fantasies. but it's more worrying how so many more people do this exaggerated hand wringing about how bad it is. at least people who are over protective of children have an obvious motive. but what do we get out of this whiny bullshit about the EU and Girl Scouts?

i say fair. i doubt Cathy O'Neil was talking about especially competent programmers - she says herself to not be too choosy about the employee having everything on her list of skills, and she doesn't think it matters much if they know sql/java/c. the level of programming the CMU undergrad stats program offers would be quite adequate.