[ugh]

You are thinking about products and projects, the kid is thinking about having fun in a game. Totally different perspective.

It’s totally fun to just have fun without necessarily learning any important skills or developing a product that helps you make money.

[shantanubala]

I understand that, but are there opportunities to improve upon the "fun" of Minecraft that lead to an actually useful product? I'm sure the main motivation for building a calculator was the complexity of the problem -- not the usefulness of a Minecraft calculator. Imagine if the tools were tailored to keep the same level of fun while also empowering him to create something he could use!

That's what I meant by "think bigger" or "serious" -- the Minecraft calculator was fun and challenging, but is there something equally fun, equally challenging, but more useful? Can we make tools that empower kids to have more fun solving complex problems that lead to a useful result?

[DanBC]

I sort of agree.

Many softwares have confusing interfaces. They are aimed at professionals who work with them all day and who will be trained to use them. Either they should have a "New to this program? Click this and we'll hide everything but the essential tools while you work through some tutorials" feature; and perhaps that could be a free version of the software.

What ideas do you have for tools to empower people?