Mindstorms - 思维风暴

Have you ever heard of Mindstorms? Not the awesome Lego robots (though they did get their name from it!), but the groundbreaking book by Seymour Papert? If not, I’ve written a little introduction that I think you’ll really enjoy – I highly recommend checking it out!

This book was actually the very first one I pitched to my publisher. After my previous work, “In Defense of Liberal Education,” they asked what I’d like to tackle next, and Mindstorms immediately sprang to mind, as I was busy with robotics coaching for First Lego League at the time I personally owned three sets of Lego Mindstorms. Unlike my project on Walden, where I boldly took on a text already familiar to Chinese readers through many translations, Mindstorms was virtually unknown in China. This surprised me, especially given the popularity of the Lego series with the same name!

The translation was finished in Dec 2017 and published sometime around 2018 – honestly, it’s a bit of a blur since I received my copy a while later. And when I finally held it in my hands… I was shocked! The title had been completely changed to something that translates roughly to “Power-Ups Through Computer.” I’m still scratching my head over that one. Maybe “storms” or “revolutions” are a bit overused in China, but the new title just felt… off. It made me genuinely sad.

The published Chinese version also included some prefaces from the second edition. I have the first edition, and I honestly believe the book stood perfectly well on its own. Seeing names like John Sculley – no offense to him – in a book about education just didn’t feel right. If it had been up to me, I wouldn’t have included those forewords. But, alas, I didn’t have a say in the matter.