There's little value in introspection if there's no frame of reference.

Could you expand on this comment? It seems to agree with what I said.

Yes, it does :)

The thought process was that it's hard for me to _know_ why drugs are bad other than what I've been told and other outside knowledge sources (anecdotes, wikipedia pages, etc). However, wasting time on videogames is something I do often, so I can draw from my own experience in what is "too much" and what the deleterious effects are. It's a much more valuable lesson, because I know exactly what my situation is instead of trying to place myself in a hypothetical.

> There is wisdom to be had in learning first hand why a bad thing is bad, rather than just being told it is forbidden.

If people believed that, drug law would have a three-strike policy. So you see why I'm skeptical when people say what you just said.

Maybe you really believe what you said but don't fool yourself into thinking you live in a society that does too, because we don't.

I think it might be useful to distinguish between playing video games and breaking drug laws.

Tell that to the person that conflated the two when they said:

> There is wisdom to be had in learning first hand why a bad thing is bad, rather than just being told it is forbidden.

"a bad thing" is a variable. It's generic enough that it allows for both "playing video games all day" (which is a bad thing) and racist drug laws (which are also in the same category of bad things).

That's why I said people that say that usually don't believe it, as you've just shown. When it comes time to test that hypothesis by filling in the "a bad thing" blank, then you want to change the rules and say "well not EVERY bad thing, racist laws aren't bad in the same way playing games all day is".

If that's the case, then just don't say silly generalizations like "there is wisdom in learning why bad is bad"; instead, think before you say something, so we can have constructive conversations, and not conversations where your side is always backtracking and changing the meaning of basic things such as "a bad thing".

Because when you say "there is wisdom in learning why bad is bad" you make it sound like there is an underlying principle you believe in, but when I come in and test if you really have that belief, then it becomes clear you just wanted to make it sound like you had a principle behind it, but really you just winged it and pretended there was a principle, and when confronted about it, instead of admitting and saying "I shouldn't have phrased it as if I thought it's a principle", you want to argue with me how there really are two different categories called "a bad thing" where "playing games all day" and "racist drug laws" can't co-exist because you said so, without providing a reason.

>If that's the case, then just don't say silly generalizations like

The context of our conversation was video games. No koan, maxim or quote contains the unquestionable logical truth in all applications.

Ultimately your video game restriction might not even matter. If the kid goes through any kind of teenage rebellion from your strict rules, that will be a "bad" wisdom gaining experience itself. The only real choice you might be making is whether to deal with confrontation in small doses or in one major flame out.