Am I wrong to be skeptical that this was a thought author had at 8 years old? I don't doubt that 8-year-olds can learn programming and advanced math, but even the brightest 8-year-old would still be in the "sponge" stage. It's hard to believe they would have a sufficiently fixed idea about algebra to be troubled that X = X + 1 is "wrong".
Kids can be flexible but also rigid about the most random things. My two year old gets really annoyed if I use the wrong spoon to stir my tea, saying certain spoons are only for food or cereals. I don't know where she got that – it's definitely not a practice we ever enforced!
