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I think you should quit. Just self-teach, sit in on college courses to learn what you want to learn, and forge ahead. Just be sure to set the bar high on the

I think you should quit. Just self-teach, sit in on college courses to learn what you want to learn, and forge ahead. Just be sure to set the bar high on the skills you self-teach, and go out of your way to find others like yourself who are motivated to skip the 6-10 year period of extended adolescence that our culture grants young adults to "find themselves". Finding some people who you can collaborate with and who are roughly at the same stage as you socially/developmentally will help make life fun and exciting... and I've found that people who are roughly the same age tend to come to trust each other more easily, which is important in many business contexts. If I had it to do over again I'd strongly consider dropping out of HS and focusing on learning and doing really cool stuff for a few years, possibly including a bit of travel to get a more global perspective, then when you're 18-23ish be sure to head to a college town find some interesting people who are in college and maybe sit in on a few of their classes or even enroll for a term or two as a non-degree / part time student to meet people and get a taste of the college experience. When I think back to all the mind numbing hours of high school and all the stupid social stuff I don't wish it on anyone. It's way overrated. If you're not a jock you're just learning how to be content being a second class citizen, which is not a skill anyone should learn.

JesseAldridge 16y ago
Hmm, this is well-written yet downvoted to -2. I think grandalf is right. School is supposed to be about knowledge, but more and more it's becoming about going through the motions to get an overvalued piece of paper. You could take those many hours you would waste in school and put them to more productive use: building cool stuff, learning about more important things, etc. There's not much school can teach you that Wikipedia can't. I think having an impressive portfolio would be way more valuable than an Ivy League diploma. I dropped out of college after two years. My parents gave me what was left of my college fund (about $20,000) and I lived off that for a few years. I have yet to hit profitability, but I think I will. And I know I've learned more on my own than I would've learned in school. And if I had to, I think the stuff I've built and the skills I've gained would make it easy enough to get a decent job. Maybe you could make a similar deal with your parents (they give you the money they would've spent on college and you live off of it for several years). You definitely need to solve the money issue somehow. If you don't have it, you're liable to get stuck in a dead end job. And you definitely shouldn't do this unless you've got what it takes to educate yourself and do good work without someone forcing you to. Probably the most important thing you get out of school and college is interacting with other smart people on a regular basis. Find some other way of doing that and you should be good.

JesseAldridge 16y ago

Hmm, this is well-written yet downvoted to -2. I think grandalf is right. School is supposed to be about knowledge, but more and more it's becoming about going through the motions to get an overvalued piece of paper. You could take those many hours you would waste in school and put them to more productive use: building cool stuff, learning about more important things, etc. There's not much school can teach you that Wikipedia can't. I think having an impressive portfolio would be way more valuable than an Ivy League diploma. I dropped out of college after two years. My parents gave me what was left of my college fund (about $20,000) and I lived off that for a few years. I have yet to hit profitability, but I think I will. And I know I've learned more on my own than I would've learned in school. And if I had to, I think the stuff I've built and the skills I've gained would make it easy enough to get a decent job. Maybe you could make a similar deal with your parents (they give you the money they would've spent on college and you live off of it for several years). You definitely need to solve the money issue somehow. If you don't have it, you're liable to get stuck in a dead end job. And you definitely shouldn't do this unless you've got what it takes to educate yourself and do good work without someone forcing you to. Probably the most important thing you get out of school and college is interacting with other smart people on a regular basis. Find some other way of doing that and you should be good.