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Thanks for all the feedback. As a regular Hacker News reader, I am thrilled to see my post here! Hexstream made a great comment about the wasted potential of t

Thanks for all the feedback. As a regular Hacker News reader, I am thrilled to see my post here! Hexstream made a great comment about the wasted potential of teen years. It echoes what PG has said - boredom being the biggest problem in high school (or even college for that matter). Kids are getting smarter every generation (really true - IQ is going up world-wide), yet they don't feel challenged. Tapping that wasted potential is a huge opportunity, leave aside the "doing good" aspect of it.

markbao 18y ago
Agreed. Maybe it's teen angst (age on profile), but the reason I'm trying to do well in high school is to... get into a better college... and then what? shrug Something to think about is what the role of high school is - is it to try to get a numerical GPA on how your work ethic is? (Absolutely not. If you love your job, you'll enjoy working at it. Likewise for school. I love hacking, not so much school.) Or is it to let people find out what they're really interested in? (Only a few people that I know have gone through this by senior year, wanting to apply themselves to x career.) College, at least after the first or second year, is definitely targeted to one's own career interest, and although it is much more in-depth than high school, for certain careers it can't replicate the amount of learning you have to actually do. In other words: take hacking or entrepreneurship. You'll need experience in the field, and you can't really be taught it like you can be taught biology or chemistry.
- andreyf 18y ago
  I'm trying to do well in high school is to... get into a better college... and then what? shrug A "better" college will have more interesting people - ones that let you sleep on Friday and Saturday nights because they aren't drunk and throwing up outside of your window. It'll provide you with good professors, who aren't insecure about teaching, and are happy to engage you in their research. Having gone to a big state school/research university (Rutgers), I had the experience of "both sides" of the coin - and there is an enormous difference between how different student's attitude affected their education - it's shocking that there is no "formal" difference between graduates, there certainly is a difference between the people who were engaged in their education, and those who were there to pass while trying their hardest to impress people. I love hacking, not so much school. I think it was Chomsky or RMS who said something interesting about their high school - that they did all the bullshit hoop jumping you have to go through to get to a good university, and it was worth it. Yes, in high school, you're jumping through nearly-bullshit hoops in an imperfect system, but there is a practical argument to be made that it might be worth it.
  - markbao 18y ago
    I'm just seeing it like this: High school ==> College ==> Networking with interesting people Thanks for the insightful opinion and sharing your personal experience.
  - wallflower 18y ago
    As someone funnier than me once said: "High school is a geographic coincidence"

markbao 18y ago

Agreed. Maybe it's teen angst (age on profile), but the reason I'm trying to do well in high school is to... get into a better college... and then what? shrug Something to think about is what the role of high school is - is it to try to get a numerical GPA on how your work ethic is? (Absolutely not. If you love your job, you'll enjoy working at it. Likewise for school. I love hacking, not so much school.) Or is it to let people find out what they're really interested in? (Only a few people that I know have gone through this by senior year, wanting to apply themselves to x career.) College, at least after the first or second year, is definitely targeted to one's own career interest, and although it is much more in-depth than high school, for certain careers it can't replicate the amount of learning you have to actually do. In other words: take hacking or entrepreneurship. You'll need experience in the field, and you can't really be taught it like you can be taught biology or chemistry.

andreyf 18y ago
I'm trying to do well in high school is to... get into a better college... and then what? shrug A "better" college will have more interesting people - ones that let you sleep on Friday and Saturday nights because they aren't drunk and throwing up outside of your window. It'll provide you with good professors, who aren't insecure about teaching, and are happy to engage you in their research. Having gone to a big state school/research university (Rutgers), I had the experience of "both sides" of the coin - and there is an enormous difference between how different student's attitude affected their education - it's shocking that there is no "formal" difference between graduates, there certainly is a difference between the people who were engaged in their education, and those who were there to pass while trying their hardest to impress people. I love hacking, not so much school. I think it was Chomsky or RMS who said something interesting about their high school - that they did all the bullshit hoop jumping you have to go through to get to a good university, and it was worth it. Yes, in high school, you're jumping through nearly-bullshit hoops in an imperfect system, but there is a practical argument to be made that it might be worth it.
- markbao 18y ago
  I'm just seeing it like this: High school ==> College ==> Networking with interesting people Thanks for the insightful opinion and sharing your personal experience.
- wallflower 18y ago
  As someone funnier than me once said: "High school is a geographic coincidence"