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One of the biggest challenges with our school system is that while you're immersed in it, it becomes difficult to imagine anything outside of that experience.
by bhousel 15y ago
One of the biggest challenges with our school system is that while you're immersed in it, it becomes difficult to imagine anything outside of that experience. You can't get a "big picture" view of your life and how your unique talents and interests can fit into the bigger world -- high school is your world.
You will eventually graduate and move on, and realize that most of the stuff that you did in high school was really not all that significant, in the big picture. Your lack of motivation is probably because you're starting to realize this as your time in school is almost finished and you (and your peers) begin to ask questions like "What comes next?" and "Why can't I get there already?"
Luckily the answers to these questions don't really matter all that much either. People take all kinds of paths through life, and there is no right next step, or important thing to work on. You can be forgiven for thinking this way, because school trains you to think this way by putting you into grades and preparing a curriculum that advances you forward towards an arbitrary finish line "graduation".
So what should you do? Do whatever interests you, as this is where your motivation will come from. If you're not motivated to code, don't code. Take a part time job, or exercise, or socialize, or take up a new hobby, or volunteer. All of these things will make you a better person (and a better coder). You'll meet people who are not coders, and it might remind you why you like programming so much - or you might find something that you like better.
However, be careful with the "Do whatever interests you" philosophy. You probably do have some standards that you want to hold yourself to, and you want to keep improving yourself, and you want to be a mostly free person (have money). So you probably shouldn't just sit around and smoke pot and play playstation because it interests you.
I believe that "adulthood" begins when a person consciously decides to do things because they are difficult to do and no longer decides to do things because they are easy to do.
- chunky1994 15y agoI agree with most of what you're saying, I've definitely become disillusioned by the system of high school. I definitely want to go to college, because there's a lot of interesting stuff that I want to learn, for which I need good grades. I'm sure I can procure them if I study enough, but if I go by the "whatever interests you" philosophy, I think I'd hardly study. I would do lots of productive work, but it wouldn't be of any use to me right away. I think the promise of rewards in the future aren't powerful enough to make me do stuff that's considered necessary. So, I suppose I'm on the lookout for something that can provide me with more, lets say, experience, problem is I can't take up a part-time job yet, I'm still not old enough! As for socializing, I live in a very secluded friends circle, people whom I value, but people who are very, well...rare. Any ideas as to where people who are genuinely interesting (preferably either hackers like on HN, or people into sciences) reside? Also, I think this is what I need to ask, do you have any particularly interesting things that I can do, that would perhaps help me in college?
- bhousel 15y ago> Any ideas as to where people who are genuinely interesting (preferably either hackers like on HN, or people into sciences) reside? Genuinely interesting people are everywhere.. > Also, I think this is what I need to ask, do you have any particularly interesting things that I can do, that would perhaps help me in college? Learn to play an instrument, like guitar, or drums, or learn to DJ. It teaches your mind to work in more creative ways. And it will open doors to you that will let you meet genuinely interesting people. It will help you meet women too, if you're into that sort of thing. I'm being totally serious.