Most of the really smart kids (and the ones I knew in high school who ended up the most successful in life terms) did "terribly" in school. It's hard to initia

Most of the really smart kids (and the ones I knew in high school who ended up the most successful in life terms) did "terribly" in school. It's hard to initially distinguish future successful dropouts but there were a few things they had in common. Firstly they usually came from at least "ok" families - they were confident enough in their social supports and knew they had "options" and second chances if they needed them. Usually it was clear that they could do the work (and had no trouble in later in life learning independently). But instead of believing what "the system" told them or following its rules, they either ignored or actively explored and exploited the rules and behaviour of the system itself. This looks a lot like skipping class, acting out and not caring... But now that I look back it looks a lot like learning the "meta" game, which turned out to be much more important in life than what was being taught academically at the time.