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When I was that age my teacher had a thing where reading something like 3 books got you out of a lot of homework and your parent had to sign a paper listing wha

When I was that age my teacher had a thing where reading something like 3 books got you out of a lot of homework and your parent had to sign a paper listing what you read and you turned it in. As a kid who already hated school, and used reading as an escape from a pretty shit childhood, I was clocking in 5 books a week. The teacher first accused my parents of lying that I read that many books, because it quickly got to double digits, but I was able to summarize all of them off the top of my head, so instead I was just forbidden from doing it altogether. Not sure what the lesson is there, lol.

aleph_minus_one 2y ago
> The teacher first accused my parents of lying that I read that many books, because it quickly got to double digits, but I was able to summarize all of them off the top of my head, so instead I was just forbidden from doing it altogether. > Not sure what the lesson is there, lol. Lessons learned: a) Incentives matter (economy 101) b) If a market offers possibilities for arbitrage, market participants will attempt to make use of them. c) By market laws, arbitrage opportunities will close very fast, so in the long term, markets can be assumed to be arbitrage-free. d) Goodhart's law: When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. e) Authorities (or those in power) will attempt to cheat you. Don't trust them.
- hehdhdjehehegwv 2y ago
  Oh I mean what was the intended lesson from the teacher. Read less?
  - aleph_minus_one 2y ago
    > Oh I mean what was the intended lesson from the teacher. Read less? Don't try to cheat the system. Follow the spirit of rules obediently instead of attempting to use the wording of the rules to your advantage.
  - bruce511 2y ago
    I guess the lesson is "don't over deliver" :) In high school we had to make a list of 12 books we read in the year. I was reading a few a week. My list contained 12 books. (Side note, we lived some distance from the library in elementary school, but we got through the books -fast- so the librarians gave us extra library cards to reduce visits to like once a week. I also got adult-cards pretty young (like 10) because I'd read all the kids books and was already reading older fare. This was in the days before YA was a genre :) Of course you had a poor teacher because they obviously desired to teach you something, but forgot to tell you what the lesson was. Other than they were a bad teacher, but i guess you may already have known that.
em-bee 2y ago
was there any benefit to reading more than 3 books in a given time period? if not i would have only reported 3 books. it's none of their business what i do beyond that. the lesson is that overachievers are often not welcome.

aleph_minus_one 2y ago

> The teacher first accused my parents of lying that I read that many books, because it quickly got to double digits, but I was able to summarize all of them off the top of my head, so instead I was just forbidden from doing it altogether. > Not sure what the lesson is there, lol. Lessons learned: a) Incentives matter (economy 101) b) If a market offers possibilities for arbitrage, market participants will attempt to make use of them. c) By market laws, arbitrage opportunities will close very fast, so in the long term, markets can be assumed to be arbitrage-free. d) Goodhart's law: When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. e) Authorities (or those in power) will attempt to cheat you. Don't trust them.

hehdhdjehehegwv 2y ago
Oh I mean what was the intended lesson from the teacher. Read less?
- aleph_minus_one 2y ago
  > Oh I mean what was the intended lesson from the teacher. Read less? Don't try to cheat the system. Follow the spirit of rules obediently instead of attempting to use the wording of the rules to your advantage.
- bruce511 2y ago
  I guess the lesson is "don't over deliver" :) In high school we had to make a list of 12 books we read in the year. I was reading a few a week. My list contained 12 books. (Side note, we lived some distance from the library in elementary school, but we got through the books -fast- so the librarians gave us extra library cards to reduce visits to like once a week. I also got adult-cards pretty young (like 10) because I'd read all the kids books and was already reading older fare. This was in the days before YA was a genre :) Of course you had a poor teacher because they obviously desired to teach you something, but forgot to tell you what the lesson was. Other than they were a bad teacher, but i guess you may already have known that.

em-bee 2y ago

was there any benefit to reading more than 3 books in a given time period? if not i would have only reported 3 books. it's none of their business what i do beyond that. the lesson is that overachievers are often not welcome.