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If you did something that 99.9999% of the population did not do then you are special by definition. My circumstances were special, not me. Teenager's have sig

If you did something that 99.9999% of the population did not do then you are special by definition. My circumstances were special, not me. Teenager's have significantly different levels of cognitive ability compared to adults. There is a reason most people look back on their teenage years and say "why was I so stupid" and honestly it's because your brain was less developed on a biological level. Cognitive differences do not preclude all responsibility. As it currently stands, most teenagers are provided with none at all, despite their historically demonstrated ability to shoulder considerably more than our institutions provide. I was not special -- I did quite a few phenomenally stupid things as a teenager -- but I also learned how to be an adult sooner. [Edit] One of the dangers of expressing this opinion is that it triggers cognitive dissonance amongst those who did follow the standard protocol. So, allow me to reiterate -- given the proper circumstances, I believe all teenagers are well capable of accepting quite a bit more responsibility than they are currently allowed, but most never have the external encouragement or motivation to do so.

jacquesm 17y ago
You are 100% right. It really works like that. If you grow up with little or no opportunity to meet your responsibilities head on and to shoulder your weight you'll lose a decade. Sometimes more. I started working at 17, mailroom boy at first, worked my way up to systems programmer then started my own business. By the time my friends graduated I had a nice little business going. But I doubt if that would have been possible in the period after I got started and before the whole www thing happened. The barrier to entry was pretty high for a long time. I attribute most of what happened to luck and the little bit that's left to plain old fashioned hard work. But then again, I like my work. That really helps.

jacquesm 17y ago

You are 100% right. It really works like that. If you grow up with little or no opportunity to meet your responsibilities head on and to shoulder your weight you'll lose a decade. Sometimes more. I started working at 17, mailroom boy at first, worked my way up to systems programmer then started my own business. By the time my friends graduated I had a nice little business going. But I doubt if that would have been possible in the period after I got started and before the whole www thing happened. The barrier to entry was pretty high for a long time. I attribute most of what happened to luck and the little bit that's left to plain old fashioned hard work. But then again, I like my work. That really helps.