

Youth and Prodigies - L8D
http://tysens.us/2013/10/21/youth-and-programming.html

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gexla
You are in high school?

Just remember, high school is not real life. High school is not real life. I
will repeat again, high school is not real life.

Just look at it like some weird social experiment with the goal being that you
have to navigate it without going crazy.

Find your social life outside of school. That's what I did. My school days
were mostly a zombie like sleep deprived haze. I hated my alarm clock and
never could wake up until after a couple hour nap after school. Fortunately my
friends were the same people I grew up with in my neighborhood (and their
siblings and friends) and we were pretty normal people. During school I
punched my clock and I was out of there (though I did put in extra effort in
taking as many college prep classes that I could.) I skipped everything I
could and never once even went into the cafeteria during lunch. I never
participated in extra curricular activities, never went to games and I skipped
all assemblies and other special activities that I could get away with. I
largely kept to myself until after school and weekends when I could hang out
in a normal environment.

Do people even need to know what you are into? Maybe just keep it to yourself
until you are in your real social environment. For example, I never volunteer
what I do for work, what interests me, who I am and things of that nature. I'm
just not interested and I get bored talking about myself. Sometimes I just
volunteer some bullshit story that I know won't lead to further conversation.
Another example, I'm an Atheist currently living in the Philippines, which is
mostly Catholics. Do I tell people I'm an Atheist when they ask about my
religion? Hello no! I'm a Christian and that's the end of the conversation.

Treat school as a hostile environment and your chief weapon is psychological
warfare. Evade, confuse and generally do everything you can to throw the enemy
off your trail. Don't take anything seriously. Everything is a joke. A good
sense of humor will help you immensely. Save your real social interaction for
outside of school.

If you find that school is getting to you, then you aren't doing a good enough
job on the humor front. Dig down deep to find the comedy of the situation and
laugh it off.

Good luck!

~~~
L8D
The sad thing is —and I’m not sure why I’m saying this on hacker news— my
parents see me as this unsocial person since I’m using my computer all day.
They really want me to “hang out with the other kids” and they want good
grades and AP classes too.

Part of the irony is when teachers try to shove how “college is not an option”
down my throat, I only need to tell them that I have no degrees, yet I, at the
age of 13, have a better hourly wage and sustainability than they do.

But that is not the point. I have no control over what classes I take. I have
no control over whether or not I interact on an intellectual level with other
students since every freshman class teacher thinks that collaboration in
students means a better learning experience.

Also, your second to last paragraph about psychological warfare is really
creepy when you read it out of context...or in context...

~~~
gexla
Just treat school like you would any other environment. Don't try to force
social interaction because your parents are worried about it. That bug will
just get in your head and make you start to wonder if you are doing something
wrong. When you walk into a store you don't force yourself to meet people just
because they are there. You get what you need and jam. That's a stupid
example, but it's the same with school. Go to school, knock out what you need
to as efficiently as possible and be on your way. In both cases you might
still meet people, just let it happen naturally rather than listening to the
chattering monkeys in the background telling you what you need to do.

Landing client work requires a lot of social skills. Knowing how to sell isn't
a geek trait, it's a smooth talking hustler trait, and you got it! Managing
clients while you are knocking out the project is also an important social
skill. It's good that you are picking that up early.

Don't limit your social scene to school and people your own age. Attend
meetups in your area. Spend some of that coin you are making to spend time at
a co-working space once a week or something. Like I said before, don't take
things too seriously, make sure you are keeping in touch with the inner comic.
If you need to, try sneaking into a comedy club and maybe even take classes
for stand up comedy (or improv) as this will challenge you in different
creative ways to "think on your feet."

One other item I picked up in your reply, never judge based on what people
make. Don't measure yourself against others in that way. There are many
different ways to measure value and money doesn't always match up. I get what
you are saying. At 13 you are making a living wage+ despite no college and
whatever B.S. your teachers are telling you. Just stay humble, listen, take
what's useful and throw the rest away.

Also, you might at some point be tempted to think that you don't need college
because your client work is making you money without a degree. You may or may
not need college (I'm not going to argue that either way here,) but think deep
and hard before you arrive to that conclusion. There are valuable things that
you can pick up in college, but analyze the pros and cons.

Personally, at your age, I would be doing as little client work as possible.
If you need the money, then get it. Time is also valuable. At your age, you
can live with your parents with little to no expenses. This is a great time to
try experimenting with different business models to create something more
scalable. The problem with client work is that you are trading dollars for
hours. You are building digital things, so leverage that to create something
which can detach the connection between time and money.

On your control point, right, we have to deal with B.S. every day. The DMV,
the IRS, airport security, the guy who got your order wrong at the drive
through. Collaborating with others on school projects isn't a intellectual
activity. You aren't trying to solve world issues. It's more of a social
challenge I suppose. Don't try to be a hero. Don't try to outsmart anyone.
Don't take it too seriously. Make it light and funny. Laugh and smile. Maybe
come up with the dumbest idea rather than the smartest idea. You might get
others laughing with you for that.

