

What a High School Student Learned from Paul Graham - chamza
http://heyhamza.com/32636134

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WalterBright
"If a bunch of actual adults suddenly found themselves trapped in high school,
the first thing they'd do is form a union and renegotiate all the rules with
the administration."

My father went to MIT on the GI bill after serving in combat in WW2. His class
was the first to go after the war, and they were all combat vets several years
older than the sophomore class.

When the fraternity hazing started, one of the vets told the kid with the
paddle "you ain't gonna touch me with that". Hazing was suspended for the next
4 years.

I get a chuckle every time I think of some kids trying to haze a combat
veteran.

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pompadillo
>Nothing used to terrify me more than the question: “Well, what do you want to
do with your life?”

Life is unpredictable, and this include careers. Thus a better question is:

"So, what have you been doing lately?"

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harscoat
_"What you need to do is discover what you like. You have to work on stuff you
like if you want to be good at what you do."_

Isn't it after working quite a bit on stuff we don't quite like that we start
to like them? Maybe it's hard to discover what we like before we have given it
a chance practiced or worked on it a bit. My bet would be that most people who
thought they liked violin, math or hacking at 1st sight, already had worked on
it without knowing before. Their parents listened to music, went to concert
with them, a teacher showed them how to build a Turing machine with paper and
tape...

I like that post, I would dare edit last sentence to "Go out, work, practice,
and learn"

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candre717
There's too much pressure these days to know what you want to do with your
life. How can a 15 year old know anything about his future, when he's just
trying to get through the next midterm? I'm not excusing mediocrity and
laziness. For as the saying goes, if you don't know where you are going, any
road can take you there. But, in the grand scheme of things, not enough
attention is placed on discovery and growth. And, too much is place on fitting
into some category.

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Retric
It's easy to forget that in many ways a 30 year old only has twice the
experience of a 15 year old. There are brain development issues, but talented
15 year old is often significantly better at their specialty than the average
30 year old.

PS: You can stagnate at any age, around 25% of Americans did not read a single
book last year.

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anamax
> It's easy to forget that in many ways a 30 year old only has twice the
> experience of a 15 year old.

At walking and eating, sure, but for many other things, the 30 year old has
more than 2x as much experience. It depends on when they start.

For example, if someone learns math at 5, that someone can have 10 years of
experience at 15 and 25 years at 30.

If said someone doesn't start doing something until 10, the numbers are 5 and
20.

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Retric
I suspect the average 30 year old in the US is probably worse on a
standardized math test than the average 15 year old. Back in collage I took
Differential Equations, but at 30 I really don't recall the specifics. In many
ways I was probably better at math a 17 than I am today. Now take the average
person that can't recall how to use %'s correctly and they may have been
better at 15.

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anamax
That's why I wrote "can have" instead of "will have" - elapsed time is an
upper limit but individuals may do something else with that time.

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kingsidharth
Brilliant! Just cleared so many thoughts going on in my mind about college -
should I go or not? what should I take up (too many to choose from).

Now I know what to do - go learn and do something. It will make things
clearer.

Not only for college but life at general.

Any chance PG said anything about college? Any talk? Essay? Links please.

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harscoat
[edit to the link] good you ask, but as a kind remark, you could as well have
started your journey by googling what you asked and you'd have found a lot of
stuff by yourself including: <http://www.paulgraham.com/colleges.html> and
college.html Showing you did an effort to find, before asking, increases
chance others will help you.

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kingsidharth
Just after writing this comment, I googled and got the two articles. But there
are some random interviews and videos that I might miss.

Thanks =)

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raheemm
Wow! What an amazing feeling it must be to know that one of your essays has
had a positive impact on a young kid. Nice going PG!

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RtodaAV
Sweet!

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RtodaAV
I got -3 point's because I said sweet? wow......

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krmboya
I got -5 for saying 'cool'. I understand your post has to be informative, as
opposed to mere trolling

