
Ask HN: I'm in 10th grade and I hate school. Any suggestions? - anonymous1618
I feel really selfish even asking this. My parents are helping in every way they can despite my complaining, I've exhaustively switched schools and basically tried every possible option other than homeschooling or dropping out (which makes it even worse to say that I still hate it, after all the effort they've put into fixing it). But I do hate it, I'm not learning, and I feel like I'm wasting time, and it's not just because of the usual reasons teenagers seem to attribute to hating high school: I don't think the school subjects are boring, or <i>any</i> subject for that matter (the logic I use is, if it were boring, no one would have discovered it; you can only dull down a subject, it's already interesting in its own light), I'm introverted and spend most of my time reading or obsessively working on hobbies like programming, and I absolutely can't stand wasting time. I've feel that I've had one "good" year of school in all of middle/high school, wherein I was extremely lucky to have a group of passionate teachers all at once. That year taught me a lot, mainly because it showed me that these subjects school had dulled down before aren't actually uninteresting. I haven't had a good year since, though, which has been frustrating to say the least, although I have had a few good teachers...<p>I was reading one of Paul Graham's essays the other day (http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html), and came across one of those "dwarping" moments, as one of those passionate teachers I had used to say, in that almost every other paragraph were ideas I had thought about endlessly about before summed up concisely by someone more articulate than me. One of the ideas addressed, though, has been really tormenting me lately, because it's an idea I've had myself that I've been trying this past year to do but has not been working for me.<p>"If I had to go through high school again, I'd treat it like a day job. I don't mean that I'd slack in school. Working at something as a day job doesn't mean doing it badly. It means not being defined by it. I mean I wouldn't think of myself as a high school student, just as a musician with a day job as a waiter doesn't think of himself as a waiter. And when I wasn't working at my day job I'd start trying to do real work."<p>This sounds great in theory and helps me to some degree, but in some ways makes things even worse. I try and get through every school day and have decent grades and all, but each day is so monotonous and so many of the things we do are such wastes of time that it just drives me insane. Going home to work on something more I feel is more important that I actually enjoy and am challenged with, while obviously provides enjoyment, in another sense make this feeling even <i>worse</i> because it diminishes school even more. I do 'real work', but I want to real work <i>at school</i> too.<p>I'd like to think that I'm just the problem. Maybe I'm just taking my education for granted and this is just a "self-fulfilling prophecy" sort of thing. But, I spend nearly every moment outside of school learning, just because I love to do it. I want to love school. I love learning. Why don't I love school? I can't express in words how frustrated this question makes me.<p>I was just wondering if you guys had any experiences or suggestions to share about school. If anyone else has gone through this could or could give me some advice or just show how I'm wrong I would really appreciate it. I know it doesn't sound like much in the grand scheme of things, but I really don't want to waste the next two years of high school.
======
tracy
My comment will get lost in the noise, but I'll give you an insight here that
you will likely hardly hear again: You want a thrill of success. At the age
you are in, your brain is hardwired to search for success. Programming gives
you success, because when a piece of code compiles, you get that feeling of
success. School is not doing so. So you will compulsively chase programming,
trying to get your success fix.

Turn this around and get your success from school. See if you can become the
very best at school, and become the most popular kid at the same time. If you
can switch your priorities to that, you'll discover that the dopamine rush
will keep you coming back for more.

~~~
edw519
Great advice. You don't realize it, but you have opportunities being handed to
you now that won't come so easily later. I miss school (high school & college)
for so many reasons. Having lots of peers right there to talk to. So many
activites. A library full of books. Sports and clubs. A wide variety of
subjects.

A mentor once told me to take advantage of everything available to you on your
"school buffet". That's what it's there for. It's a great opportunity to be
exposed to many different things, easily, and for free. How else will you know
if you like it? Sure, you may not like the class in English literature or the
ballet or playing soccer in P.E. But try it anyway.

Years from now you'll probably be sitting in a cubicle by day and changing
diapers by night wishing you could experience something new and different once
in a while. Now is your chance. Do it.

~~~
pgebhard
In large cities, you're still surrounded by many peers. While they may be
harder to interact with due to distances, you'll likely also have the means to
reach them relatively easily (car, public transportation). Tech meetups are
really easy to find in nearly all large cities.

Of course, there are more responsibilities (the changing diapers at night
part) when you're older, but more freedom (no parents that are cramping your
style). I say these things with my own time struggle as I try overcome the
cubicle by day and masters degree classwork by night. I really do miss the
college student schedule with relatively low amount of time in class and a lot
of freedom and flexibility in setting my day-to-day schedule.

------
wallflower
It sounds like you _expect_ yourself to have everything figured out. Life is
simple but not easy. Believe me, most everyone I know does not have life
figured out in the mid-twenties and early-thirties. Life is not a puzzle, it's
life. You think, you have it figured out and then another challenge/curveball
comes along (layoff/marriage/divorce/best friend dying/whatever).

As someone wiser than me once said, high school is probably the most
structured experience you'll have unless you end up in prison. College is
different (if you decide to go).

High school is a geographical coincidence. College is more your choice.

You only have two years left in your "term". If you drop out, your parents
very well may decide to kick you out (as in, why should they support you if
you're not supporting them [by not dropping out]).

Unfortunately, in this white-collar society, having a high school degree is
almost a bare minimum requirement for being hireable (in some states,
McDonald's will not hire non-HS/non-GED)

> I absolutely can't stand wasting time.

Please read this:
[http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/04/13/stoicism-101...](http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/04/13/stoicism-101-a-practical-
guide-for-entrepreneurs/)

> I'm introverted and spend most of my time reading or obsessively working on
> hobbies like programming

As someone who is much older than you and very much has considered the
possibility of dropping out (e.g. quitting my job), please consider what you
will do for income if you are not in school. Are you active in community/open
source? If not, why? What kind of brand/reputation in the open source
community have you built? Enough to do paid consulting?

> But, I spend nearly every moment outside of school learning, just because I
> love to do it.

You're like me. You're using absolutes. Contradicting yourself. I'm guilty of
those self-lies too. No one spends every moment learning. Otherwise, you would
be learning that which would have a greater relative impact on your navigation
of this world (e.g. organizing introverts together, taking the lead, social
and other-ness).

~~~
tokenadult
_As someone wiser than me once said, high school is probably the most
structured experience you'll have unless you end up in prison._

Very true. It is precisely the young people who thrive most as independent
learners who feel most stifled by high school.

<http://learninfreedom.org/>

Some of the feeling of structure comes with adolescence. But happy is the
adolescent who restructures his learning environment to increase his personal
responsibility.

------
krschultz
Take every AP exam available, that will knock off all the easy classes in
college that will equally waste your time and you can get out of some high
school classes now and do it as independent study. I took 5 or 6 in my junior
and aced them all - including two for subjects I had never even had class in.
Just pick up some princeton review books and go at it. By the time I got to
college I had 40 credits already done.

~~~
jedc
YES.

Don't even worry if your school doesn't offer the class for it. A friend of
mine and I did self-study for one AP test, and started about 3-4 weeks before
the text. I didn't "ace" it, but I got a high enough score that it got me out
of required classes in college.

~~~
krschultz
True, also the definition of "aceing" should be adjusted for the AP exams. I
took the Physics C Electricity & Magnetism exam without taking the class, you
only need to get something like 65% of it right to get the highest score
(which some shockingly small percentage of people even do). That isn't hard at
all if you put your mind to it. When I got to college it knocked off a 4
credit class with a 3 hour lab each week. 2 weeks of studying saved me
hundreds of hours of work in college.

------
CatDancer
I recommend taking a look at a book called The Teenage Liberation Handbook:
How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education by Grace Llewellyn.
([http://www.amazon.com/Teenage-Liberation-Handbook-School-
Edu...](http://www.amazon.com/Teenage-Liberation-Handbook-School-
Education/dp/0962959170/))

The assumption of school is that you don't want to learn and so you need to be
forced to. For all I know this may in fact be true for most kids, and so
school is necessary for them. However if you are self-motivated to learn then
school is massively inefficient.

There is no need for you to waste the next two years. You can, if you wish,
undertake a self-learning program (home school yourself). While it is true
that there are things that will get by staying in school, it does not mean
that you cannot also get these things outside of school, especially with a
little planning. You will still get into a good college, have friends, develop
your social skills, keep your future options open, and so on. The book I
mentioned explains how.

------
mannicken
I'm a high school student myself (senior). I skipped massively (like 50% of
the time I wasn't in class) in 10th grade, and after 10th just went to do
Running Start. It's a form of dual enrollment and I'm going to community
college now; I haven't set foot in HS (except to get authorization forms) in
two years. College is _different_ from high school.

Try something similar. High school is a massive, pointless waste of time. It's
like prison. Get out of it by any means but be smart. Meaning: don't go
apeshit and kill your classmates. If you do drop out, have a plan on how you
can give people what they want so they can feed you and clothe you. May be you
want to spend the rest of your days working in a Walmart, but probably not.

Anyway, don't stress over it. You're in a fucking America, you won't die of
hunger :) And you'll die regardless of whether you went to high school or not,
so don't worry. It doesn't really matter in the long run so enjoy the fact
that you were born in this perverted (but fun) world.

~~~
jballanc
Having worked in a number of research labs, I would add to this that you
should also try contacting professors at the nearest college. Very rarely is
there something structured put in place for high school students to work at
universities, but that said, many professors will work around/through/over the
bureaucracy so that you can work with them. Often times all that is needed is
a bit of initiative and some personal contact.

In other words, if there's one thing I've learned so far in life, it's not to
underestimate the power of simple human contact. Go knock on a random
professor's door, and I think you'd be surprised how many times the door
opens!

~~~
mechanical_fish
_Very rarely is there something structured put in place for high school
students to work at universities..._

Really? I went to three different summer programs at Ohio State University
when I was in high school. Great fun.

My last summer program ran nine or ten weeks and had me playing RA in a
biochemistry lab. One of the most generous masters' students in the whole
world (I think the poor guy was in his 3rd or 4th year... he was kind of a
long-term masters student ;) spent most of the summer teaching me stuff --
growing bacteria, lysing them, running chromatography columns, gels, enzyme
activity assays, the works.

He was crazy, actually, to spend that much time teaching a high school junior
who would never come back to the lab, but I hope he's having a happy career
somewhere because he sure was generous.

~~~
jballanc
Large universities (and often small private universities with an interest in
being linked with the surrounding community) are more likely to have
structured programs available. Smaller state schools less so. Even
universities which do have such programs will often not spread them evenly to
all disciplines. I'm also coming from a biochemistry background, and because
biochemistry tends to be labor intensive I know programs are much more likely
to exist in this area than, say, computer science or math.

Obviously, if an organized program exists, take it! My point was that the
absence of such a program does not preclude you from taking an individual
initiative to do something creative.

------
timdellinger
Lesson 1: The world is not designed for people like you. You will find this to
be a recurring theme throughout your life. Sometimes you can find a way to
modify things be more to your liking. Other times you can't.

Lesson 2: Not all parts of your life will be ideal at all times.

Lesson 3: Any complex system that uses human beings as input will be non-ideal
for many (if not most) of those people.

Lesson 4: Humanity's sacred institutions are (contrary to the way they're
marketed) full of frustrating inefficiencies and design flaws.

You're frustrated because you'd like to be constantly challenged by just the
right amount so that you can learn and reach your potential. Consider the
video game: each new level is designed to push your skills just the exact
amount. Life (and human institutions) are not so well designed.

There's a reason that the book Ender's Game is so engaging: it's wish
fulfillment. We all wish that we could go to a school that provided exactly
the opportunities that would make us the people we want to be. But such a
school doesn't exist.

(Oh, and on a practical note: if a subject seems dull, then hit the
library/web and look for other textbooks on the same subject. A book that
presents things the way you'd like to see them can make all the difference.)

------
lpgauth
Let's face it, the academic part of high school is not challenging enough for
you, but what about the other parts? Are you on one of your school's sport
team? Are you part of any clubs? Did you try to take on some kind of
leadership position at your school? How big is your friend circle?

~~~
mechanical_fish
I recommend this highly. I felt more or less as you (the original submitter)
do until the math club found me [1] at the end of freshman year. My freshman
year is like a giant beige blur in my memory. It's like I was in a vaguely
depressed stasis the whole time. But then it was math, trivia, and Drama Club
stage crew for the rest of my high school career. Suddenly high school felt
great.

There's nothing wrong with being an introvert... but there are degrees of
introversion. And self-study is the secret to learning, which you seem to
understand, but you might be surprised to find that you self-study better when
you've got a team, a goal, a project, or a group. If the groups at your school
seem to suck, there are other ones around. You've even got the Internet, which
I didn't have at your age.

Here's one regret from my high school days: At one point someone came up to me
and said "You're a big guy and you're not already on the football team or any
other team. Want to learn to play the tuba and march in the band? We need more
tuba!" At that point I was a very shy freshman, easily embarrassed, with no
musical experience, and that whole idea sounded preposterous, like some kind
of practical joke. So I said no. I wish I hadn't done that. It turns out that
they were probably serious. And playing the tuba is probably pretty easy! I
might have faked it pretty well with just four notes and a basic sense of
rhythm! And it might have been fun to march around with the band... a nice,
structured group activity with a lot of depth. (There is always a more
complicated piece of marching-band music out there...) And I'd be have been
that much farther ahead on learning something about music.

Hang in there. Don't drop out of high school if you can possibly help it --
it's good to have the degree, and believe me it will end. And college is a big
improvement!

\---

[1] They pulled me and a few others out of freshman algebra class and just
gave us the AHSME, one day. I had no idea what the AHSME was, but I took it,
and I ended up in a three-way tie for first place in my high school with my
best friend (another freshman) and a senior member of the math club. I learned
about the math club the next day when its faculty adviser came stalking into
the cafeteria during lunch, waving the AHSME results in one hand, with the
wild-eyed look of a prophet on a mission. He approached me and my friend and
more-or-less told us that we _had_ to join the math club, it was _vitally
important_ , because we _had the knack_.

That guy was great. Teaching is a weird business. 99% of the time you are
saying the same things that you always say, but the remaining 1% are tiny
moments which change people's lives forever.

~~~
cmos
Definitely watch out for 'missed opportunities'!

My mother _forced_ me to try out for drama. She said 'all you have to do is
audition.. then I'll never bring it up again'. I can't tell you how much the
thought of even going to the audition repulsed me, much less performing on
stage.

At the audition, while waiting, I was hanging around the most friendly people
I had ever encountered (ok, it was a bunch of girls that were actually talking
to me). Suddenly the fear of being onstage was less than the fear of being
lonely.

I went from being scared of walking down the hallway to being able to talk in
front of large crowds. My Friday nights of soldering and programming turned
into a different kind of fun.. a chance to socialize with others.

(btw I can't sing for the life of me.. the trick is to stand in front or next
to people with a similar voice. If you have a decent director they'll do this
automatically)

------
csomar
Ok, this is not a good choice.

Me my self studying in a third world school I had never thought of dropping
and continued my study and will graduate in 25 days!!

In fact you are lucky, what about if you was here? You don't know the schools
here, private or public, teacher are sometimes more stupid that pupils. I
can't say more than, my english professor can't spell correctly the
"wednesday". I have some good professor also, my math teacher is a SUPER PROF,
just because his an old one.

Brief, here most of schools are public, but you need to study outside school,
in what we call "additional hours" in some professors houses, which is non-
legall and is costing me more than $100 a month.

So I study from 6 to 8 hours in school, 80% of hours are pure waste of time,
simply because professor are not competent and students are indifferent. In
fact, if you are a professor here, and you just give your students 20/20 and
don't teach them anything, they'll be VERY excited, they'll love you and
consider you as an intelligent prof.

Why are you considering school a waste of time?

Here's the response:

you want to start productivity from NOW, you don't want to wait few other
years to learn programming, you want to start now.

Is it good or bad?

No, that's VERY bad, in school you expand your knowledge, even if it's not
programming related, you know new phenomenas of everyday life that you don't
know.

Don't be in hurry, you'll start working as soon as you have learned
programming. Developing software isn't a simple job.

My own advice, is to carry on your study and then compelete study in
university, you can then choose which section fit for you better and carry on
your programming carrer.

Don't try to burn steps and jump over them, step by step and you'll get there,
be sure.

------
peter-nthcode
I went to college when I was 16 at <http://www.tams.unt.edu/>

Most states have these now.

Look into it.

~~~
vincentpants
I also went to college at 16. But be careful! I ended up dropping out of UCLA,
going to community college, and eventually graduating from UCSB seven years
later (then went to design school in Vancouver). The problem was that I was
still wanting a sense of community, and I couldn't find it at university
because of the age discrepancy. I dont regret my decision leaving high school
early, but remember that this wont necessarily solve all of your problems, but
it could be a good step! Good luck!

------
mhp
Like the other posters said, look into taking classes at your local college.
If your grades are good enough in HS, it won't be a problem.

Take something like econ 101 (not programming) or physics. Depending on the
school you can take classes at, I think you'll find you'll be getting your a
__kicked by the information. What you used to find so easy in HS will now be
much more difficult. You'll actually need to study :)

------
charlesju
When I was in High School I used to pass the time by programming on my
graphing calculator. I'm sure these days you can get by with reading a book in
class or maybe even a small netbook. If none of those things are possible,
just start a project and doodle your algorithms while you're in class and code
them up at night.

There are a lot of ways to circumvent the system and do something you like to
do, don't just give in to your immediate urges to shut it out. At the very
least, you should graduate High School.

------
jfarmer
I was exactly the same way. I studied for AP tests on my own time, started a
company, learned how to program, etc. School was boring. It was easy. I
resented the fact that my peers took it like a joke an weren't serious about
learning -- some of the teachers did, too.

All that was cool, but here's the thing I wish I did the most in high school:
kissed a girl.

I think it's important to get good grades in HS because it will give you so
many options when you graduate. Just deal with it. Some times you have to do
stuff you don't like.

The rest of the time spend doing the things you love. And as a fellow
introvert, I strongly encourage you to SOCIALIZE. I had a friend who forced
himself to become less awkward by joining the HS football team even though he
hated football. Forced socialization.

It worked. He was way less awkward than me in HS. Now he's in Boston doing
this: <http://diybio.org>

------
jseliger
"I'm introverted and spend most of my time reading or obsessively working on
hobbies like programming"

You might want to read the book The Introvert Advantage by Marti Laney,
"Caring for Your Introvert" in The Atlantic
(<http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200303/rauch>) and Philip Zimbardo's The Time
Paradox, which I wrote about here ([http://jseliger.com/2008/09/01/the-time-
paradox-—-philip-zim...](http://jseliger.com/2008/09/01/the-time-
paradox-—-philip-zimbardo-and-john-boyd/)).

Notice this commenter's idea: "[...]the academic part of high school is not
challenging enough for you, but what about the other parts? Are you on one of
your school's sport team? Are you part of any clubs? Did you try to take on
some kind of leadership position at your school? How big is your friend
circle?"

High school still offers many, many challenges, even if you don't realize it;
for me, working on the school newspaper and joining the book club made a
tremendous difference in how I perceived much of life.

"I was just wondering if you guys had any experiences or suggestions to share
about school."

School is a game. Make it your mission to learn how to crack the game, which
doesn't mean you have to neglect your "real" education, as it sounds like that
will happen chiefly on your own time. And what you consider "wastes of time"
aren't always: they're opportunities to network, or to learn how to flirt, or
to learn how to get away with things, and so on and so forth. These are
important skills too, but many nerds ignore them for too long.

A final book recommendation: try Curtis Sittenfeld's novel "Prep." It's not
about someone in your situation, but it is about someone who, I think, finally
learns how to "do" school. If you're as analytic as your post implies that you
are, it's possible to learn this. Anyway, the personal website I linked to
above has my e-mail address if you're interested in hearing more.

------
dtap
Your life will change more than you can ever know in the next 5-10 years. The
best reason to do well in high school is to get into a great college. You will
meet people who share your interests in college. But in order to get there you
need to do well in high school. You can find your way into an awesome job with
hacker skills and a crappy GPA, but not so with an awesome college. The people
you will find in college will amaze you. You may not learn anything in class,
but being surrounded by like minded people will help you grow.

With that, push through. It is not that difficult to do well in high school
and the reward of a good college is worth it.

~~~
billybob
"You may not learn anything in class" in college? Man, I learned a ton in
college. Linguistics and anthropology and psychology and photography were
fascinating (I was a journalism major but now do web development).

If you really do love learning, good classes can really expand your
understanding of - and interest in - the world.

------
JunkDNA
There's a lot of excellent advice in this thread, but I think I can sum most
of it up by saying that the primary thing you need to do for yourself is spend
more time way outside your comfort zone. It's fine to be learning geeky
hobbies, coding, reading hacker news, etc... but that alone is not enough to
be successful in life. You need to broaden your experiences and learn about
things that seem to have nothing to do with what you think you're interested
in. It allows you to recognize new trends and opportunities. I guarantee this
will come in handy some time down the line. I always think of the story that
when Steve Jobs dropped out of college, he went and sat in on a calligraphy
class. Why on earth would a geek need that? Well, years later when Apple was
building the first Macintosh he was able to draw on that knowledge when they
were figuring out how to support fonts
(<http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html>). I experienced
this in my own life. I wanted to be a biologist, so I really got into my
science courses taking extra biology classes my senior year. On the side, I
dabbled in various computer-related activities, but I always felt like that
was taking away time from my important biology stuff that would eventually be
my career. When I got to college the field of bioinformatics started to
emerge, and I realized I could use my biology skills _with_ my computer hobby.
Suddenly, all that time I thought I had "wasted" playing around with computers
became my career. You just never know what the future holds.

Finally (and this is major), speaking as a fellow (reformed) introvert: you
have a huge, gaping problem to address. You need to be able to easily and
freely communicate and socialize with people. This is not some warm, fuzzy BS.
It's a real life skill you have got to master. It's hard. It's painful. It's
embarrassing at times. But, you have to do it. In "Hackers and Painters", Paul
always talks about having the wind at your back in startups. Mastering social
skills is an awesome hack that gives you the ability to make your own wind.
People who can really network and socialize get things other people don't.
That's a fact of life. Many introverts complain that this isn't fair. I always
did. The reality is, social interaction is a pretty easy hack to get what you
want in life compared to most other methods. It's worth the time and effort
required to build up the skill. If you're hopelessly clueless how to interact
with people, you could start off by reading "How to Win Friends and Influence
People".

------
Lilith
A friend directed me to this post, and here is what I have to say. The best
decision I ever made was to quit high school when I was fifteen. I read Grace
Llewellyn's "The Teenage Liberation Handbook" and, despite it being written a
little simply, the ideas resonated with me. Compulsory schooling is about
control, busy work, and, as Foucault points out, a type of discipline based on
the penal system. School made me view education as an abominable chore, and it
was only once I left that I was able to begin exploring academic disciplines
in a comprehensive and meaningful way. If you love erudition for its own sake
(as I truly believe most people are prone to do--it's only after years of
schooling that we eschew the notion of pleasurable learning experiences), you
have what it takes to educate yourself.

I recovered from the trauma of compulsory school, and I am now a college
honors student with a 4.0 GPA. While there are still serious problems
regarding "education" in the world of academia, college is significantly
better than high school. A GED, well written essays, and outstanding SAT/ACT
scores will get you into some of the most prestigious institutions without a
diploma. Most people think that you have to be miserable for the next few
years because they were forced to be miserable and they think it's the only
way to find success in the future. I believe that they are entirely wrong
about that. Research "unschooling", Paolo Freire, and Summerhill school and
decide for yourself.

------
DougWebb
I was a lot like you. My advice would be to do what I wish I had done:

1\. Use your intelligence and self-teaching skills to make sure you get the
best grades possible; this will help you get financial aid for college.
Otherwise, you'll be limited to cheap schools, saddled with debt, or unable to
go at all.

2\. When you have choices about which classes to take, take ones that stretch
your creativity in areas you wouldn't normally explore: for a geek, that's
probably art, music, literature, philosophy, wood shop, metal shop, etc. These
classes will usually have you creating things which is fun, and if you're
creating written papers, that's very good practice for your future.

3\. Since you're smart, #1 shouldn't take up much of your time. While in
classes you can't avoid, you can 'take notes' writing about something else
you're working on. Pay just enough attention to the class to make sure you're
following what's going on. Outside of class, SOCIALIZE. Learn to make girls
smile at you (or boys, if that's your thing.) Learn how to make small talk,
and how to get someone else to talk about themselves. Having good
conversational skills, especially if you're introverted, will be hugely
important for you in your future.

------
lambdallama1000
Hello. I was recently in something resembling your position, and I decided to
homeschool from grade 10 onwards. In my case I took graduate courses in math
at a local (top 20) university for free -- the professors allowed me to sit-in
on the lectures and do the homework so long as I showed them I was prepared. I
am in grade 11 now and have been studying Khovanov homology, geodesic
dynamics, and compact Riemann surfaces in the past few months.

It has allowed an extraordinary degree of freedom. I have been able to check
out large masses of (mainly) science fiction and history books, with
indefinite renewals -- and have been able to find the time to read one or two
books a day, even with my other commitments.

It may be possible to do so in public schools. In my case, self-studying was
always an integral part of my education as there were no adults in my
immediate environment who could really teach me additionally; I did not
receive the attention from teachers for that (though my work was consistently
exemplary), and I was disallowed from entering elementary school early. You
may be similar.

My main tools have been a laptop, paper, a "Pentel Graphgear 1000 PG1013-E" (a
prized possession), and two library cards.

------
spooneybarger
if i hadn't dropped out of high school and gone to an "early college", i'm not
really sure where my life would have ended up at. something to look into:

<http://www.simons-rock.edu/> <http://www.earlycolleges.org/>

~~~
Jebdm
Definitely. Coming to Simon's Rock (although I am transferring for the fall
semester) was easily the best decision I ever made.

------
thisisnotmyname
Make it a game. See how high you can get your GPA, or how little work you can
do and still keep a 3.7.

Also, try a sport or other extra-curricular. (tennis and track were good for
skinny guys like me). Do more with your classmates than just go to class.

------
tricky
Not sure if you realize this, but a lot of kids really hate school. Its just
that most of them drink themselves silly or start smoking the crack. You're
lucky in that you have enough self control not to lose it.

You want advice? Graduate, bang hotties, and hack the systems until they work
for you. If you can't stand HS, you're going to hate a real job. Use your time
now to learn how to manipulate your environment to your liking.

------
abyssknight
Check into the International Baccalaureate programs in your area. If they have
one, apply. Its likely the most stressful, intense learning experience you can
get out of the public school system. You don't have to be a genius to get in,
but you will definitely have to try harder. Much harder, and that _should_
motivate you and engage your mind more so than the general population
curriculum. (AP and honors classes never hurt anyone, either.)

Failing that, I'd say stay in school and while you're still young use all that
free time to network, meet people with similar interests, and make things. In
short, "Get Excited and Make Things", as the poster says. You have tons of
free time (or at least way more than I have now at 23), so run with it. Don't
discount the value of highschool. You'll realize later in life how much it
meant.

Some of the most influential and successful people I know, I met in
highschool. Two of which are currently engaged in running their own business,
which I helped bootstrap one summer whilst in college.

Don't drop out. Finish. Learn to finish things, even if you hate them. Accept
them as challenges.

------
felixc
Stick with it, for now. It's not so much that it's a very valuable experience,
it's that without it you will be locked out of so many other things that
really are worthwhile. I know that two more years feels like an eternity right
now, but trust me, it's not.

Try to find things to keep you enthused while you still have to be there, like
clubs/societies, _especially_ if they're in fields that you're not too
comfortable with at the moment. For example (I don't know if this will apply
to you, since your post is quite articulate), I went into the debating society
in high school with very little knowledge of public speaking and a lot of
nerves about presenting in front of people. Two years later I was competing at
the national level, and people still think I'm a good speaker when I just wing
presentations without preparation. You have a lot of free time right now
(maybe it doesn't feel that way, but it's a lot compared to what you'll have
later!), so make use of it in a way that pushes your boundaries and expands
your skills.

------
sachmanb
Chances are that you just very intelligent, and public education such as high
schools are designed to intentionally destroy your creativity, no
exaggeration, you can look into this -- the goal is to make you a good worker,
and if you make it through , maybe white collar (university) with real
education being something going on somewhere on the side at institutions of
exception. As others noted it could be used to develop your social skills, but
so could many other things. There's a chance a lot of people at your school
aren't worth socializing with. This is fine as long as you understand that
interacting with people is important, and fill it in somehow (clubs, outside
of school activities). What happens at school will affect your options with
universities, so the way to see it as perhaps as something junky you need to
do well at, so that you can keep on moving on in your life.

Considering that you are reading this site, that you are switching schools and
looking for solutions, I would guess that you've already accomplished the
primary gain from public education - to understand the value of knowledge, and
you went further and are self directed in its acquisition, so you've already
accomplished most of what undergraduate school is trying to do (you may be
bored for some time now....I made it through high school thinking university
was going to be this awesome mystical place where I exchange with enlightened
minds, but I learned later that that is only MIT, I shouldn't have grown up
reading all about MIT, maybe read about other schools, because I didn't make
the final cut).

You're going to be fine, and I believe this because your already alive. No
need to find the appropriate group, high school or whatever, to 'lead' you,
lead yourself to where you think your going to learn more, of what to learn -
use the system's like schools available to you, don't wait for them to
magically get wonderful - not going to happen. Unless you get into MIT....in
which case, awesome, and enjoy.

------
gabrielroth
You might have an easier time getting something valuable out of your
'fluffier' classes, such as English, than out of the math or science classes.
I'm guessing you don't learn much in math or science, because you learn that
stuff at a faster pace than your peers. But in English, even if the classroom
discussions are banal, you're probably reading some interesting literature.
You must be doing Shakespeare sometimes. Even if it doesn't seem like your
thing -- especially then -- try to read the hell out of it, to get as deep as
you can into the text and its complexities. (This has nothing to do with
'liking' it.) Try to write the most persuasive, attentive papers you can.
Think of every paper as an opportunity to practice your writing.

Even if you have no connection to literature for the whole of your post-high-
school life, my guess is that you'll get something valuable from those hours.

~~~
anonymous1618
Thanks. This is a really good idea. During that good year I had, one of my
most passionate teachers was my English teacher, which was partly the reason I
liked that year so much (that subject had been ruined for me before). My
English class now basically consists of worksheets and vocab. books, but I
suppose they still can't take away the value of the literature :)

------
jkent
The short - if you are absolutely set on being an entrepreneur, are properly
depressed, or don't care about high incomes, then drop out. If you hate school
that is.

Not completing high school does narrow your options in life. Most people say
that isn't a good thing. It may be right for you though.

I finished high school, then dropped out of college - only to return 4 years
later. It was a bit harder to adjust without the momentum of study. But I did
it and loved it enough to do a postgraduate course.

Maybe find a mentor in programming to help you set challenges - engaging your
programming related to school work.

IMHO a large number of students in compulsory education (to age 16 here) don't
love school.

Note - I am biased as I am now a high school Maths teacher in the UK. Sadly,
only one teacher inspired me at school, so I am trying to do better.

------
poppysan
There are many options for you.

You can go part time to college and see that learning, when forced is
monotonous everywhere.

You can start college full time now, face the same issues, yet be out sooner

You can spin high school into a pleasurable social experiment. I noticed there
was nothing said about you socially. Usually, kids dont dislike school because
of education, its because of social issues.\

Look at it this way. You have 2 more years to become whoever you want to be,
perfect that image, then display it to the adult world. You can become a
ladies man (all it takes is working out), you can become the quirky nerd
everyone likes, you can be the scary goth that has a clan of minions. But now
is the time to play around with who you are and who you want to be.

If you see it as an experiment, it will be fun....

------
xenophanes
You might enjoy reading this site:

<http://www.takingchildrenseriously.com/>

It has philosophy of education/parenting ideas. For example, you seem to think
that you are selfish for wanting a life that isn't boring. I think that is a
very reasonable desire. This is a site that will actually take your side on
issues like this.

Also, people are probably telling you that college is different/better. Just
survive through high school, and then everything will be awesome. It's not.
College is maybe 20% better, not 500% better. Don't think of college as the
answer to all your prayers. It's very possible you will hate it.

------
izak30
Ok, I'm going to try to help you out a little bit here with what I went
through.

I left school after the 11th grade for what appear to be the exact same
reasons. In the twelfth grade, I was 'homeschooled', I did a lot of
independent study (AP English, AP Computer Science, Science-Fair, I attended
the National Youth Leadership Forum on Technology), and I took three college
courses every quarter. (Physics, Chemistry and Engineering).

It was an immensely challenging year, and I had a lot of free time to learn
what I wanted, and work an interesting challenging job on the side. When I
applied for college, my parents wrote a letter saying what I did, and I had
college transcripts to back it up. In my state, if you take college classes as
a high school student they call it 'Post Secondary Enrollment Options Program'
and the taxpayers pick up the tab.

I also only spent three years in college for the same reason; I started
feeling like I was wasting my time. That may or may not have been true, at
college I could have applied myself more and used more of the resources around
me (most professors are professors because they are very good at what they
do...learn from them, not necessarily from what they teach in class).

Some of it is probably you, and some of it could be the place/people you're
around. This is very hard to look at objectively.

People aren't unreceptive to high school and/or college dropouts. People are
unreceptive to slackers, and underacheivers. Honestly for me it just doesn't
come up much, unless people ask 'Where did you go to school?' and by then
they've usually made up some sort of decision about what to think of me
anyway.

Dropping out of school has not closed one opportunity to me. At least not one
opportunity that I would have pursued anyway (probably some big corporations
have restrictions on that sort of thing).

What it comes down to is this: Do what you want. When your guidance counselors
tell you "If you had all the money you would ever need, what would you do?"
Don't mistake that to mean, 'after high school, after college, after this
certain point in your career'. That means "right now, what are the steps that
I need to take to make that happen" and doing them.

------
scott_s
Two of my friends spent six years in Denmark, and had real difficulty
adjusting to American high school. So they enrolled in the local community
college to finish up their diploma. You might find that model easier to deal
with.

------
DavidSJ
I think you're too self-effacing. The problem is certainly not you.

I dropped out of school in 10th grade, and consider it the best decision I
ever made. If you are going to do it, it's a decision you want to execute very
carefully to avoid major confrontations with the people who still have a lot
of power over you and think they're acting in your own good.

You might also consider Sudbury-style schools, where you would be completely
free to spend your day however you like (I went to one after dropping out of
high school, and now work at one).

------
socialtistics
Try contacting Jessica Mah (<http://jessicamah.com>). She has a similar story
as yours and probably could give you better advice/guidance.

~~~
abossy
markbao and DaniFong are two HN readers with stories you may be able to relate
to.

Look up Hans Reiser [<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Reiser>] and Niniane
Wang [<http://niniane.org/>] - they are early dropouts in the tech industry.
It's not totally insane to fast-track your career.

~~~
adammarkey
Hans Reiser ended up a murderer too. Be careful not to follow his path too
closely :)

~~~
abossy
Indeed. YMMV! :)

------
naikrovek
Why do teenagers think they have it all figured out? I certainly did, and I
was certainly wrong.

Don't think of the monotony. Think of the things that differ from day to day.
You find something that interests you that isn't related to monotony and you
focus on that. For me, it was girls; not to get laid, but to practice my game
before I went to college. If you focus on the monotony you're going to kill
yourself.

Life is full people doing things they don't want to do. Everyone does lots of
things they don't want to do. Even the best job has many bits of work that no
one wants to do. That guy in school who is always happy and who makes everyone
laugh all the time - that guy does tons of shit he doesn't want to do. That
guy at work who always seems happy and comes up with good ideas on how to make
things better, that guy does a ton of shit he doesn't want to do also.

To a degree, it's how you deal with those things you don't want to do that
define your happiness. Do you complain? Do you work REALLY hard to try to get
out of doing it? Or do you maybe accept those things as learning experiences,
and find ways to get the things you don't want to do done more efficiently and
more quickly?

Be a man. Finish school. Find a career that gives you happiness, do the shitty
parts, and find things to be happy about, work related or not. Or, be a whiny
kid who constantly complains about how everything sucks.

~~~
huherto
Good point. There are generally two ways of thinking about this. Find your
calling or learn to be happy no matter what you do. I think there is wisdom in
both and they are not necessarily self excluding.

------
etherael
Two paths spring to mind;

1) If you're sublimely self confident and prepared to deal with the intense
difficulty of this option, just leave. Strike out completely on your own, hit
the garage, make the Next Big Thing(tm).

2) Kill all the pieces of yourself that make you an anomaly amongst your
peers. Drug yourself out, develop an addiction to something that will numb
your mind and dull the ennui of the existence you find yourself in. In short,
destroy every piece of you that makes it uncomfortable for you to go with the
flow.

The world is pulling you down because the world is, as often mentioned here,
not designed for people like us. Your solution will be to address this
discrepancy in some fashion. It is orders of magnitude easier to change
yourself than it is to change the world, and I say this in full knowledge of
how utterly stupendously hard it really is to change yourself, especially in
this way that you know to be deeply wrong.

I'll spend the rest of my life in obscurity changing the broken things in the
world before I spend an hour on my knees trying to figure out how to fit in,
but this is not anywhere near as heroic as it sounds. Simply, this is because
I am stupid and stubborn, and probably if I were less so (and maybe you are?)
I would be able to see this path for the folly it is. Leave the hard stuff to
the martyrs and spend your life in dull throbbing comfort in some easy and
meaningless pursuit like law or politics, and snort cocaine off hookers for
the occasional buzz.

Alas, some of us are simply not this way constructed.

Good luck.

------
isherwood
It's not your fault you find school boring. It is boring. School is compulsory
and so many of the children there don't want to learn and teachers don;t have
much economic incentive to be inspiring because they have a captive audience.
School isn't tailored to be responsive to pupils' interests to any significant
degree, see <http://www.takingchildrenseriously.com> and John Holt's book "How
Children Fail". My advice would be to look for other options and try to pick
the one that seems best. You might be able to learn at home and possibly do
some exams in places other than school if you think it will help. Try to get
freelance programming work and see if you can get into programming without
qualifications just by being good at it. If there are people writing
interesting programmes or interesting material about programming and you would
like to ask them questions or discuss some issue with them then you could
e-mail them. The worst that can happen is they say they haven't got time. You
might find college significantly better than school depending on your
interests, how you use it and who the lecturers are. If you plan to go to
college then shop around and look at lots of different places.

------
mykphyre
First let me say, I know exactly how you feel and that you're 100% right.
Don't think for a second that there's anything wrong with you. I'm a 4th year
in college right now and it'll take me 5 to graduate. I've always been in the
top half of my classes and wondered why we had to learn so much useless crap.
I talked to my 8th grade humanities teacher about this and he told me that
"The system's not perfect. Work through the system first, then change it after
you're out of it if it bothers you that much." I'm not suggesting you try to
reform the education system, but this was some good advice for me, and I hope
it helps you.

Coincidentally, my girlfriend is just graduating college from learning to a be
a grade school teacher. She's taught me something very important over the last
year or so: that school is not really about learning the subjects your
teachers are trying to teach you, it's about you developing as a person. Maybe
it would help if you thought of high school as a social learning environment
rather than an academic one. Let me also say that in no way do I mean that
just because you're in 10th grade does that mean that you're not mature or
intelligent. Everyone can improve themselves in many ways, not just
academically, and that's what I suggest you focus on in school.

You're going to have boring tasks to do when you have a job, or when you live
on your own, so it's best to learn how to get through them now and appreciate
the genuinely interesting subjects while you can. I have had about a 50/50
split with good/bad professors in college and I'm assuming that this carries
over into the professional world. You'll probably have some co-workers who are
like you, and care about doing well, and some that just do it for the money.

You're way ahead of me as far as figuring these things out; I didn't start
programming until the middle of my 3rd year in college. I also didn't read
PG's high school essay until very recently, and I wish I had read it when I
was your age. At the last career fair I went to, all three of the recuiters I
talked to told me they wanted candidates with programming experience outside
of class. You're well ahead of the curve and it sounds like you've got a good
head on your shoulders. Try not to get discouraged and remember there are lots
of people out there that feel the same way you do.

I hope this gives you some perspective and encouragement. I wish you the best
of luck in your endeavors.

------
jneal
I can tell you that I had a very similar experience in high school. I am
currently 24 years old and working in a career/job that I absolute love. But
high school was a bit different. I wasn't a straight A student, but that's
simply because most of the topics we discussed were completely uninteresting
to me. And you are right, some teachers can really ruin a subject even if you
like it. I was lucky enough to have a few good teachers each year and I was
able to graduate without any problem, but I definitely can see where you are
coming from.

My suggestion to you is first to forget about dropping out of high school.
That is not even a possibility. Now that we have that established, I will move
on.

This might not help your grades, but one thing I used to do is actually work
on personal projects while I was at school. I would write on paper, that I was
supposed to be taking notes with, ideas and brainstorms for my projects. I
would sometimes get so bored in school I would actually write out Perl code on
paper just for the heck of it. Yea I was bored.

Sorry to digress, basically what I'm trying to say is make due with what you
have. If you can't take more challenging classes like honors or AP level
courses, perhaps ask around to find out who the more interesting and
passionate teachers are and if you have an honest talk with the principal they
may actually move you to the class you'd like. Work on your own stuff and your
own knowledge while at school. Find others that are interested in those same
things you are as well. When I was in high school I joined a webstaff which
was basically a group of students that worked on the website. The media
center/library people quickly spotted my overall technology talent, and I soon
because very literally the school's IT guy. By my 12th grade year, I was
practically spending half of my time 'working' at school helping people with
computer related issues.

In closure, I have a feeling there are other issues at hand here. I don't
quite know what I'm suggesting, maybe personal issues at home or maybe
something totally different. Try to figure out what's at the root of your
disliking. There is probably an underlying cause that you may be able to fix.
Stop worrying so much about high school. Just pass and do good on your SAT. By
the way, you're first two years of college, if you go, will be very similar.
But when you actually take those nice tech classes where you really learn
stuff it is highly enjoyable.

------
aristoxenus
Look into online self-paced learning that your school will accept for credit.
EPGY has individual classes as well as a degree-granting online high school.

Learn how to attract girls (or boys as you prefer). Read about building self-
confidence without becoming self-absorbed. Watch and learn from people who get
dates without seeming like jerks. Learn how to make strangers laugh and soon
you'll be making everyone laugh. Also learn why you should care about physical
fitness: not only will it automatically make you more attractive, but the
chemical process it gets going is like marijuana and cocaine and xanax
combined, without any of the side effects. It'll make you more energetic and
positive, and more able to focus creatively on intellectual things for longer
periods of time.

Stay engaged with smart people from other places and times (e.g. your Graham
reading, online forums etc.)

Bypass your teachers by reading the material in your own way, and doing your
own thing in class rather than paying attention. Go beyond the textbooks to
original sources or other books on the matter -- that alone will make things
10 times as interesting.

------
matthall28
I'm in grade 12 now, almost done, only a few months left. I was in basically
the same boat as you in Grade 10, i completely hated it. Now, i still don't
like school, but i am still loving life. Well my first piece of advice is to
slack off in school, if you can. DO all of your homework, but only due the
minimum. Just aim to get above 75% in all of your classes. You may not be able
to get amazing scholarships with this mark, but you can graduate and get into
College. Now what i would recommend to make your life more enjoyable: Find
something to do that you love and do it I co-founded a web design company
(Kerplunc.com) with a friend of mine in the UK, i run a successful web hosting
company (KerpluncHosting.com) and run a blog/webcomic with a bunch of my
friends (ExplodingWumpus.com). I'm not sure if your loves are going to be
anything similar to that, but that's what i love to do. If you want someone to
talk to about this kinda stuff, or just someone to discuss nerdy shit with,
feel free to email me (matt@kerplunc.com) and i can give you my MSN etc.

Oh and don't start doing drugs or partying

------
YuriNiyazov
Code as much as you can.

~~~
anthonyrubin
Programming is hardly the most important activity in life.

~~~
jacoblyles
It's a way of learning and creating that lends itself well to individual study
when more collective forms of study are not designed for learning and
creativity.

------
pfisch
You're basically suggesting that high school is to easy. I felt like hs was to
easy too at the time. looking back I could've taken more AP's, but honestly,
why would I have spent more time learning about things less useful to me when
I had the option of learning about more useful things.

What I did was I just started bringing textbooks from any subject I was
interested to all my classes and read them. If you are getting good grades no
one will care. But really, unless your teacher is really awful they won't care
anyway, because there are so many kids who do need help that they should be
focusing on. Who gives a shit about the kid who probably could've passed the
exam without taking the class when so many kids don't understand basic
algebra, especially with no child left behind.

hs sucks, try to learn social skills by observing others and practice thinking
about being in other peoples shoes to learn better empathy. Try to learn
useful things like econ 101, programming, business stuff, math, etc.

Adolescence really just eats balls and there isn't much you can do about it.

------
spoiledtechie
Stay in school and wait it out. Don't drop out... If you must, find a way to
program in school. Go to teachers and request that you can go off by your self
because your making A's in their classes. Most will listen and understand.

Go to a computer room when you can and build something great. Even though
something is boring in your life and its mandatory for our society, do it. If
people describe it as mandatory, do it.

A little story: I knew a guy in my school that made his first million in 10th
grade. He dropped out and never looked back. You sir, don't have that luxury
unless you decide to start now and make your first million. If you want out,
strive to achieve what you think will actually get you out and keep you from
working for "the man" in any other job....

Also, if your a child prodigy, think about going to the NSA website and crack
a few of their codes... They are always hiring....

I also suggest you watch a movie called "Good Will Hunting". It struck home
for me. Maybe it will for you.

------
sachinag
I can't really help you since I feel like there aren't enough details here,
but I would highly recommend that you do something nice for your parents. Not
saying you don't, but even the most loving husband does something special for
Valentine's Day. Make them something really nice, just because you recognize
them for helping you out through this.

------
unexpected
If you find school really boring, that's okay 99% of the rest of your high
school population does too.

What you should not do:

1) Dropout. 2) Make bad grades. 3) Skip classes.

If you find school boring, at the very least make sure you dominate it. You're
at an age where you have infinite possibilities before you- Kick school
completely in the ass to make sure you don't close off all those
opportunities.

The kids who drop-out/make terrible grades in school because it was "too easy"
for them end up creating more obstacles for themselves. Yes, you might not
need a HS Diploma to get a cool comp sci job, but it is certainly much easier
to get a startup job if you graduated summa cum laude from Stanford than if
you dropped out of high school.

The truly smart, great, inspirational people are good at multiple things- they
often say that the best programmers are also the best communicators. They also
great grasp of their underlying subject matter (which might not matter if
you're working at youtube, but would be relevant if you're working at a
bioinformatics startup, etc.)

You're going to want to be good at multiple things. As much as you love
programming now, you don't know what might happen in the future. When I was in
10th grade, I still wanted to be a doctor! So, don't close off any doors by
throwing in the towel. If it's too easy for you, just dominate it.

If you still understand what I'm saying, let's make a sports analogy. Imagine
LeBron James in H.S. He's head and shoulders ahead above the competition.
There's no reason he should be playing. He probably could have turned pro at
15; however if he had been bored, tanked through games, not tried, he would
have been labeled as a "me-first" player who didn't play his heart out, and he
wouldn't have the same opportunities he had today.

So, play your heart out in high school. Life exists beyond books. As I've said
in my other posts, achieve your genetic potential- not only academically, but
socially, and physically as well. Develop habits that will last you a
lifetime: self-discipline. strong character and ethics. stand up to the
bullies. support the other geeks. build loyalty and true friendships. identify
your insecurities, and blast them away.

Treat high school as an experience, not as a place to go to learn- you've
mastered the learning part (at least you better by getting rockstar grades),
make a good effort to master the rest.

If you think high school is boring, wait till you enter the real world. For
95% of us, the boring 9 am lecture is replace by the boring 9 am meeting. At
least your class is over in 45 minutes, and if you're lucky, you can pass
notes to the cute girl sitting next to you. My 9 am meetings sometimes last 2
hours and its a room of all males.

Even if you're in a startup, you'll face tedium. Fights with your board.
Fights with your investors. Accounting (bleh). Trying to protect your IP by
filing a patent. A lot of that stuff is tedious and boring.

A lot of times in life, you'll be faced with tedious, repetitious tasks.
Having the self-discipline to power through these, as well as making lemonade
from lemons- I learned these skills in high school!

~~~
SapphireSun
I've been thinking a lot about this as around senior year of collage, I have
felt that I've been wasting my time with every moment spent in class. What I
don't understand is why people feel it is acceptable to say "If you don't
finish X task, then you are not as good."

    
    
      The trick was that when I started working in a lab or on startup ideas, I get the same dopamine rush that was spoken of in a previous. Working on classes that I could learn on my own time, destroying my happiness and health, when there is real good I could do in the world doesn't make sense from a utilitarian point of view; yet society functions on a credentialing system (as pg spoke of in one of his essays).
    

Many people give the same advice: work from within the system, if you pay your
dues, more doors will be open. It is insanely frustrating, and pointlessly
wasteful. What would make more sense is saying that if you want to work in a
given area, you need to have X experience or a certification.

After a certain point, college (undergrad anyway) is just a grind that
produces nothing useful. Lip service is paid to learning and then they grade
you. Sometimes this makes sense and they are a fair representation of your
knowledge, other times they are a random disconnected sampling. In certain
classes, grading may make sense, but it reduces learning by encouraging
certain kinds of depth first thinking.

What we need to do is break out of this acceptance of how things are done. For
instance, if college is a credentialing process, then why are you required to
take a class in order to gain a credential? If you get a C in a class, why
should you be required to take it again (with all the work that entails)
rather than just retesting? Some classes require attendance. Should not all
the materials be provided so that you can learn on your own? This is not
always the case.

If college is a holistic learning program, we should not be grading students
or grade them in a way that does not expose them to hardship later ( e.g. by
never revealing them to the outside world ). In my case, I know I would more
thoroughly if I wasn't facing constant deadline pressure. Perhaps we could
have a situation that is more you either present some results of your research
or are given an oral examination that requires quick thinking.

College could be far more fun than it is, and far more educational. As it
exists, it is a tedious compromise between an education and a certification.
As a society, we need to figure out what we really want, because we are most
certainly doing it wrong (whether my solutions are correct or not) at every
level (I could recite what I learned about graduate school, but I have gone on
long enough).

~~~
kbhangui
Can you remove the <pre> tag on your post, it's breaking the entire page.

~~~
duskwuff
Add this to your userContent.css (or equivalent):

    
    
      pre { white-space: pre-wrap; }
    

Works wonders. :)

~~~
mkyc
if this page is still broken, paste this into the url bar:

javascript: document.body.innerHTML=document.body.innerHTML+"<style>pre {
white-space: pre-wrap; }</style>";

(Sorry, double comment, I think I messed something up while messing with this.
Also, it kills most of the current style. Anyone have a better variant? Might
be good to have as a bookmarklet.)

------
colinplamondon
School is how you pay for your free time.

When you're an adult you have to take financial risk to pay for time to work
for free time to work on what you believe in. When you're a kid, your parents
pay the bills and the health industry allows your parents' health insurance to
cover to you- you have no financial risk. However, the devil's bargain is that
you waste eight hours a day at school. It sucks, so get working on what
matters.

You write well and you are clearly smart so you're also smart enough to get
the grades you want. Get over yourself and stop looking at it as intellectual
stimulation- instead, put in the amount of work necessary to get the grades
you require. If you want to go to college, look up the average entrance scores
and give yourself enough wiggle room to get in with ease. If you don't want to
get in college, just put in the work to pass and push the rest of the time
towards learning what it is you want to learn.

------
jaxn
Most of the comments seem to being suggestions on how to make conforming
easier. That is a great way to go if the original poster wants to grow up to
be a really kick ass employee / soldier / middle manager, etc.

Dropping out of high school was one of the best things I have ever done with
my life. Not because I was too smart or too anti-social, etc. I just wanted to
do other things. So I did.

If you focus on growing and learning then you can take whatever path you want.
It is riskier and scarier, but I think it is worth it.

I am 31 years old and I have lived a great and varied life so far. I was a
pastry chef at a fine dining restaurant, a social organizer working with non-
profits, a high school teacher, a startup programmer, a BI consultant, and
more. Now I own a couple of retail franchises work on my own startup and play
with my kids.

If you have the drive and guts to take the road less traveled, I say go for
it. Dropping out is not just for losers.

------
tc7
I can't directly relate -- I was homeschooled from grade 1 up, started college
classes (at community college) at 15, transferred at 17 and finished my
bachelor's at 19.

But as far as I recall, once I started doing College classes, I didn't really
do any more 'high school' classwork. I took the GED to be eligible for
financial aid, but I believe I still took the year-end test for 12th grade, so
I 'officially' finished as well..

I doubt I was as knowledgeable as you, though, if you're already reading
hacker news. I didn't know it was 'really' possible to have a startup, though
I did web sites for people.

Point being, you don't necessarily have to choose between two more years of
boredom and not having a HS diploma. You can pretty much take the GED and
start college, and I really doubt that would work against you.

Community college might feel like more of the same for you, but at least you
can structure your classes to have more time to work.

------
screwperman
Just to put my advice in perspective: I'm an Indian who will possibly be
attending (a pretty good) public university this year. I'm the typical
HN/reddit geek: started programming when I was 9, know around 9 programming
languages, quite some bit of theory, etc. etc. In school in India, I was bored
all the time, got mediocre grades, and had donkeys for teachers. Here's what I
feel you should do:

 _1\. Challenge yourself_

So, you've got to choose from these kinds of activities:

    
    
      A: Activities that you enjoy doing
      B: Activities that *might* impress (say) the college admissions staff
    

I mostly did stuff exclusive to type A; _bad idea_. Of course, _never_ do
anything that comes only within B. Find what comes under the union of the two.

You're in America: you don't hunt for opportunities, you are flooded with
them. Someone on this thread recommended "taking every AP exam available".
Sure, do that: it's really important. But that's not ambitious _at all_ : AP
exams cover only about 10% of what Indian entrance examinations do, and you
get to use "calculators" and "appendices" (more like textbooks). _Do something
real_ , like aspire to be an IMO/IOI/IPhO/IChO/ISEF medalist (if you don't
know what those are, shame on you).

 _2\. Manage your time_

I was absolutely dismal at this. But I've started doing it for a month and it
really does wonders: I have stopped procrastinating and started to feel less
stressed out. I'd recommend you watch the late Randy Pausch's _other_ lecture
(<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTugjssqOT0>) or read Getting Things Done.
Most of HN can give better advice.

 _3\. Skip school_ (a lot)

It took me a lot of effort to get my parents to allow me to do this. Alas, it
was too late then. Usually, teachers do more harm than good. Read the right
books instead of attending their classes.

------
Hoff
I was going to suggest a GED and early admission into college and such here
(as others have, and that's a potential path I wish I knew about when I was
your age), but there's another good option here.

Continue to slog through school (and that was no fun in my era, and has likely
only become more of a slog) and get into every AP and into every local college
class you can, and look to get an LLC and start up your own business and your
own products. See if you're ready to operate a small business or a startup
entirely on your own, or if you prefer to follow a, um, more traditional
educational and career and corporate path.

If you work through the LLC and the AP and the college classes and
particularly work with the local school authorities around this, you might be
able to achieve a "reduced sentence" for your time in high school, too.
Stranger things have happened.

------
CalmQuiet
Everybody needs some some kindred souls. Finding them can be tough. But
(paraphrasing Gandhi), "Be the future you want to see." Why not start a
"computer club" "programming club"... whatever (if there's not one).

It'll look good on applications to college/job. And it'll draw to you the type
of people who are _sympatico_...

How are you at explaining things to those slower than yourself? Maybe you (or
your club) could offer some tutoring help to those less fortunate (in brains).
You could set up a facebook or other social site for linking kids needing
tutors with those wanting to tutor (whatever subject). Harnessing your gifts
to serve in the school will not only give you personal satisfaction but will
enhance your social contacts. [And remember: it will also bring you some
(unexpected) challenges to help round out your growth.]

\--my 2 cents.

Wishing you the best with it!

------
dfield
I'm a high school senior right now and attribute my success in high school to
a dual enrollment program I've been taking advantage of. Basically, I worked
it out so that for the past three years my education is supplemented by
college math classes. I've also been interning over the past year at a well
known company in the tech sector. It's been a lot of work, but it has also
paid off. I've learned a ton and haven't gotten bored. When things get dull in
regular high school classes (basically when I go to class), I do homework or
program.

If I hadn't done the dual-enrollment program, I would have probably taken the
proficiency exam and gone to a community college. Instead, I'm graduating with
the rest of my class and going to an Ivy League university. I can't emphasize
how great dual-enrollment is.

------
giftedadvocate
There are lots of opportunities at www.cogito.org. If you're looking for more
detail about how to manage your school experience better - I've found the list
of 4Cs of School Success helpful at this link - (pp18-19) -
[http://books.heinemann.com/shared/onlineresources/E00632/cha...](http://books.heinemann.com/shared/onlineresources/E00632/chapter2.pdf)

Is there a way for you to stretch yourself within the confines of school? Are
you allowed to test out of anything, study with a mentor, or maybe take some
dual-enrollment classes?

Here is an interesting article by Tracy Cross -
<http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10479.aspx>

I hope you can find a good fit soon. Hang in there. It's not fair to be
marking time.

------
subhash
I had similar grudges about my school, but money and location didn't favor me,
so I just bore it grudgingly. From what I have heard about the US, I am
assuming the following might actually be possible:

\- Convince your school to miss classes if you demonstrate great scores and
promise to keep them

\- Convince your parents to let you take a year off, promising to continue
where you left off later and use the time to pursue your interest of study.
You will either confirm your suspicion that school is a waste of time or gain
completely different perspectives. Either case is a win

\- Homeschooling. I am surprised your parents haven't come up with this option
yet. I am not familiar with the US educational system, but can't you just
study on your own and appear for qualifying exams that you would have normally
taken after high school?

------
jgalvez
I quit school at age 14, without even completing 8th grade. Best thing I've
done in my life, despite the hell my parents and family gave me for that.

I got a book published (Flash programming book in Brazilian portuguese, not
that much of a big deal), still at 14, and after that I've never been
unemployed. Today I'm 23, I'm living together with my fiancee and I have all
the means to go to college if I want to, without getting myself into any debt.
But none of my employers seem to have ever been bothered with the fact that
I'm not graduated in C.S.

So at least for me, I think, quitting school pretty much defined what I am and
what I do today. If I had stayed in school I would be probably still
financially dependent on my parents and would not have had all the motivation
I had to move forward in life.

------
mjtokelly
I left HS after 10th grade to go to Bard College at Simon's Rock:

<http://simons-rock.edu/>

Simon's Rock is unusualy in that the _entire_ entering class has left high
school early. You're treated like an adult there, allowed to make your own
decisions and mistakes. If you're chomping at the bit to get on with your
life, Simon's Rock is a great way to do it.

It's a mostly liberal arts school, but the technical classes were phenomenal.
I was able to transfer to Carnegie Mellon for my junior year, no problem--all
credits transferred, and I was just as well prepared as the other Physics
juniors.

------
mattchew
Sounds like you are aware of the options. You can get a GED or try to get into
college early. You can homeschool or maybe find a school like the Sudbury
Valley model. You can keep attending school and try to push the boundaries of
what you can get away with or otherwise game the system.

But you can't make your school not-school. It's always going to be boring,
mostly pointless, mostly a waste of time. Accept this and deal with it.

Or you can stay frustrated and angry about it instead. This is totally normal,
expected, and acceptable teenager behavior--it worked fine for me--but it
won't actually change anything.

Good luck.

------
Pipedreamergrey
You may want to look into whether your state has a Dual Enrollment program.
Many states, such as Michigan, allow students to complete their coursework at
a University or community college of their choice while enrolled in a high
school so long as the curriculum meets certain guidelines.

I got bored of high school my Junior year, and I spent my senior year at a
community college. It wasn't that I disliked high school, I just sick of
putting up with the other kids.

The upside of dual enrollment is that the state pays for the credits, which
ends up drastically reducing the cost of your college degree.

------
gcheong
I suggest reading the essay by Joseph Brodsky "Listening to Boredom":

[http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/paleopsych/2005-May/00325...](http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/paleopsych/2005-May/003252.html)

Also this quote by Thomas Henry Huxley seems apt here:

"Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make
yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you
like it or not. It is the first lesson that ought to be learned and however
early a man’s training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns
thoroughly."

------
ibsulon
Even at good jobs, entry level workers end of doing many things that are
wastes of time, both apparent and real. Learning the focus to power through
those is half the battle.

Further, a 3.5 is not "decent enough grades" anymore -- they're average. Grade
inflation has led us to lose perspective.

Finally, the best thing I did for myself in my last two years of high school
was learning to interact with people in my age group but not my peer group.
Breaking out of an introvert's shell is very, very hard. It's not impossible.

------
mcotton
Don't drop out. I "finished early" but in all practicality it was the same
thing. It seems like a good idea but I promise that my GED isn't worth
anything.

I have been able to get good programming jobs based on my ability to get
projects done. I wish I would have finished high school because now I'm taking
online classes to figure out things I should have already learned. Google
answers a lot of my questions but that isn't the same as learning it correctly
the first time.

Who cares how bad school is, Don't drop out.

------
lsc
get a real job.

Seriously. I hated school as well. I got a gig first working at a mom and pop
computer repair place, and then as the windows/netware monkey at the county
offices. At both jobs I worked with people old enough to be my parents or
grandparents, but it really made me feel... human. they appreciated me and
treated me like a real person. They treated me as an adult, really; it made
sense, I was doing a job normally done by an adult (even if they were paying
me minimum wage)

Add to that, if you don't have an education, you _need_ work experience. I got
out of highschool in '97 or so... and jumped in to a .com job. It would have
been harder without the industry experience. I survived the crash, and make
pretty good money as a *NIX SysAdmin now.

but I think getting a job that counts (even if it's supporting windows boxes
in an office, it's still industry experience.) is very important. The social
aspects are probably as important as anything else. just being treated like a
human being is a wonderful (and shocking) experience for a high school
student.

If I had to do it again, I would have fought my parents harder. I tested out
of highschool in my junior year (the test is extremely simple.) but my parents
wouldn't let me quit because they didn't think I would go to college and they
wanted me to have a highschool degree and not an equivalency. That was, of
course, such bullshit. most of my co workers have a bs or ms. I leave my
education off my resume. Nobody asks to see my high school diploma. (sure,
some jobs would be easier to get with a college degree, but really, most of
them accept experience instead. Nobody cares about what you did in
highschool.)

------
zkarcher
If something feels like a massive waste of time, then it probably is. Find a
way out.

California had a "general competency exam", that supposedly proved you were
sufficiently educated. You could take the exam in your Junior year and exit
school early. I really wish I had done this. Some of my friends passed the
exam (supposedly it was easy; "Which of these shapes is a triangle?" etc.) and
started college and/or working earlier. They ended up quite successful.

------
sethg
Go back to the teachers who inspired you earlier and ask their advice on how
to "work within the system" to make high school less of a pointless burden for
you. You might be able to get an "independent study" credit to replace some of
your classes, for example. The teachers would know more than anyone else how
to pull the appropriate bureaucratic levers and what officially-forbidden
arrangements will be overlooked in practice.

------
antdaddy
It would be helpful if you could provide more information: 1\. how are your
grades? define 'decent'... 2\. do you have friends at school?

~~~
anonymous1618
1\. My grades are A's and B's. They've gone down recently out of apathy but
they're still not bad. I know they're important to college, but grades are
something I just abhor because I feel they really diminish the value of
learning the subject. Like I said though, they're "decent": I've had no C's,
and the lowest GPA I've had is a 3.17, which is mediocre, but it's tough to
make myself care. Really it's just a matter of extrinsic vs. intrinsic
motivation for me; I try to motivate myself to do better with grades because
there's supposed to some benefit later on of getting into a better college and
all that, but I'm just more motivated to do other things like learn
programming languages or typography or how to play the drums, or just read.
Probably a typical teenager thing to say, sorry.

2\. A few, I could 'network' more as some people above me said. I guess I've
been aversive to that because it seems that's the only thing most of my peers
want to do. If that'll make it more enjoyable though, I'll try...

~~~
sethg
"Networking", as generally understood, involves going around and schmoozing
lots of people, collecting their business cards, etc. If you're an introvert,
like most geeks, this is torture. Instead of building shallow relationships
with lots of people, I recommend building deep relationships with a few. Find
a small group working on some activity you're interested in, one where you'll
have to take on some role other than "alpha geek"--maybe writing for the
school paper or acting in a play, or something like that. The small group
makes it more tolerable to an introvert and the shared activity means you're
not just socializing for the sake of socializing.

------
staunch
What's your aversion to home schooling? You could get a job (part-time maybe)
as a programmer and do your school work at the same time.

------
tjic
You sound like a smart kid.

I hated most of school up to college as well, because 95% of it was just a
pure time waste.

What are your Ruby skills like?

Do you want a job? ;-)

(Only 50% joking...)

~~~
anonymous1618
I don't know Ruby (right now my favorite scripting language is Python), but
that sounds like a good language to learn over the summer, thanks :)

------
pclark
what do you want us to tell you?

drop out? startup? sucker up and go to college? do as your parents say?

just do whatever makes you happy, and fuck the rest.

~~~
runningskull
Ugh. This is so misleading. What you really should say is

"do what makes you truly happy for the longest amount of time".

That implies some thinking about the future instead of blindly following
something that may lead to short-term but not long-term happiness. Also, it
requires that you figure out what makes you truly happy, not just surface-
level happy.

It's a lot more difficult to accomplish, but so very much more rewarding.

~~~
weaksauce
I voted up your comment but the problem with dishing out that kind of advice
to a teenager is that there is still a lot of living to do before you realize
what it is that will make you happiest.

------
huherto
Consider yourself lucky. There are plenty of paths open for you. (And that is
why is difficult)

If I went back to high school? I would really focus in sports. It would teach
me discipline, team work, and a lot of social skills.

After that, Try to get in a good college so you meet a lot interesting people.
Follow your curiosity.

...keep hanging out in HN. Lot's of talent here.

------
10ren
Suggestion: have a chat with those few good teachers you had (even if you are
not at their school/s anymore).

They may know more about high-school education than us; they certainly know
more about you and what would suit you - they may be able to assist in a
solution, in a practical sense.

------
chaqke
Find a side-interest that you can do in class, after completing class work.
It'll incentivize you to complete your class work sooner, and prepares you for
being able to handle multiple things at the same time...especially if you have
interest in that side thing.

------
psyklic
I made a computer program or computer game for almost every project they'd let
me make one for. I also started a video game development club!

------
keefe
Suck it up and focus on building your portfolio to get into a good college -
and selecting a major you'll be happy working in for 50 years.

------
sundarurfriend
It's very good that you came out with this instead of shyly shelfing it away
as a 'selfish' thought. I've been through exactly what you're going through,
and _it's not selfish in any way_. You want to achieve your potential (which
in the longer run, would help the world in some way), and high school is
proving a hindrance to you.

Many of the other commenters don't seem to understand your issue (assuming I
do). Yes, you can socialize a lot in high school and participate in other
things. Most of these 'other things' turn out to be as fake as the 'education'
the school provides. But that's even not the issue here. I would bet that,
even with a lot of 'socializing', unless you lose your core thirst to learn
(which would definitely be a bad thing), you would be left with an empty
feeling and a bitter taste at the end of the day.

And no, "real life is boring too" is no more true that you make it to be. Most
adults stick to the 'system' (just like most students don't think of how much
high school is wasting their time and stick to it) and do not pursue what they
truly enjoy. When your actual job (and its purpose) is something you truly
enjoy, these 'mundane' tasks of dealing with accountants and such would not
appear big to you at all - they'll just happen.

I felt the exact same way as you do in college (which is not very different
from school where I live), and coped with it with some tactics. The first one
was what charlesju's comment says: "When I was in High School I used to pass
the time by programming on my graphing calculator. I'm sure these days you can
get by with reading a book in class or maybe even a small netbook. If none of
those things are possible, just start a project and doodle your algorithms
while you're in class and code them up at night. There are a lot of ways to
circumvent the system and do something you like to do, don't just give in to
your immediate urges to shut it out. At the very least, you should graduate
High School." (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=583462>)

Some other comments here that I think would be useful to you:

"Treat high school as an experience, not as a place to go to learn- you've
mastered the learning part (at least you better by getting rockstar grades),
make a good effort to master the rest." - unexpected

"Stick with it, for now. It's not so much that it's a very valuable
experience, it's that without it you will be locked out of so many other
things that really are worthwhile. I know that two more years feels like an
eternity right now, but trust me, it's not." - felixc And a word of caution
here, see if applies to you: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=583453> \-
tracy

Finally, whatever you do, get rid of this 'guilt' that you are doing something
wrong. I myself was affected a lot by it, until at the end when we interviewed
for jobs, I saw clearly that those who had gone with the system mostly failed,
but those of us who tried to break out and learn ourselves faired exceedingly
well. So be aware that you are part of an elite group and would be very
welcome at the real world.

Unfortunately, many of the comments here too seem to reinforce that you are
simply being immature, but your comment indicates to me you are not. In that
case, be clear about this: some of us just can't bring ourselves to go along
with the 'system'. Once you've seen how mind numbingly foolish it is, it is
very difficult to stay there (I'm reminded of the film The Matrix). So,
there's nothing _wrong_ about that being difficult for you.

But realise that this difficulty is something you have to overcome. Simply
dropping out will complicate many other things in life, so I would not
recommend it. Instead, understand yourself, and find ways to work around the
system and make it palatable to you. If you forget about what the classes are
actually supposed to teach and instead think deeply about what is being
taught, you'll find that every moment can teach you a lot. Same goes for any
work you're assigned - simply overperform (according to your standards - the
school may not consider it excellent performance, but you know to ignore it).
Research deeply about any assignment you're given, and if you're unable to do
that (due to say lack of time), brainstorm yourself while writing down (or
typing out) about the concept there. If you do this sincerely, you'll find
that you enjoy the process, while excellent grades come your way without even
all the 'hard work' the 'sincere' students put in.

To summarize the idea - you're interested in learning a lot, so _use_ the
things you do at school to do it; when you do the school work with
concentration and dedication, you'll find that you've learnt a lot more than
the teacher meant you to, while enjoying every moment of it.

------
req2
Find something inconspicuous to work on during your classes. For me, this was
usually math teasers of the sort you might find at a math competition. Copy
some down, work on what you can. There are a lot of forums online that provide
questions of all different levels of difficulty and all levels of
accessibility. (I have unfortunately lost the link, but there is a
particularly good site that tends toward puzzles that require little more than
simple probability and logic.)

------
niels_olson
My wife and I are seriously looking into homeschooling right now as we get
ready to move to Virginia. Thanks for posting.

------
blue1
It is perfectly normal (and sane) to hate school. Protest, but don't whine.
And do your work anyway.

------
jsonmiller
So the goal is to reduce your boredom in class, which is probably easiest to
do by giving you something else to do while you're there and/or reduce the
amount of time you're there because public schools are a disaster for smart
kids (ref <http://sex-death-and.com/blog/?p=17>). Okay.

First of all, unless something's changed, you should be able to have a
driver's license by grade 11 (usually age 16). You can use this to take
Community College courses. If you are feeling really clever, you can work with
your school to get credit for these such that you don't have to take the HS
versions -- but they also count as college credit, which we call "huge tuition
savings" on the other side of the bill.

Second of all, you need to be participating in socializing activities. I'm a
big fan of speech & debate (because there's not a job opening in the world
that doesn't have "strong communication skills" as a prerequisite :-p -- the
movie Rocket Science is a not-unreasonable depiction of the activity), but
I've seen/heard that robotics and electronics clubs are becoming popular
thanks to more-accessible components and information. If those don't strike
your fancy or aren't available, then make your own. Do you realize how cheap a
digital camcorder and video editing software is these days? Round up some
people that don't suck and make a movie. I've had a whole bunch of friends
that have done it, some in HS and others in College (see: "The Gamers" which
was surprisingly profitable and "The Gamers: Dorkness Rising").

Third, if you're lucky then you're in a college town and if you're as smart as
you claim then you may be able to be a lab aide for professors at that
college. You don't have to want to go to school there, but getting in on that
kind of experience is very valuable and also looks great on applications to
the colleges that you do want to go to. (My youngest sister-in-law did this.)

Fourth, I would speculate that because you're posting here and you're reading
Paul and all this other stuff that you're not very well diversified in how
you're trying to challenge yourself. Let me remind you that an awful lot of
technical jobs didn't exist when those of us filling them were kids, so really
drilling into specialized knowledge when you're a kid may have a detrimental
impact on your ability to adjust to certain change later in life. I would
suggest that you spend more time doing art, music, writing, etc. (Consider:
Paul Graham would almost certainly not be so capable of a writer if he hadn't
gone wacky and gotten his degree in Philosophy. Also, if you doubt the value
of art, go read Mac Hall -- there's a party sequence where Ian demonstrates
the value of competence with a sketchpad at a party that always makes me grin.
<http://www.machall.com/view.php?date=2001-03-21>) The crucial thing is that
you can bring in another skill that you've cultured to make your particular
synthesis of capabilities unique and innovative.

Finally, it will almost certainly get easier. Lacking any kind of public
funding for talented and gifted programs, my senior year of HS was ~40%
independent study of one form or another. Not that I would suggest being quite
the slacker I was -- I used the "Theorem of Theorems" which stated that "if a
state-certified math book taught it to us, it must be true enough" to shortcut
through entirely too many math problems -- but with a good mobile internet
device and enough initiative to set your own goals, you'll be able to make
better use of your time in the near future.

------
jcapote
Drop out. I did the same thing at your age, best decision I ever made.

------
mkyc
if this page is still broken, paste this into the url bar:

javascript: document.body.innerHTML=document.body.innerHTML+"<style>pre {
white-space: pre-wrap; }</style>";

------
niels_olson
what the hell is wrong with the word wrap on this thread?

------
exsuicidal
Read Ayn Rand.

------
Ardit20
Dude you have plenty of time, how about getting some friends and enjoying
yourself a bit.

~~~
Andys
I agree with the first part. As much as I disliked school, the best thing
about it was all the free time - I've never had as much free time since then.

So my advice is if you really dislike the schoolwork, just ignore it and do
the bare minimum to pass, and spend your free time on more interesting things.
You can't really quite school because you are still too young and immature.

But don't feel guilty about skipping schoolwork as long as you are spending
your time on something productive and worthwhile.

------
numbchuckskills
1\. You aren't interested in school because you're not making your time at
school interesting.

2\. You are naive. Highschool is a mechanism to socialize you and a filter for
colleges. Nothing that goes on there is a waste of time.

3\. Start acting like a Gr. 10 student.

~~~
lisper
I think a very important point is in danger of being buried in glibness here:

> Highschool is a mechanism to socialize you and a filter for colleges.
> Nothing that goes on there is a waste of time.

Being able to effectively interact with other people is an _extremely_
important skill in life, and will become more so in the future as the world
gets more crowded and less wealthy. There's an old aphorism: it's not what you
know, it's who you know. It took me twenty years to learn the hard way that
this aphorism contains more than a grain of truth. It is, in fact, the whole
ballgame. If you're smart but no one can stand to work with you, you will
lose. Contrariwise, if you're dim but people love you you will do fine.

So if you don't want to waste the next two years, here's a project for you:
figure out a way to get 100 of your peers working on something -- anything --
together. It doesn't have to make a profit (though that would be good), it
doesn't have to make the world a better place (though that would be good too),
but it should not be actively destructive (that makes it too easy) and every
one of those 100 people has to be doing it because they want to. They all have
to be enthusiastic about it. Note that what I'm suggesting is different from
becoming "popular", though becoming popular might be helpful (or it might
not). You have to actually organize these people into doing some kind of
productive activity. Just inviting 100 people to a beer bash doesn't count.

If you achieve that you will have just had the most useful two years of your
life. Good luck.

~~~
billybob
"Being able to effectively interact with other people is an extremely
important skill in life..."

Absolutely. High school is a great time to learn to get along with, and like,
all sorts of people. You have your whole life to study and learn. But knowing
how to get along with people is more important than any other skill you can
learn.

Beware developing an "I'm smarter than everyone around me" attitude like most
geeks have. It limits us, both in success and in happiness.

------
si2
High school is rough, especially for those intelligent enough to be reading
hackernews. Its pretty far from a reality of the world and I would say
appreciate the lack of responsibility expected of you and learn a programming
language as well as a musical instrument. And even start learning a foreign
language as well as SAT vocab cards during class. Also, I recommend skipping a
lot. It got me through :)

------
xxxfff
start doing drugs... really - it's a good time for it.

