Ask HN: Did Anyone Else Here Simply Not Do Well at School?

As all things in this world, school has changed. I bailed out of high school with a GED because I was skipping so many classes, I was going to fail. I went into college for a short while (Architect), but the lure of employment and the wages that came with it were stronger.

After working a few jobs in Silicon Valley, I built an IT business in Santa Cruz, CA and have now ran it for about 30 years. I took any job that I found something in it I wanted to learn. I wrote database software, installed wiring, servers, eventually telephone systems, security cameras...

Now I work part time in a very rural part of coastal Northern California. I have signed up for and completed quite a few remote education-type courses, I study whatever subject interests me.

So my poor schooling, going from an almost straight-A to almost flunking out entirely had little impact, and now I school myself to my desire.

Do what you want to do, and just go for it. And forget what other people tell you, that is them, you are you :)

I was bad in school during the first 6 years or so. Then something started to click and I got better, especially at languages. I was not putting a lot of work in but was still being able to graduate my technical college with the perfect grades, my German exam work had not a single mistake in it.

Curiously, my feeling is that even years after things still got easier for me. I am convinced that a particular kind of intelligent person might just take longer to get adjusted to the school system. For some this will also happen after school.

I was never very good in high school. If I tried very hard, my best score would always be close to 80%. I never liked being told how and what to study, that kind of environment never fit well with me.

Uni was a much better fit, being able to study and learn in my own time, and on my own way. I still remember my first two years at Uni. Barely passing almost all tests/exams with a 50%-60% despite spending many hours at night in the library to study before going home to do the same. I felt like an imposter faking in class.

One day, after struggling so much, I realised that trying to force myself to learn. Instead, try to understand the material by experimenting with it.

If I was given a piece of code, I would modify it and re-write it from scratch in my own way. Slowly my grades started to improve, but most importantly I began to enjoy Uni much more. I met many people, and found friends to have fun and muck around with.

Looking back now that I'm working full time, it's like a fond memory where I did many embarrassing things with friends.

I'm still early in my career, but almost all my skills/knowledge I've developed came from me experimenting and exploring in my own way in my own time.

I'm not sure if this helps, but that's my rough journey.

School sucked. It sucked because I had ADHD and couldn't operate well in that environment. It sucked because I was a voracious reader and autodidact even at a young age, 3 reading levels ahead of everybody else. In grade school, I frequently knew what was being taught because I'd read about it in books. This exacerbated the ADHD stuff. I could fake my way through tests and essays without reading the assignments. By high school, I had no studying discipline. I was completely unprepared or suited for college, so I spent most of my time in school partying, playing guitar and chasing girls.

My confidence in myself improved after school ended. I can learn almost any topic if I'm allowed to learn it my way, but in school you have to learn it their way. It's not enough to know the answer, you have to show your work, and your process needs to be right. Once you're a grown up, none of that matters anymore.

I was always in trouble. My daughter asked me about this recently: why? Why were you always in detention or the vice principal's office? I couldn't answer. I think I was just a noisy distraction for the kids and teachers.

Yes. Solved it with brute force street smart, tons of time on computers (not gaming) and Ritalin