Ask HN: Friend's 15 year old wants to drop out, I've been asked to intervene

I'd advise the kid to keep his grades up as long as he has to stay in school, but to drop out and get his GED as soon as possible. Even if his business goes bust, as long as his GPA is intact he's got a hell of a college admissions essay on his hands, and honestly colleges won't care whether he got a GED or not as long as his grades while he was there were good. Unlike getting a college degree, there is pretty much zero signaling benefit to finishing high school versus getting a GED, and the kid is 100% correct--high school is a total waste of time from an educational standpoint. The only thing it could buy him is maturity, but it's clear that he understands the importance of developing social skills and if he can manage a dozen employees he's well ahead of the curve in that dimension.

Again, as long as he doesn't tank his grades trying to do both, the kid has nothing to lose here.

The only way I would authorize a highschool dropout is if the kid is ALREADY wildly successful, achieving more than 99% of all humans aged 15 to 25 years old. Only in this circumstance would dropping out to pursue these goals be preferable to getting the paper that verifies your education.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the majority of very successful tech startup founders did finish college and have some life experience. E.g. Elon Musk is a prime example - he got degrees in both Economics and Physics before going on to found Zip2, X.com (precursor to PayPal), SpaceX and Tesla Motors.

He runs the risk of burning out like an over amped/volted light bulb, and winding up in the bread line, without a high school education. He just entered the house of pain, unless his parents are very wealthy and can support him the rest of his life, do not drop out.

If he is not a US Citizen, not having a high school diploma will hurt him.

You're most likely going to be working for the rest of your waking life, five days a week, with minor breaks for vacations. Enjoy school/college while it lasts, make the most of it; there's no rush to get into work because once you get in, unless you strike it rich, there is NO getting out. Only if his prospects for striking it rich are REAL and attainable and in-the-bag, do not drop out.

The highschool/college education combo will benefit you far longer than most companies (no matter how wildly successful they are) will be around. The world is full of snakes and evil people. His performance in getting things done may be eclipsed by someone eating him for lunch, in which case an education in common sense would save him a lifetime of pain.

I passed the test they give pregnant teens (I forget what it's called) which gives you an equivalency, midway through my junior year.

My parents wouldn't let me drop out and go to junior college, explaining that I wouldn't graduate.

Of course, they were right. I am just not good at school.

Two years later, when I did graduate, it was 1997. Within months I had a pretty decent programming job that "required" a college degree.

Nobody has every asked about my high school diploma. (I, of course, never mention it. Why would I? all the jobs I have had "require" a college degree, and I don't have one of those, either.)

Anyhow, I gave my parents shit for years about how much money I'd have made if I had another two years working during the bubble.

We are in another bubble, just like '97. If you have the opportunity to get a job now? do so. Once the bubble pops, it will be /dramatically/ more difficult to get a technical job and earn that almost inestimably valuable "first real job" experience.

You can always go back to college if you can't hack the standards after the bubble pops. (standards went /way/ up in 2001. I traded down, job-wise, but retained my pay grade and even though I was working at a less impressive company, retained a programmer/sysadmin role. I had worked hard and learned a whole lot since '97- there is no way I would have made that cut without the experience I gained in those few years.)

If I had gone to college like everyone said I ought, and gotten out in 2001? Very likely I'd have been unemployed through '06 or so. I'm saying this because one of the guys I worked with in '97... someone more experienced than me, and not significantly worse than me? He ended up making sandwiches through the early oughts. I ended up hiring him for my projects through the mid oughts; He left me for a real job again in '07, if I remember right.

I mean... there must have been some difference such that I was able to retain employment through those years and he wasn't... but he was pretty good. If he couldn't get a real job during those years, I don't think a me without experience could have either.

My point, here, is that the business cycle has a huge effect on how easy it is to find employment. It is /essential/ to take advantage of the good times in the business cycle to build experience you can use to get jobs during the bad times.

I think that he should get his GED and drop out. If he's already running a business with that much revenue, then he stands to learn far more from dropping out than from staying in high school. I think that you should also reframe the situation by not calling it "dropping out." He will be homeschooled in an unschooling environment, which is what it's called when you let kids do what they want. In his case, what he wants to do is run a business with ~$350,000 in revenue. That, to me, is much more valuable life experience than sitting through calculus.

If he decides to go to college later on, if the company fails, then he will have an incredible admissions essay. The very best colleges look for kids who are unique and running his own business would definitely make him stand out. Have his parents read this: http://homeschooling.penelopetrunk.com/2012/04/27/top-univer...