Ask HN: I'm in 10th grade and I hate school. Any suggestions?

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.

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!

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!

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...)

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.