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Teenagers are better behaved and less hedonistic (2018)

economist.com

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Re: Teenagers are better behaved and less hedonistic (2018)

#351

Post by ge96 »

Graduated in 2010, immediately went to university didn't really know how school/finance worked(personal fault). Just went for phys/eng dual major... failed out(personal problem). I had things in my favor too eg. poor person grants. I picked up debt, I was not into computers/coding before this, it was like a chore to do a C++ class and just did what I needed to get by... luckily the thought of getting rich through making websites/ad revenue entered my mind in 2013 or so and I learned how make websites "full stack" mean while being unaware of sql-injection, xss and trivial stuff like that. My website ideas were dumb as hell but I still learned(LAMP at the time). A few people helped me out a lot Quick is one guy, but yeah, I try to return the favor now/help people asking questions.

Anyway I'm an SE now, not quite 6 figures, no degree... I don't know if I lucked out or what... but not having a degree is always on my mind but it does seem to boil down to competence and other possible avenues eg. freelance or your own businesses... I'm still not out of debt but if my life continues I should get out soon.

Just funny as I kept dreading my college days ending because my GPA was bad, I had debt and I didn't know how I was going to make it. I had so little clue about life back then... initially I was washing plates and what not, now the amount of money I make for my area is nuts... I can't imagine failing/going back... I don't live in extraordinary means but hard to imagining making 1/4 a 1/3 of what I make per hour.

Oh 96 is not indicative of my age I just choose that random number, I'm in my later 20's though

I'm pursuing freedom now (FiRe) as the fear of losing my job is always in the back of my mind/having to live on some schedule too... I don't need much.

Re: Teenagers are better behaved and less hedonistic (2018)

#352

Post by sk5t »

kradroy wrote: post #189
_5yps wrote: post #27

16-year-old here. My experience is probably markedly different from most teenagers in the US (I'm an immigrant who goes to a competitive school full of other immigrants) but I find that, for the most part, this article hits the nail on the head. High School is nothing like the usual media portrayal - I've never heard anyone even talk about a party, nobody's doing anything stronger than weed, nobody's fucking or even…

Dear trend-following worrier, For all the effort you're making know this: you'll eventually be evaluated by a Gen-X or Millennial hiring manager. We largely don't care where you went to college. We've learned that name recognition means very little. It'll get you a job, but if you're one of those kids who "does nothing" on an extracurricular team, it'll show through on the job. You won't get promoted. We fucking hate…

Parent worrier has some funny notions, to boot. Like, Cornell _is_ an Ivy League school by definition. It just isn't Harvard or Yale.

On the hiring front, undergrad school can sometimes tell you a bit about who a person thought they were in high school, and about their penchant for overachievement. Some schools might help instill different perspectives on engineering and the role of technology. But if you're not hiring right out of school, I'm with you on focusing on demonstrated ability to get things done.

Re: Teenagers are better behaved and less hedonistic (2018)

#353

Post by woodandsteel »

vostok wrote: post #146
matwood wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, how things have change from when I was a teen in HS in the early 90s. I was a 'responsible' one because I had a job. Few people thought about 'getting in' (IIRC the valedictorian went to the AF academy), but otherwise we all just wanted to graduate and go to one of the 2 big state schools or the local college. I was smart enough, i.e. paid attention in class, that I never had to study (that caught up with me in…

I would guess that more of this difference is explained by class/social factors than by the passage of time.

No, things have gotten much harder for those who are not born to the very rich. I know, I went decades ago to highly-ranked high school, and it is amazing to me, and sad, how much harder students who want to get ahead have to study.

And then there is the other 2/3 of society, who have been going downhill economically for decades.

Re: Teenagers are better behaved and less hedonistic (2018)

#354

Post by eecc »

_5yps wrote: post #27

16-year-old here. My experience is probably markedly different from most teenagers in the US (I'm an immigrant who goes to a competitive school full of other immigrants) but I find that, for the most part, this article hits the nail on the head. High School is nothing like the usual media portrayal - I've never heard anyone even talk about a party, nobody's doing anything stronger than weed, nobody's fucking or even…

You read much more mature than your age. Not sure if this comment is some sort of humblebrag or a 40-something pretending some alter-ego.

Taken at face value I’d say stay steady, ‘tis a good path you’re on

Re: Teenagers are better behaved and less hedonistic (2018)

#355

Post by woodandsteel »

esoterica wrote: post #222
matwood wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, how things have change from when I was a teen in HS in the early 90s. I was a 'responsible' one because I had a job. Few people thought about 'getting in' (IIRC the valedictorian went to the AF academy), but otherwise we all just wanted to graduate and go to one of the 2 big state schools or the local college. I was smart enough, i.e. paid attention in class, that I never had to study (that caught up with me in…

Things haven't changed that much since the 90s, you were just belonged to a very different demographic than the parent commenter.

No, that's not true. Decades ago I went to a high school that included a large number of that demographic, and things were far easier.

Re: Teenagers are better behaved and less hedonistic (2018)

#356

Post by Gene_Parmesan »

lambdasquirrel wrote: post #334
alexhutcheson wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NYC, SF, Silicon Valley, Seattle, LA, etc. are all full of successful people who went to public universities that didn’t require crazy high school credentials to get into.

If you want to be an engineer and deal with tech culture, sure. We can be a little myopic about that here on HN. Engineering is not "status" oriented, and going to a nice school doesn't have the weight it does, if you want to be doctor and heal people, for example. School still matters. We can't all start startups.

Hell, I'm a software developer and don't even have a CS degree. Did I feel like the bar was higher for me than it may have been if I did have one? Sure, but I was still able to overcome it. Granted I'm not in an environment like the Valley (out of choice as much as anything), but I am an actual, real software dev.

On the other hand, in my past life I was a lawyer. I worked my ass off in high school to get into a top journalism school, worked hard in college and studied my ass off for the LSAT to get into a top-20 law school, and that STILL wasn't enough for me to get anywhere close to a high powered legal job.

The worlds are very much different. I obviously prefer the more merit-based environment that's still found in tech, where "can you do the job" still trumps most things. But things are much much different in other environments.

Re: Teenagers are better behaved and less hedonistic (2018)

#357

Post by 7thaccount »

WalterBright wrote: post #348
7thaccount wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I graduated from High School in 2008 and in my small area, it was only just becoming possible to take college classes (dual enrollment) with the local community college. The next year, most of the AP and Honors kids were taking several classes to at least knock out all the non-relevant classes you have to take for any degree. This likely saved them time and money in college since if they went into something like phys…

> if they went into something like physics, they already had credit for psychology, history, English, calculus, chemistry...etc. Calculus and chemistry are very relevant to physics!

Hey Walter, I should've phrased that differently.

With less time used taking classes like Psych 101 (which is generally a waste of time for engineering and science majors) you have more time to study and complete assignments in your core classes. The university says it wants you to take these classes to be "well rounded", but honestly, they just want more money from students.

Regarding Calculus and Chemistry (all important to physics of course);There were several students I knew that clipped out of all of the freshman/sophomore chemistry and calculus classes and just started with organic chemistry and differential equations. This meant freshman year was a little rougher, but they were done with all of their non-major courses by sophomore year, so they were able to take a lower course load in their next three years and better absorb the core classes. I majored in electrical engineering, and still really struggled with all my calculus classes despite taking AP Calculus in high school. So instead of just focusing on circuits, coding, control systems...etc, I had to split my time with stuff like chemistry/calculus/random classes like Psych, so there was a lot less time to use for homework, projects, and harder subjects (assembly and microprocessors aren't too bad by themselves, but when you're mentally sharing that same space with a bunch of other classes it is brutal). Of course, most colleges are like this, but I think I'd rather have less required subjects, but time to go into them in additional depth.

Re: Teenagers are better behaved and less hedonistic (2018)

#358

Post by Gibbon1 »

Joof wrote: post #311
Gibbon1 wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kind of reminds me of the kids I grew up around in San Jose back in the 1960's and 70's. A lot of them thought they could party, skate through school and then go work for FMC or some such just like their dads. If I had to guess 75% of them have long ago left California because they couldn't cut it. At least in the Bay Area teens appear to be way more buttoned down and smart than my generation. Don't get me started on…

I've always felt that this is a misconception. My friends did a ton of drugs, had parties and participated in hobbies, especially in college. Now they're all Engineers, PhDs, Doctor's and Entrepreneurs. They just happened to work hard at school too. They don't have kids cause they're busy, so it might be as bad. But no, it's because they're rowdy kids doing 'bad things'.

> They just happened to work hard at school too

There you go.

> But no, it's because they're rowdy kids doing 'bad things'.

Did your friends rape girls at parties and steal cars?

Re: Teenagers are better behaved and less hedonistic (2018)

#359

Post by [deleted] »

lambdasquirrel wrote: post #334
alexhutcheson wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NYC, SF, Silicon Valley, Seattle, LA, etc. are all full of successful people who went to public universities that didn’t require crazy high school credentials to get into.

If you want to be an engineer and deal with tech culture, sure. We can be a little myopic about that here on HN. Engineering is not "status" oriented, and going to a nice school doesn't have the weight it does, if you want to be doctor and heal people, for example. School still matters. We can't all start startups.

[deleted]

Re: Teenagers are better behaved and less hedonistic (2018)

#360

Post by vinay427 »

alexhutcheson wrote: post #242
vegetablepotpie wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish adults understood the realities of being young in 2020. Even when I graduated HS in 2007 I could tell my experience and the academic expectations I needed to live up to were much higher than it was for my mom. After I graduated I saw younger friends take more AP classes than I did and do more leadership activities than I did. Expectations are always ramping up. It is no party. Our laws and bureaucracies haven’…

FWIW, this isn't so much a story of "being young in 2020" as it is "being young in 2020 in the hyper-competitive culture of major coastal metro areas of the US". This phenomenon is actually pretty unique to a handful of metro areas, which happen to be over-represented on HN. In most of the country, bright high school students are focused on getting into their state's flagship public university, and exceptionally succ…

> hyper-competitive culture of major coastal metro areas of the US

I agree with the rest of your comment so I don't want to generally detract, but I think the qualification of major coastal metro areas includes a lot of places where your comment doesn't apply and excludes a lot of others (e.g. the upper Midwest).

I think there are aspects where major coastal metros are outliers, but grade school and public university quality isn't one of them.

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