81–90 of 196 posts
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The experience of schooling varies so incredibly much depending on where you lived and when you attended that all of these conversations are kind of... pointless to have with anonymous people (probably) far away.
Not where you lived, but what you lived, i.e. what class status you were.
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20 years ago Mexico was much different than it is now; 30 years even more so.
30 years ago in central Texas we visited northern Mexico many, many times a year. 20 years ago we thought it was funny other people were starting to be scared to do so. 15 years ago we stopped going. We haven't been back since. It's so weird that, from a central Texas perspective, we used to be a short drive from visiting another COUNTRY, which is now effectively a blank space on the map of the world around us. Ski w…
Similar experience with my family in South and Central Texas as well. They used to go multiple times per year, but never go now. Back then the cartels were more targeted with their violence. Over the past 10-15 years, it has become indiscriminate. A cheap tampiquena plate and a few drinks is not worth the risk.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
20 years ago Mexico was much different than it is now; 30 years even more so.
30 years ago in central Texas we visited northern Mexico many, many times a year. 20 years ago we thought it was funny other people were starting to be scared to do so. 15 years ago we stopped going. We haven't been back since. It's so weird that, from a central Texas perspective, we used to be a short drive from visiting another COUNTRY, which is now effectively a blank space on the map of the world around us. Ski w…
I have never visited Mexico and would love to although I will admit hearing things of this sort and some of the footage I've seen of carjackings and machine-gun fire and the like is admittedly somewhat of a deterrent, but then I consider how many scary things happen here as well and I wonder what's true and what's an exaggeration or simply a case of uniquely bad luck.
This is some real inspiration porn. The kid sounds amazing, and it's tragic that he died so young. I have family that practices unschooling, and in their case, that means fundamentalist indoctrination, no math, no history, near illiteracy, no saleable skills or motivation to get a job or do anything independently. And I just know that they're going to send this to my mom as evidence that they're doing the right thing…
Poor kid, the family are basically gimping his start in life by a decade... it's outright abuse
I mean, do we believe any of this? An 8 year old isn’t running a business and selling to restaurants in a different state. No business would purchase from an 8 year, no business would ship goods from an 8 year old, no bank gives a loan to a 9 year old. The list goes on and on. Incredibly sad that a child has died, but this reads as pure fantasy.
What's weird to me is that somebody would have such a hard time accepting verifiable facts about a gifted outlier who happens to be remarkably young but also reads Hacker News on a Sunday night, presumably because they see themselves as someone who is involved in the tech/startup economy. The whole reason that there's a story here is because it's exceptional. If he hadn't been an outlier, there would be no story. The…
Where are the verifiable facts? Where are the citations? You may see the story as just a list of 'verifiable facts,' but that's absolutely not what it is.
I'm not saying I think the whole thing is made up, but it isn't simply a collection of attestations that any individual can verify. It is an emotional, evocative lifestyle story published by an outlet that, as far as I can tell, is outright owned by the LDS church. And the author? They have one other story credit.
I don't know enough about the LDS or this particular publication to make a specific claim, but I guarantee this story has been affected by some kind of agenda or policy position. I find it interesting that the first two 'political bloggers' who 'discovered' his writing are Bari Weiss (a contentious figure certainly, but also one who has vehemently criticized formal/higher education in the US) and Hannah Frankman of the:
> ...Foundation for Economic Education, a nonprofit foundation focusing on teaching young people principles of entrepreneurship and economics, and promoting home-schooling.
Interesting. Oh, look at that:
> Frankman, too, was working on a story about Kevin as an unschooling success story when he died.
Listen, this is a feel good story, and it's not my intention to pick it apart, but don't go after people for taking a hard look at something they come across online. Further, it's possible your self-image (a young gifted outlier) impacts your ability to approach this critically (or see why other people would approach this story critically).
P.s.
There are also just weird anecdotes in the story that make me even more skeptical like the claim he bought a tractor at age 11. Okay, maybe it was a cheap, used tractor? No, the article later states:
> Kevin financed a brand new shiny green John Deere tractor for $50,000.
What? No. An 11 year old did not finance a brand new $50,000 John Deere tractor. There may be some kind of explanation wherein his parents financed it using their credit, but he makes the payments yada, yada, yada... but the very fact the following quote is presented without further explanation in the fifth paragraph of the story is telling:
> And, in his spare time, he had the task of grading the road to his farm using the John Deere tractor he bought new for himself for his 11th birthday.
edit: grammar
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If you define 'leading countries' narrowly enough, everyone in that category becomes a random edge case. Less flippantly, you should expect people running high-variance strategies to be overrepresented at the top. The people leading countries may go to school and get law degrees, but if they stay the path of doing what everyone else does but better, they end up an unremarkable partner at a law firm or something, not…
> they end up an unremarkable partner at a law firm or something, not POTUS or Bezos or Musk This doesn’t make much sense because people inherit their parents’ wealth and businesses all the time. People also inherit their country’s political leadership e.g. political families and monarchs. To suggest that it requires a special breed of people to get these positions without proof is rather silly
Political dynasties are important but competition erodes them too. Who’s the most important Kennedy under 40? Whoever they are they’re not that important.
> Outside, the sky over Escalante Valley, Utah, is blinding blue and cloudless, I don't enjoy articles that preamble about the lack of clouds in the sky. Here's the meat: > Kevin drowned in a kayaking accident at a friend’s birthday party. At 14, he had just published his autobiography. He was making plans to expand his 350-acre farm to buy up surrounding farms to convert to regenerative agriculture. He was saving mo…
The lack of clouds was relevant. The next few words you left out: > promising no rain as it has for nearly a year The area was experiencing a drought. > And then, after 14 months without rain, the well that supplied their house went dry. For nine months the Coopers hauled water by the barrel for their household needs.
I feel like there is a huge elephant in the room here of how shitty Utah’s support system evidently is. No money to assist his disabled parents and his autistic brother. This whole family was living in desperate, grinding poverty, and that gave this kid a super strong urge to try and get out of it instead of having a childhood.
You wish to take away the very condition which made him uniquely special. He seems like he was enjoying his childhood. Adversity breeds character and this kid had more than character than some entire classrooms.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
30 years ago in central Texas we visited northern Mexico many, many times a year. 20 years ago we thought it was funny other people were starting to be scared to do so. 15 years ago we stopped going. We haven't been back since. It's so weird that, from a central Texas perspective, we used to be a short drive from visiting another COUNTRY, which is now effectively a blank space on the map of the world around us. Ski w…
Would you mind elaborating a bit on what has changed from your perspective please? I have never visited Mexico and would love to although I will admit hearing things of this sort and some of the footage I've seen of carjackings and machine-gun fire and the like is admittedly somewhat of a deterrent, but then I consider how many scary things happen here as well and I wonder what's true and what's an exaggeration or si…
And I have family that still visits there, but it is much more dangerous than it used to be. 30 years ago it was basically "don't drive a brand new vehicle and be polite" and now it's all sorts of things including knowing which highways to avoid, how to stay away from parts of town that may have drug lord activity, etc. There was almost an unwritten rule years ago that you don't mess with normal people or tourists; that rule has been significantly broken.
And the border waits are much more annoying, too; the people who do still cross now have to wait much longer, even with Sentri.