Live data from Hacker News

Escaping High School

skunkledger.substack.com

1–10 of 276 posts

Re: Escaping High School

#2
Decades ago, an old friend of mine had a go-getter son, who started a lawn care business when he was ~15. Son was talented, and his business grew very fast. (This was in a well-to-do suburb, before there were so many lawn care businesses. Plenty of good HS students available to hire, and the trucks were leased.)

For getting into top-ranked colleges, "the summer business I started in HS is already paying me more than your median graduate's full-time job" is a slam-dunk argument.

Re: Escaping High School

#3
From the opening:

> college isn’t doing a good job of setting you up to succeed in real life

Many colleges, especially the prestigious ones, would explicitly deny that as their goal as being too vocational is dismissed for reasons of class history

Re: Escaping High School

#4
post #3

From the opening: > college isn’t doing a good job of setting you up to succeed in real life Many colleges, especially the prestigious ones, would explicitly deny that as their goal as being too vocational is dismissed for reasons of class history

True-ish. OTOH, they're also busy "selling" their diplomas as uber-valuable tickets to financial and social success in life - for which their applicants, students, and families thereof should be willing to pay any price, bear any financial burden...

Re: Escaping High School

#5
Pretty decent collection of reasonable advices

Especially this: Make sure you aren’t just doing a glorified version of trying to earn good grades.

So many people failed on this, mostly because of parents. Dont put effort just for the sake of grades, they are worthless.

Just small nitpick to #1

Learning just in time =/= learning via practice

Learning just in case, the opposite of JIT makes sense too, but is "unpredictably effective" - the stuff you learned may be needed and put you ahead, but may not.

I'd add something about living your own life (career, relations, hobby) instead of being "locked" by your friends. Dont go to X school just because your friends go there.

Friendships decrease/end too. You may barely see them 5 years later due to... life

Re: Escaping High School

#6
It is a decent list, but it probably should be qualified that for a good portion of the population, general education is likely not a bad thing. I love that the article emphasizes practical knowledge, but as I am trying to remember my younger years, I think I rarely thought about any of it in those terms.

Re: Escaping High School

#7
post #2

Decades ago, an old friend of mine had a go-getter son, who started a lawn care business when he was ~15. Son was talented, and his business grew very fast. (This was in a well-to-do suburb, before there were so many lawn care businesses. Plenty of good HS students available to hire, and the trucks were leased.) For getting into top-ranked colleges, "the summer business I started in HS is already paying me more than…

Right after getting his master's degree my friend's father stood before a choice: accept a desk job paying X a month, or make X per job installing and repairing A/C units.

That MSc at least helped tremendously with branding - people could lay their trust in that when he was still starting out.

Re: Escaping High School

#8
post #2

Decades ago, an old friend of mine had a go-getter son, who started a lawn care business when he was ~15. Son was talented, and his business grew very fast. (This was in a well-to-do suburb, before there were so many lawn care businesses. Plenty of good HS students available to hire, and the trucks were leased.) For getting into top-ranked colleges, "the summer business I started in HS is already paying me more than…

I disagree. I think that what college offers is more than an increase in salary. For hyperbole’s sake, you could use the argument of ‘my trust fund is already paying me more than your median graduate’s full-time job’ and most would roll their eyes at such a statement.

Re: Escaping High School

#9
Personally, I’ve always felt that schooling is a waste of time, money, and resources. The default model of civilization is that children are absent from life. This means that kids are missing out on seeing adults interact, so they mature more slowly, and it also means that their life experiences are limited to what happens in a building. Importantly, after 18 years, people in the USA leave school in debt and are no better suited to professional life than when they entered school at 4 or 5. If I could wave a wand and changing things, I’d restructure civilization to expect children to be present everywhere with their parents or other family members, learning by being part of civilization as every young adult currently does.

Re: Escaping High School

#10
post #9

Personally, I’ve always felt that schooling is a waste of time, money, and resources. The default model of civilization is that children are absent from life. This means that kids are missing out on seeing adults interact, so they mature more slowly, and it also means that their life experiences are limited to what happens in a building. Importantly, after 18 years, people in the USA leave school in debt and are no b…

I’m confused. Are you suggesting children should be working?
Post reply on HN