belkarx0 AT outlook.com
belkarx
Karma: 193
Untapped Potential at 13-18
School in concept is a great idea. Give the new generation a base of knowledge from which to build. It is just very very poorly implemented. So, I’d say the meetings and other maintenance/organizational devices common in the programming world fall into the same class: useful in theory, essentially useless in practice.
Alternative schools exist, and they output arguably more useful individuals, however they are chosen at the will of the parent. There remain many students stuck in typical public schools, and there should be something they can independently do to help themselves.
My naive, inelegant, long-term solution requires a paradigm shift on the side of businesses and the law in taking (the risk of) on younger workers.
The problem is, as a business owner, how do I tell this person apart from the average 14 year old?
This is a limited and subjective answer but there are just some subtle conversational and lifestyle markers of potential (I’ve talked to a fair few “intelligent” people about this and they agree that you can just tell if someone is of their type). A more reasonable solution is to encourage cold emails along the lines of “hey, I’m taking initiative and pitching myself to you as a resource good for X, here’s what I’m interested in, here’s why there isn’t much application-wise knowledge of my interests, consider taking me as an unpaid intern”
Just because you were like that as a teenager doesn’t mean that this is common
Indeed. This may be biased by the fact that I intentionally sought out people like me (and found a fair few, many in similar situations).
The usefulness of university depends on the job. It’s better for networking than anything.
And yes, I’m just calling some attention to the problem. I’ve considered a few solutions but nothing stands out as reasonably implementable within our Overton window
Do you know of any drawbacks to the apprenticeship system in Germany? I wonder why that isn’t more common across the world.
dynamic balancing of self-assertiveness vs. deference to authority
The proportion of “deference to authority” is too high, in my opinion.
Knowledge acquisition, on the other hand, can be done via Wikipedia etc. and does not need to occupy school time. People who want to acquire knowledge can do this easily in their bedroom at night.
This isn’t application-based knowledge. I mentioned that students can learn concepts on their own, but what society currently lacks is a path to do something useful with it from a younger age.
Also, I agree that learning social behavior is one of the primary purposes of school, and I’d like to stress that I’m not advocating for the removal of the school system.
Do you know if this organization still exists or of anything like it? Closest I’m familiar with is the recurse center
What is Consciousness?
I haven’t seen it, thanks for sharing—I think this post offers much quicker, slightly less directly philosophical view of a different subset of points, but I haven’t lurked here for long enough to know what is and isn’t redundant
Can you think of any way to fix the system without forcing everyone into an apprenticeship? The status quo in America right now is respect of the system for most because it’s easy and a clean path … hands-on learning wouldn’t appeal to all
I meant that school generally tries to embed deference to authority. It fades in the real world for certain jobs though.
Why should we cut our young years short?
Brain myelination and information processing speed are highest then. Time is ticking if you want it to be easy to do creative, innovative work quickly. It is, of course, very possible to be successful as an adult with lower levels of neuroplasticity and processing and more “crystallized” intelligence, however adolescents have that particular advantage, differentiating them and making them valuable in a unique way.
This is turning into more subjective philosophy territory, but is relaxing and having “fun” necessarily better than intellectual stimulation and learning from challenges? And won’t experiences like that speed up self-discovery?
I’d argue that working earlier and having fun are not necessarily mutually exclusive—for example, look at university life. There are a lot of students doing research and other work, while participating in probably the strongest self-discovery of their lives. I also don’t think specialization has a significant impact on what forms of self-discovery someone can engage in—software engineering covers a broad variety of things, from working with people to problem solving to time management to creativity and pitching your work
There’s also this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_implantation
I’d love to see more than one data point for each career eventually. How are you scouting out professionals to interview? The idea is overall great—much easier than cold emailing people in professions that interest you and hoping someone’s willing to share their experiences/advice
Not sure if that was a continuation of the satire, but the question interested me so in case anyone else wants to know, here’s an article on the origins of that myth: https://www.animal-dynamics.com/the-bumblebee-flight-myth/
Do you know how to get out of docs mode? (nvm—got it—thanks!)
[APPRENTICE]
I’m seeking improvement in hardware design, electrical engineering, signals processing, control systems and neuroscience (each somewhat sporadically but they’re all connected). I learn quickly but I’m at a loss for tangible projects, so if you have any suggestions for any of those topics and/or are willing to commit some time to mentoring me in completing them, please share!
[MENTOR]
Linux
I can consult on a high level if you want to get into the whole Linux/vim/Tor/lineageOS/privacy/ everything is FOSS situation with software recs (best choice for your goals, what software is susceptible to vulns, how to avoid that) and other general advice (how to set things up, potential issues)
Information security
I have a lot of resources to recommend based on your goals, can give advice in learning about this field, participating in competitions, common pitfalls (have not been professionally employed in this capacity and am a hobbyist, so beginners only please)
Basics of programming
I can do code review for beginners, oversee small projects, most comfortable in Python
Suggestion: If your teacher is the type to find it amusing (as opposed to threatening consequences for plagiarism or academic dishonesty), give the prompt to GPT-3 (students have free credits) and submit whatever it tells you
University has value in its connections and the confirmation that a candidate has the requisite knowledge. Many large companies auto-reject anyone without an “upper education” for these reasons, as it’s easier to apply that as a filter and miss a couple people than take the time to know everyone’s unique situations.
The article also references the subgroup of “competent but apathetic” (which I would subjectively say is common, and the main missed population, as those with perseverance and unrelenting raw passion tend to do well on their own). A lot of people don’t have the motivation for following through with “impressive projects” on top of the drain of HS, and (to use the example of programming) just internalize the concepts, create smaller utilities and projects as needed (alongside self-imposed pressure to do things for school clubs, volunteering, casual competitions, et cetera). You’re left with a young group that enjoys a subject, is relatively knowledgeable about it, but with insufficient experience, not able to apply themselves past a certain threshold of individual motivation.
Societally introduced opportunities and mentorship that is more open to the top 3-5% as opposed to the .1% that knows how to market themselves mitigates that.