Comment by gexla | Hacker News Reader

Comment by gexla | Hacker News Reader

You are in high school?

Just remember, high school is not real life. High school is not real life. I will repeat again, high school is not real life.

Just look at it like some weird social experiment with the goal being that you have to navigate it without going crazy.

Find your social life outside of school. That's what I did. My school days were mostly a zombie like sleep deprived haze. I hated my alarm clock and never could wake up until after a couple hour nap after school. Fortunately my friends were the same people I grew up with in my neighborhood (and their siblings and friends) and we were pretty normal people. During school I punched my clock and I was out of there (though I did put in extra effort in taking as many college prep classes that I could.) I skipped everything I could and never once even went into the cafeteria during lunch. I never participated in extra curricular activities, never went to games and I skipped all assemblies and other special activities that I could get away with. I largely kept to myself until after school and weekends when I could hang out in a normal environment.

Do people even need to know what you are into? Maybe just keep it to yourself until you are in your real social environment. For example, I never volunteer what I do for work, what interests me, who I am and things of that nature. I'm just not interested and I get bored talking about myself. Sometimes I just volunteer some bullshit story that I know won't lead to further conversation. Another example, I'm an Atheist currently living in the Philippines, which is mostly Catholics. Do I tell people I'm an Atheist when they ask about my religion? Hello no! I'm a Christian and that's the end of the conversation.

Treat school as a hostile environment and your chief weapon is psychological warfare. Evade, confuse and generally do everything you can to throw the enemy off your trail. Don't take anything seriously. Everything is a joke. A good sense of humor will help you immensely. Save your real social interaction for outside of school.

If you find that school is getting to you, then you aren't doing a good enough job on the humor front. Dig down deep to find the comedy of the situation and laugh it off.

Good luck!

The sad thing is —and I’m not sure why I’m saying this on hacker news— my parents see me as this unsocial person since I’m using my computer all day. They really want me to “hang out with the other kids” and they want good grades and AP classes too.

Part of the irony is when teachers try to shove how “college is not an option” down my throat, I only need to tell them that I have no degrees, yet I, at the age of 13, have a better hourly wage and sustainability than they do.

But that is not the point. I have no control over what classes I take. I have no control over whether or not I interact on an intellectual level with other students since every freshman class teacher thinks that collaboration in students means a better learning experience.

Also, your second to last paragraph about psychological warfare is really creepy when you read it out of context...or in context...

Just treat school like you would any other environment. Don't try to force social interaction because your parents are worried about it. That bug will just get in your head and make you start to wonder if you are doing something wrong. When you walk into a store you don't force yourself to meet people just because they are there. You get what you need and jam. That's a stupid example, but it's the same with school. Go to school, knock out what you need to as efficiently as possible and be on your way. In both cases you might still meet people, just let it happen naturally rather than listening to the chattering monkeys in the background telling you what you need to do.

Landing client work requires a lot of social skills. Knowing how to sell isn't a geek trait, it's a smooth talking hustler trait, and you got it! Managing clients while you are knocking out the project is also an important social skill. It's good that you are picking that up early.

Don't limit your social scene to school and people your own age. Attend meetups in your area. Spend some of that coin you are making to spend time at a co-working space once a week or something. Like I said before, don't take things too seriously, make sure you are keeping in touch with the inner comic. If you need to, try sneaking into a comedy club and maybe even take classes for stand up comedy (or improv) as this will challenge you in different creative ways to "think on your feet."

One other item I picked up in your reply, never judge based on what people make. Don't measure yourself against others in that way. There are many different ways to measure value and money doesn't always match up. I get what you are saying. At 13 you are making a living wage+ despite no college and whatever B.S. your teachers are telling you. Just stay humble, listen, take what's useful and throw the rest away.

Also, you might at some point be tempted to think that you don't need college because your client work is making you money without a degree. You may or may not need college (I'm not going to argue that either way here,) but think deep and hard before you arrive to that conclusion. There are valuable things that you can pick up in college, but analyze the pros and cons.

Personally, at your age, I would be doing as little client work as possible. If you need the money, then get it. Time is also valuable. At your age, you can live with your parents with little to no expenses. This is a great time to try experimenting with different business models to create something more scalable. The problem with client work is that you are trading dollars for hours. You are building digital things, so leverage that to create something which can detach the connection between time and money.

On your control point, right, we have to deal with B.S. every day. The DMV, the IRS, airport security, the guy who got your order wrong at the drive through. Collaborating with others on school projects isn't a intellectual activity. You aren't trying to solve world issues. It's more of a social challenge I suppose. Don't try to be a hero. Don't try to outsmart anyone. Don't take it too seriously. Make it light and funny. Laugh and smile. Maybe come up with the dumbest idea rather than the smartest idea. You might get others laughing with you for that.

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