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Advice to Starting High School

What advice would you give to kids going into high school? Specifically about their future and so on?
They lied to you. Their still lying to you, but don’t worry it not cause their evil. They think their acting in your best interests but unless their someone you want to be its all rather trite. It time you start hearing about being an adult, it time you start hearing some raw truth. Time to know you can learn things for everyone but not everything we say is worth your consideration.

So what’s the big lie? Here a nice way Alan Watts put it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGoTmNU_5A0) life's music not a chase or a math problem. You've got to enjoy the process if your going to enjoy the results and that can be hard as sometimes the process appear like it going to be everything you despise. The process is right now. So if you don't feel accomplished now than what makes you think you will feel that way tomorrow?

But, I want to make it more real. So: you got mostly praise on your high school plan, which probably will not work cause your a 15 year kid - what do you know? Your horrible at plans. So that lesson one - failure is good, people praise is meaningless. Embrace it. You going to have a lot of it in your life. It why we must treat life loosely. Seriousness helps no-one, learning to relax and follow with the currents is essential. Its not going to come natural not cause it hard to learn but because so many people teach you thing you must unlearn.

Success doesn’t come from climbing a ladder. You know how to read and write and do basic math? You probably know as much as 60-70% of this country, which just shows how little you can compete in the real world. The top 1% in china is more than all the kids in our entire country and we are going global. If high school taught you anything of worth all it graduates wouldn’t be struggling so much. You go because your expected to go, being true to your commitment is apart of feeling good about oneself, it apart of feeling accomplished now but never mistake you get out of it only what you demand from it and more demand the simple passing of the bare minimum.

People are going to say do well at this high school test so you can go to a good collage, learn to study etc - and those are worthy challenges and you can learn a lot from excelling at that, but I going to tell you right now don’t ever take a dime of debt to do it or think a failure or setback has any real meaning. It all a practice match. If you focus you abilities there it will be one of the most short-sighted decisions of your life. You don’t borrow money on a gamble and that is all schooling will ever be, a good bet…if you really want to be a doctor or lawyer and you need to get certified, then take your time and earn it. If not, be creative and never take a easy road(will just but you in high competitive situations), don’t take “free” money with strings(its usually a trap) - just because that what you told it the right thing to do is meaningless. The right thing for who? You are the only one looking out for you now chump - the worlds a harsh place and mommy and daddy are sheltering you, people are fighting for themselves, but only so you can learn and grow to become the dragon people should fear not the rabbit running for their life.

Before you get that job at McDonalds and one month turn to 7 years. I want understand why you get paid less than panning for gold in the outback for that job. It ain't cause it not hard. You skills are simply worth jack in the market. You got no reputation. You have no creative ideas and even if you did no one trust you enough to let you practice with their resources. Life ain’t a charity nor is safe and sterilized school assignment. You have one advantage: you're young with little to loss, and that's your competitive advantage if your hungry for it and fight to utilize it as an opportunity - you can move where the oppurtunies are, you spend the 18 hour days etc doing what it take to raise up, to learn valuable skills, to build a reputation….I know you don't know how...so ask, try, experiment, take risks - you've got nothing to loss when you have nothing accumulated and that is the only reason you even a chance to play.

You want to be rich, happy and successful? You got to learn one thing: to be valuable. You get out of life what you make it….

So let's help you develop that. Step one is becoming alive again, cause look at you - you look beat.
 
They lied to you. Their still lying to you, but don’t worry it not cause their evil. They think their acting in your best interests but unless their someone you want to be its all rather trite. It time you start hearing about being an adult, it time you start hearing some raw truth. Time to know you can learn things for everyone but not everything we say is worth your consideration.

So what’s the big lie? Here a nice way Alan Watts put it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGoTmNU_5A0) life's music not a chase or a math problem. You've got to enjoy the process if your going to enjoy the results and that can be hard as sometimes the process appear like it going to be everything you despise. The process is right now. So if you don't feel accomplished now than what makes you think you will feel that way tomorrow?

But, I want to make it more real. So: you got mostly praise on your high school plan, which probably will not work cause your a 15 year kid - what do you know? Your horrible at plans. So that lesson one - failure is good, people praise is meaningless. Embrace it. You going to have a lot of it in your life. It why we must treat life loosely. Seriousness helps no-one, learning to relax and follow with the currents is essential. Its not going to come natural not cause it hard to learn but because so many people teach you thing you must unlearn.

Success doesn’t come from climbing a ladder. You know how to read and write and do basic math? You probably know as much as 60-70% of this country, which just shows how little you can compete in the real world. The top 1% in china is more than all the kids in our entire country and we are going global. If high school taught you anything of worth all it graduates wouldn’t be struggling so much. You go because your expected to go, being true to your commitment is apart of feeling good about oneself, it apart of feeling accomplished now but never mistake you get out of it only what you demand from it and more demand the simple passing of the bare minimum.

People are going to say do well at this high school test so you can go to a good collage, learn to study etc - and those are worthy challenges and you can learn a lot from excelling at that, but I going to tell you right now don’t ever take a dime of debt to do it or think a failure or setback has any real meaning. It all a practice match. If you focus you abilities there it will be one of the most short-sighted decisions of your life. You don’t borrow money on a gamble and that is all schooling will ever be, a good bet…if you really want to be a doctor or lawyer and you need to get certified, then take your time and earn it. If not, be creative and never take a easy road(will just but you in high competitive situations), don’t take “free” money with strings(its usually a trap) - just because that what you told it the right thing to do is meaningless. The right thing for who? You are the only one looking out for you now chump - the worlds a harsh place and mommy and daddy are sheltering you, people are fighting for themselves, but only so you can learn and grow to become the dragon people should fear not the rabbit running for their life.
...

i disagree with that sentiment remaining above
be willing to invest in yourself - in your future

now, if you are only going to college to play for a few years, and emerge without a diploma and an education, then avoid the debt required to do that. but if you need a degree to do the thing you are passionate about doing in your life, find a way to go to college - even if that means taking out student loans

those forty years of work will be better spent doing something you enjoy rather than a four decade career spent doing something you do only because you are without the skills to do something else
 
i disagree with that sentiment remaining above
That does not surprise me it is one of my more controversial positions and is predicated on an alternative proposition not covered in my post.

be willing to invest in yourself - in your future

now, if you are only going to college to play for a few years, and emerge without a diploma and an education, then avoid the debt required to do that. but if you need a degree to do the thing you are passionate about doing in your life, find a way to go to college - even if that means taking out student loans
I might agree if there were proven near guaranteed jobs and much higher salaries at the end of the rainbow where in you could calculate and contrast returns verses the risks of the debt however in most cases this is far from the case[more so in the past]. To move it into stock terms, would not most degrees even in high demand fields like say medicine not be at least a low-medium risk investment with modest ROI? Many doctors and lawyers take ten years plus to pay off their debts with huge hit to their lifestyles... To finance such a stock buy with debt most agree would be foolish gambling, no? - so why do you think it is different when it comes to abstract investments like education? Why is education considered a safe bet and ROI so high, when the number and countless stories say it doesn't turn much of the time?

Averages within salary surveys confuse people in this regard and make them misunderstand their net lose when you peg them from pre-schooling to current times not to mention it rarely taken into account salaries are determined by many factors, and high functioning people tend to choose more education but that doesn't mean their actual success had much tied to it(separate metric). It seem to me the same confusion arises when “raises” are not pegged to inflation which are often a net loss in wage verses gain.

One of the biggest problems you have with education is the simple fact your decisions aren’t market facing - gaining experience in he job market will force you into value area, specializing in education is arbitrary in most cases you do not end up having any net benefit over gaining experience as your work is out of sector and basically get a big experience gap. So it nice to say don't play but who says that is those who do intention?

This common investment thinking is what gets education heavy employees coming to me asking for raises based on their masters degrees when they find out I pay only based on experience and proven skill-set. I always find those people entertaining. If people want to invest in themselves, great - invest the same way you would a retirement or a security fund. If you want to invest to be prosperous, earn your starting nut first or be sure your ROI are likely to cover the incurred cost of debt.

All that said, your sentiment is
those forty years of work will be better spent doing something you enjoy rather than a four decade career spent doing something you do only because you are without the skills to do something else
Toward that I am in 100% agreement. Don’t go work in a field you dislike because you don’t know how to get into the field you want. Fight your way in, if education or certification becomes the barrier - cost it out, but I guarantee entry level jobs(educated or not) rarely require much but willingness, drive and acceptance of peanut wages. I almost guarantee from that launch pad any educational debt one incurs will be minimal and you'll breeze through the training with a tenth the effort of the keen inexperience student, you'll get a job faster and you'll have more time and money for living and play. Funny how this skill + education pay concept somehow get left out the recruiting documentation and preparation of grads.
 
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I had a conversation with a relative who was entering high school the other week. It was interesting because he actually had a plan. A fairly solid one too. Granted he came from a put together family. His dad is a self made man (quite literally built a business from scratch coming out of the military and borderline poverty to make millions). So it isn't surprising to see a kid like that having a plan. But it makes me wonder. What advice would you give to kids going into high school? Specifically about their future and so on?

Personally? I would really encourage them to use their summer wisely. Get good grades of course. But I would really encourage them to find things they love now. Not just video games and parties and social media. In fact...I would encourage them to put down social media. So how about y'all?

Yeah, find stuff you love is high on the list. Think about what you'd like to do, join extracurriculars, try stuff, get involved -- in school and out of it.

Take it seriously enough, but not too seriously. Ultimately, high school isn't something that is going to determine the rest of your life. In 10 years, you won't even care about it, and it probably won't have much of an affect on where you wound up. Care enough to get decent grades, but not so much that you forget this is only a tiny snapshot of your entire life and get sucked up in social drama, or killing yourself for perfection.

Don't let other people tell you where you're supposed to go afterwards. The school district gets better ratings if you go to the most expensive private university you can get into, so that's what they're going to try to push you to do. Don't let them, unless that's really what you want.

If you'd rather be a mechanic, be a mechanic. If you'd rather join the military, join the military. If you'd rather be a nurse, be a nurse. If you'd rather be a nail tech, be a nail tech. Not everyone is happy sitting at a desk all day, and you don't have to do that. It doesn't mean anything about your intelligence or value.

If you'd rather do your generals at a community college so you can save, like, 20 grand, do your generals at a community college and save 20 grand. In fact, I'd recommend this, unless you hit the jackpot and get a full ride scholarship or something.

And lastly, question everything. But try to do it politely and with humanity.
 
Time to catch up the money's in coding

It's not all about the money. The jobs I listed are plentiful and you can live a comfortable life off of them. The people in those fields are retiring and someone must replace them unless you don't want electricity and AC anymore.

The US is slowly erupting anyways so I guess it doesn't matter in the end.
 
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here is where the german system excels
kids who are inclined to work with their hands would be able to attend a trade school/apprenticeship program and emerge from high school prepared to earn a decent living
That's what I'm saying. The trades have been neglected in the USA. Not everyone can go into coding and not everyone can be in a high paying white collar job.
 
It's not all about the money. The jobs I listed are plentiful and you can live a comfortable life off of them. The people in those fields are retiring and someone must replace them unless you don't want electricity and AC anymore.

The US is slowly erupting anyways so I guess it doesn't matter in the end.


bad advice on your part. coding is the number 1 blue collar skill set of the future...its that simple. https://www.fastcompany.com/3060883/why-coding-is-the-job-skill-of-the-future-for-everyone even schools in Louisiana all teach coding and if they get...you see the drift here.
 
That's what I'm saying. The trades have been neglected in the USA. Not everyone can go into coding and not everyone can be in a high paying white collar job.


if you can learn a foreign language you can learn coding. ex coal miners in W. Virginia are learning coding for petes sake.
 
It's not all about the money. The jobs I listed are plentiful and you can live a comfortable life off of them. The people in those fields are retiring and someone must replace them unless you don't want electricity and AC anymore.

The US is slowly erupting anyways so I guess it doesn't matter in the end.


you suffer from too much frost bite
 
I had a plan also back when I started High School ... I got assigned my accelerated classes early and graduated in 3 years and 3 Months with a good base to start at the college I wanted.

My girlfriend was home schooled and was in her 2nd year of college by the time she should have graduated high school. It really pays off to have a plan. I wish more kids took it seriously. One of the biggest things that kids now lack...is understanding how important their decisions are. Me? I had a plan. Go to community college so I could make money my first 2 years and use that money to pay for my books and supplement my scholarship my next 2 years. Worked out great and I got out debt free from there.




The crowd is not the sum of its parts.

I am a republican who did not vote for Trump (Or Hillary).
 
bad advice on your part. coding is the number 1 blue collar skill set of the future...its that simple. https://www.fastcompany.com/3060883/why-coding-is-the-job-skill-of-the-future-for-everyone even schools in Louisiana all teach coding and if they get...you see the drift here.

I don't disagree with him. Not everyone has the ability to sit in a cubicle all day. I hate it. Trade skills are very lucrative for people who can't afford college. Or people willing to start work at 18-20. By the time they retire? They will have plenty saved up. Especially if they don't have kids at 18-23 and stay out of debt.




The crowd is not the sum of its parts.

I am a republican who did not vote for Trump (Or Hillary).
 
I don't disagree with him. Not everyone has the ability to sit in a cubicle all day. I hate it. Trade skills are very lucrative for people who can't afford college. Or people willing to start work at 18-20. By the time they retire? They will have plenty saved up. Especially if they don't have kids at 18-23 and stay out of debt.


I dont disagree either but am pointing out that coding is smarter.
 
bad advice on your part.

What will happen in your country if you have no electricians, plumbers or HVAC technicians? You know the jobs that can't be shipped outseas and must be done in person when problems come up?

You'll still need people to fill those blue collar jobs regardless of what you said here.
 
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I have a daughter and at her age (10), I'm just glad she stays out of trouble and does well in school.
I swear, kids seem to be like 80% nature early on, they are just wired certain ways. My daughter hates all planning or studying or school, etc. Nothing I can do to change that, it's reflexive, built-in, has been since day one. I think i was the same.

How to help guide her,without turning her off or having her go "oh god not a lecture!!", etc, is much more what I'm worried about! I have to pick my battles. Sometimes I want to hire some actors her age to talk to her in a community setting and drop hints about how to do well in school and in career, because listening to me like dropping a bomb on her, she explodes :)

But I agree.
#1 Find things you really love to do. Try to pair that with career choices = win.
#2 if you have no idea, explore things for a few years with parental help to do #1.
#3 Embrace your inner Try Hard.

I went to a school graduation recently and the team spirit was like nothing I've ever seen, the principle was like first name with everyone, a life coach for them, it was nuts. That was part of his entire school culture...being a god damned Try Hard, embrace it, encourage it. I was almost in tears :) My principles...I don't even think I remember hearing them speak, ever.

For me, high school success was almost entirely dictated by my teachers. If I had good strict, smart, personable teachers, I did amazing. If I had lazy or asshole teachers, I took advantage and goofed off..still passed no problem, just didn't learn much.

But a self starter with a plan like that kid you mention? Well, that's best case scenario.
 
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Do some research it's one of the few jobs that will pay very well and going to the Future

I already knew coding pays well along with the trade jobs I mentioned. There's way more to deciding what career to pick besides money.

Now answer the question on what will happen in your country if you have no plumbers, electricians, and HVAC technicians?
 
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I already knew coding pays well along with the trade jobs I mentioned. There's way more to deciding what career to pick besides money.

Now answer the question on what will happen in your country if you have no plumbers, electricians, and HVAC technicians?

That's okay it's a stupid question. We'll still also need Hotel doorman won't we
 
My advice is, once you're grown up, you're grown up for the rest of your life. So, don't be in a rush to grow up.

Said this to my daughter many times! Good advice :)
 
That's okay it's a stupid question.

Answer the question. You think it's fine if your country has no electricity, limited resources of clean drinking water and die from the extreme cold and heat during summer and winter?

You think your country will run just fine with no plumbers, electricians and HVAC technicians?
 
Answer the question. You think it's fine if your country has no electricity, limited resources of clean drinking water and die from the extreme cold and heat during summer and winter?

You think your country will run just fine with no plumbers, electricians and HVAC technicians?


ok now you are being ridiculous. I'll go with Mary Barras and Warren Buffets advice thanks.
 
Get a part-time job in your second year. As age permits. You will learn more at that part-time job than you can ever imagine.

Get the absolute best grades you can muster working towards scholarships so you don't go into adulthood owing $30,000 in student loans.

Don't do drugs. Don't drive drunk. Date often. Join clubs. Explore your interests. Make time for your family.

Have fun!

And if I were Queen MaggieD, I would wave a magic wand and every high school would have a few classes in civic responsibility, credit card traps, the effects of hard drugs, driving drunk, and how to respond to cops if you get pulled over, and how to balance a checkbook.

And learn to cook and shop!
 
I had a conversation with a relative who was entering high school the other week. It was interesting because he actually had a plan. A fairly solid one too. Granted he came from a put together family. His dad is a self made man (quite literally built a business from scratch coming out of the military and borderline poverty to make millions). So it isn't surprising to see a kid like that having a plan. But it makes me wonder. What advice would you give to kids going into high school? Specifically about their future and so on?

Personally? I would really encourage them to use their summer wisely. Get good grades of course. But I would really encourage them to find things they love now. Not just video games and parties and social media. In fact...I would encourage them to put down social media. So how about y'all?

It's really difficult to set goals early, and I didn't beyond making the grades, but I've a nephew who decided in 9th grade that he wanted to be a doctor. He was graduated from high school in May with both a diploma and an Associate's degree and is now an Army medic (in training, I guess?). The plan is to have the Army pay for his med school, and so far, so good.
 
Learn basic computer and troubleshooting skills, especially Office. You would be amazed just knowing what that gets you in college or while looking for a job.

That is one thing both college and trade schools seem to fail spectacularly at.
 
Time to catch up the money's in coding

There were toilets and showers and septic tanks before there were computers. And folks have different skill-sets.
 
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