My university experience was very much “submit! work!” - I was on “keeping of term” almost permanently and had the threat of rustication hanging over my head for the duration of my time there as I flat out refused to attend lectures, tutorials, or labs - I was having way too much fun running a bar and the debating society.
Anyway. What I learned was that people rarely make good on their threats, that charm and doing the absolute bare minimum to not “get fired” will get you through - and that I can cram a three year physics course into a month of intense study and still pass with a 2:1, which they demoted to a Desmond as they didn’t feel they could in good conscience reward me with a 2:1 - which also taught me that institutions can’t be trusted and are ultimately run by opinion.
This lead to a career path of opportunistic system-hacking and an early retirement to a cabin in the woods. I never had a work ethic, apart from in that which interests me. If something bores me, it’s for the birds.
I’m not quite sure what I’m trying to say here, other than that at no point in my education was I given any useful guidance or advice, just expectations of prodigy, and was left to figure things out for myself - which I did, but not as I think others would have hoped. I now, in my forties, know that I have raging ADHD - it wasn’t even a consideration as a kid - just that I was “brilliant but bone-idle”.
Do you think yours is a life well spent for anything or anyone other than your own enjoyment, even if you were clever enough to save yourself the stress suffered by many?
I would say that it has not provided as much utility value to mankind as it could have. Sure, I’ve created jobs, generated wealth, given to philanthropic causes - and in excess of the lives lived by most - but I would say with confidence that had I perhaps had some guidance other than the eternal threat of punishment, I would have developed something other than a frankly criminal instinct, and might have been more able to give more to society and fulfil my potential.
Instead, I learned to avoid the consequences, not to avoid the crime, and can’t deny that I have chosen a selfish path as a result.
Anyway. What I learned was that people rarely make good on their threats, that charm and doing the absolute bare minimum to not “get fired” will get you through - and that I can cram a three year physics course into a month of intense study and still pass with a 2:1, which they demoted to a Desmond as they didn’t feel they could in good conscience reward me with a 2:1 - which also taught me that institutions can’t be trusted and are ultimately run by opinion.
This lead to a career path of opportunistic system-hacking and an early retirement to a cabin in the woods. I never had a work ethic, apart from in that which interests me. If something bores me, it’s for the birds.
I’m not quite sure what I’m trying to say here, other than that at no point in my education was I given any useful guidance or advice, just expectations of prodigy, and was left to figure things out for myself - which I did, but not as I think others would have hoped. I now, in my forties, know that I have raging ADHD - it wasn’t even a consideration as a kid - just that I was “brilliant but bone-idle”.