I was a good student. Only had 1 detention, always followed the rules, did exactly what I was supposed to do. Now I'm realising I spent years optimising for a game that doesn't exist in the real world...How do you actually start unlearning this? Sometimes I still catch myself waiting for someone to tell me what to do
Create space (mental and physical) in your life to unterdstand what you really want. Then understand the fact that some people are gonna criticize you for acting on your dream, and criticize you for not acting on your dream. You may as well go for it.
Loved this George! I feel like a huge part of my twenties has been devoted to deprogramming my mind from the lessons I was taught at school. Realising, "holy shit, I can just do things", was a turning point for me.
Thank you! Really enjoyed reading and reflecting on this essay. Whenever I discuss this topic, the immediate question I get: "if the school was so boring, how could the same school educated students built the modern world?" Eager to know your thoughts on this.
Strange how someone as high agency as renowned Dutch astronomer Tycho Brahe is known to have died due to his bladder bursting because he felt compelled to hold his urine due to social etiquette at a banquet.
I find the bathroom one to be annoying. I’ve told my daughter that if the teacher ignores her or makes her wait, to just let the teacher know she is going and just leave. It’s especially hard for girls who are at the age of having periods.
The copying bit has a rhythm to enlisting people to help you. One of the worst things to do at school is to work in groups and have others help you. In reality, you have a CFO enrolled or mathematically inclined person to help with your math homework (accounting, payroll).
But I'd compare point 5 about Losing popularity contests to misaligned vanity metrics. Being loud and bringing attention to yourself in class comes with a strong penality. However, today you could be handsomely rewarded in the form of a following like a personal brand, niche or not.
Ghosts are at worst, ignored, and on average, handed the median experience (e.g., median income, baseline opportunities). Lose the vanity metrics, but stay popular where it matters.
I was a good student; in fact, I ended up being the Valedictorian for my class. However, I was bored and took my frustrations out on the teacher by being the class clown. Even though I graduated from high school 56 years ago, I still hold the record with most detentions (I check every year; it's a ritual). I played three varsity sports and was in or on several high school orgs and committees, respectively. You could say I owned the 3-6pm period. LOL
Having said all this, I totes agree with George. Not only did I have to unlearn everything in HS (at least the s*** that I had to have to at least make it seem I was learning), I never learned how to study. I was the poster boy for "no books, no homework, no nothing" because I was a superb test taker. And I could produce a term paper overnight -- sometimes it was factual, sometimes it was totally made up, but our harried teachers either didn't care or didn't notice because I had an excellent grasp of essay writing.
Of course, this bit me in the a** in college. I eventually learned how to study and did well, but I had to learn stuff that HS found it impossible or negligible to teach.
Since I went to the U.S. Naval Academy, I came out well in adulthood but, ironically enough, much of what I learned as a midshipman and, later as an officer, had to be modified to make it in business. One thing that always stuck with me was the repetition of effort. You had to be able to do almost anything as a Naval Officer either with your eyes closed or, if they had to be open, by rote. Lives depended on it.
Update: Several years ago, I went back to the USNA to be awarded "Alumnus of the Year." I have done well in life and apparently many of the midshipmen of 2018 respected that. After I did my time in Vietnam, I had had enough of the killing and strategizing on how to kill more people in future wars, so I decided to make money instead.
Love the hunt like an eagle part. I found this out as soon as i started flight training. I'd use to hate physics in high school, but then all of a sudden it turned practical and real and I started to enjoy it. A few months later I was sat there in the evening going through my old high school books to find out all about how physics work.
I spent 20+ years building a beautiful family in partnership with someone whose vision I did not share…now, I’m striving to execute my own vision for my life. I love your article & appreciate your perspective.
Take a look at the Alpha School model. They took what was outdated with the current school system and flipped it on its head - using the power of AI as well
I grew up in the Netherlands in an extremely conservative elementary school in the Bible belt in the 1990s. Teachers were absolute authority figures.
Yet when I moved to Germany at 12 years old, and my fellow students displayed way less respect to them, there were so many rules to follow. Suddenly in math (and other subjects), procedures mattered more than results.
My experience is not representative for both societies by the way: the principled orderly Germans are way more susceptible to authority than the rebellious pragmatic Dutch (obrigkeitshörigkeit is a word here and while Hitler could happen anywhere, it was certainly easier in Germany)
I was a good student. Only had 1 detention, always followed the rules, did exactly what I was supposed to do. Now I'm realising I spent years optimising for a game that doesn't exist in the real world...How do you actually start unlearning this? Sometimes I still catch myself waiting for someone to tell me what to do
Create space (mental and physical) in your life to unterdstand what you really want. Then understand the fact that some people are gonna criticize you for acting on your dream, and criticize you for not acting on your dream. You may as well go for it.
Loved this George! I feel like a huge part of my twenties has been devoted to deprogramming my mind from the lessons I was taught at school. Realising, "holy shit, I can just do things", was a turning point for me.
Recurring lesson.
Thank you! Really enjoyed reading and reflecting on this essay. Whenever I discuss this topic, the immediate question I get: "if the school was so boring, how could the same school educated students built the modern world?" Eager to know your thoughts on this.
Feeling like you need to ask for permission to do something is so deeply ingrained man. I still have to shake myself out of this at times.
What a cartoonish picture of school. But what do I know? I'm just a "grown up child."
Right? These kind of posts are always written by people that haven't stepped a foot in a school for three decades.
Very true! What do you know?
Strange how someone as high agency as renowned Dutch astronomer Tycho Brahe is known to have died due to his bladder bursting because he felt compelled to hold his urine due to social etiquette at a banquet.
School might be the worst thing that happened to education!
I find the bathroom one to be annoying. I’ve told my daughter that if the teacher ignores her or makes her wait, to just let the teacher know she is going and just leave. It’s especially hard for girls who are at the age of having periods.
The copying bit has a rhythm to enlisting people to help you. One of the worst things to do at school is to work in groups and have others help you. In reality, you have a CFO enrolled or mathematically inclined person to help with your math homework (accounting, payroll).
But I'd compare point 5 about Losing popularity contests to misaligned vanity metrics. Being loud and bringing attention to yourself in class comes with a strong penality. However, today you could be handsomely rewarded in the form of a following like a personal brand, niche or not.
Ghosts are at worst, ignored, and on average, handed the median experience (e.g., median income, baseline opportunities). Lose the vanity metrics, but stay popular where it matters.
I was a good student; in fact, I ended up being the Valedictorian for my class. However, I was bored and took my frustrations out on the teacher by being the class clown. Even though I graduated from high school 56 years ago, I still hold the record with most detentions (I check every year; it's a ritual). I played three varsity sports and was in or on several high school orgs and committees, respectively. You could say I owned the 3-6pm period. LOL
Having said all this, I totes agree with George. Not only did I have to unlearn everything in HS (at least the s*** that I had to have to at least make it seem I was learning), I never learned how to study. I was the poster boy for "no books, no homework, no nothing" because I was a superb test taker. And I could produce a term paper overnight -- sometimes it was factual, sometimes it was totally made up, but our harried teachers either didn't care or didn't notice because I had an excellent grasp of essay writing.
Of course, this bit me in the a** in college. I eventually learned how to study and did well, but I had to learn stuff that HS found it impossible or negligible to teach.
Since I went to the U.S. Naval Academy, I came out well in adulthood but, ironically enough, much of what I learned as a midshipman and, later as an officer, had to be modified to make it in business. One thing that always stuck with me was the repetition of effort. You had to be able to do almost anything as a Naval Officer either with your eyes closed or, if they had to be open, by rote. Lives depended on it.
Update: Several years ago, I went back to the USNA to be awarded "Alumnus of the Year." I have done well in life and apparently many of the midshipmen of 2018 respected that. After I did my time in Vietnam, I had had enough of the killing and strategizing on how to kill more people in future wars, so I decided to make money instead.
Love the hunt like an eagle part. I found this out as soon as i started flight training. I'd use to hate physics in high school, but then all of a sudden it turned practical and real and I started to enjoy it. A few months later I was sat there in the evening going through my old high school books to find out all about how physics work.
Thank you 🙏🏽
I spent 20+ years building a beautiful family in partnership with someone whose vision I did not share…now, I’m striving to execute my own vision for my life. I love your article & appreciate your perspective.
Amazing tekkers George. Love this.
Lovely piece of thinking and writing George
Take a look at the Alpha School model. They took what was outdated with the current school system and flipped it on its head - using the power of AI as well
How homogeneous is schooling in the US?
I grew up in the Netherlands in an extremely conservative elementary school in the Bible belt in the 1990s. Teachers were absolute authority figures.
Yet when I moved to Germany at 12 years old, and my fellow students displayed way less respect to them, there were so many rules to follow. Suddenly in math (and other subjects), procedures mattered more than results.
My experience is not representative for both societies by the way: the principled orderly Germans are way more susceptible to authority than the rebellious pragmatic Dutch (obrigkeitshörigkeit is a word here and while Hitler could happen anywhere, it was certainly easier in Germany)