I must be out of touch with reality
I learned something today: email is the new snail mail for my generation. When I first built ClassOwl, I honestly thought that kids would check their email daily. It's just... logical to me to check my email every day. Even if I didn't have a BlackBerry with every email sent to it, I would still check my email 3-4 times a day (I did before I had the phone). But today, when a bunch of invitations were sent out, I got an intense reality check.
Kids don't check their email.
It is almost absurd to me how a human being could not check their email. I suppose something like MySpace or Facebook messages could be really replacing the "age-old" email, right? I would have to agree that the new Facebook Inbox could possibly replace all past electronic communication (save instant messaging) with your circle of friends. But beyond interacting with your friends, there is no purpose for the Facebook and MySpace messaging architecture. This is where you check your email.
And maybe that's where my reality check comes in. Teenagers obviously don't care about much beyond their circle of friends, and this is understandable. It also makes the 30.4% California High School dropout rate much more understandable to me (source). Teenagers spend more time trying to be "accepted" and making a large group of friends than ever before, thanks the Social Networking phenomona.
Understandable, yes. But is this right? Should the only thing teenagers care about in high school be their circle of friends? Maybe kids should start thinking about something more important.
Their future.
Ahh, the Suburbs
I thought this was hilarious... From Paul Graham's Why Nerds are Unpopular essay
If I could go back and give my thirteen year old self some advice, the main thing I'd tell him would be to stick his head up and look around. I didn't really grasp it at the time, but the whole world we lived in was as fake as a Twinkie. Not just school, but the entire town. Why do people move to suburbia? To have kids! So no wonder it seemed boring and sterile. The whole place was a giant nursery, an artificial town created explicitly for the purpose of breeding children
Where I grew up, it felt as if there was nowhere to go, and nothing to do. This was no accident. Suburbs are deliberately designed to exclude the outside world, because it contains things that could endanger children.
And as for the schools, they were just holding pens within this fake world. Officially the purpose of schools is to teach kids. In fact their primary purpose is to keep kids locked up in one place for a big chunk of the day so adults can get things done. And I have no problem with this: in a specialized industrial society, it would be a disaster to have kids running around loose.
What bothers me is not that the kids are kept in prisons, but that (a) they aren't told about it, and (b) the prisons are run mostly by the inmates. Kids are sent off to spend six years memorizing meaningless facts in a world ruled by a caste of giants who run after an oblong brown ball, as if this were the most natural thing in the world. And if they balk at this surreal cocktail, they're called misfits.
If Only Paul Graham could come to Graduation…
In 2005, Paul Graham wrote a speech to high school kids. He comments that he was never able to give the speech, but I wish he could come to my school and give it at my Graduation. To say that it is amazing would be an understatement. I got a kick out of one of the footnotes:
Your teachers are always telling you to behave like adults. I wonder if they'd like it if you did. You may be loud and disorganized, but you're very docile compared to adults. If you actually started acting like adults, it would be just as if a bunch of adults had been transposed into your bodies. Imagine the reaction of an FBI agent or taxi driver or reporter to being told they had to ask permission to go the bathroom, and only one person could go at a time. To say nothing of the things you're taught. If a bunch of actual adults suddenly found themselves trapped in high school, the first thing they'd do is form a union and renegotiate all the rules with the administration.
This speech will really change your life (if you're in high school). And his essay on nerds and popularity is also a great read.
Rant on Education
I feel like I am stagnating in my "traditional" education at high school right now.
When I can't see the current/future value in what I am learning, it becomes completely pointless and irrelevant to me. I understand why they want to teach people in Primary School all the concepts and stuff, but the only way you are going to really learn something is if you go out and learn on your own. When I say "learn on your own", I am talking about picking up books, or going and doing an internship in a field that you want to be in, or simply Googling a subject and finding out everything there is to know about it. I learned more about Silicon Valley working for MonVia in these last few months than any teacher could have ever taught me.
The best way to learn something is just by going out and doing it; book knowledge is good to an extent. I'm not saying that reading isn't useful -- it definitely helps out a lot. I believe that being able to read and synthesizing valuable tangible information will open up more doors for you than anything else you can do while you still young. But I am tired of "Information Overload". How is knowing about an Amoeba going to help me when I am out in the real world trying to make a living? Shouldn't my education be more focused on something tangible? Capitalism? Managing money? How about a course based on Ben Graham's The Intelligent Investor? At least learning about this stuff will help me put food in my stomach after High School is over.
I am glad for everything I learned up until 8th grade. Then I got into high school and took all these science classes that I could have cared less about (still don't care for them). I did terribly in all of them (B's and C's) because I never saw any value in what I was learning. It was, and still is, useless information to Sam Purtill. I am never going to give a **** about the Periodic Table; it's not something that I will ever specialize in. I'm sure there are some kids in my school that are fascinated by the Periodic Table and how many electrons are in Plutonium. Great for them, let them take the Science classes (Mrs. Rausch and Mrs. Page are awesome teachers) and let them know that information. When I have a question about Plutonium, I'll go to them and ask. I don't need to know everything!!
I am so tired of Information Overload though. It is the result of the internet. I don't care about EVERYTHING; I'm never going to act like I do.
I do believe there are three things that everyone should be proficient in by the end of High School:
- English - writing and speaking
- Math - up to Algebra 2
- Spanish - this should be taught starting in Kindergarten. Everyone legal US Citizen in California needs to speak Spanish fluently if they want to survive in 15 years
And beyond that, kids should start specializing. They should find something they like and start taking classes in it. I wish there were Java courses. Computer Science courses. Something that I actually care about and would be extremely motivated to do. I garauntee if we had a Computer Science class at my school I would get 100% in it every single semester.
Education needs help: there are three things I want in my education.
- Tangible - the instructor should be able to explain to me why I need to know this crap
- Valuable - this is going to take me farther in life if I learn it
- Relevant - wake up call: this is the 21st century. Would any of this information matter to me now if I went out and got a job?
I don't like things the way they are.
A Bunch of Posts on Education
I want to just save this post as a reference to all my previous rants about our education system (which needs some serious help)
- http://sdpurtill.wordpress.com/2006/09/13/did-i-go-to-school-today/
- http://sdpurtill.wordpress.com/2006/09/09/public-vs-charter-vs-private/
- http://sdpurtill.wordpress.com/2006/09/03/making-high-school-more-relevant/
- http://sdpurtill.wordpress.com/2006/08/30/the-public-high-school-system/
Oh by the way...
Buckingham Rules!
This Yuvi kid is the man
15 year old kid from India. He has a great blog and is a coding genius. Great post on why going to school sucks. I wish I had been so dedicated to coding when I was his age... Maybe we can collab on some projects in the future.
Ok, this is just wrong…
As a rule, I never write about anything personal in my blog. I'll tell you what's going on at school, work, home, but never what's going on with any of my real personal life, or, even worse, what's going on with my relationships. Why ? Because that's just messing with privacy. I especially would never mess with my friends' private lives; that's just not right. Before I post anything that has to do with somebody that I am friends with, I would definitely ask them permission (quotes don't count).
I never knew until just now, but someone has been writing stuff about me; I was clueless until I clicked through a link tonight. Come on now, public information isn't something to be taken lightly !
That's some immature BS.
I don't want to post a link to the site, because it wouldn't be considerate of her privacy either. The funny thing about it is she told me that she didn't want me to find that page; yet why would you post public information for anyone to see if you don't want the person that you're talking about to see it ?
Do I smell a lawsuit? :D Nahh...
The fact of the matter is, I don't care what she wrote about me. Of course some people aren't going to like me; I'm extremely opinionated and egotistical as hell. But in the words of my great cousin, Stephen Jr., "It's better to be hated for who you are than to be loved for what you're not." Anyways, I don't care enough to make a big deal out of it. I won't even bring it up in a conversation; I've done enough ranting on here to get it out of my system.
Come to think about it -- I think I might be breaking my most important rule on this post:
"Never post when angry."
But I didn't mention any names or link any links, so I think this is Ok to go public; it's just a personal illustration of how blogging can unwantingly invade the private lives of others.
--- UPDATE ---
I am done thinking about this or even wasting time over this crap. I'll leave the post up though just so I can go back in 3 years and laugh that I even wasted time writing something like this. Damn, I just realized I won't get the 20 minutes back that I wasted on this :(
English November Essay
Background: Sometimes we look back on events—such as missing the extra point in the football game, or not saying that kind word—with regret.
Directions: If you could relive one moment of your life, what moment would you choose? Why? How would you change that moment?
It has been tough for me to actually think of one event. All the events in my life have led me to where I currently am today, and based on where I am today, there's nothing that I would take back. I'm sure I've made hundreds of mistakes in the past, but all of those mistakes have made me who I am *cough* egoism *cough*. If I can look back to one single event that changed the course of my life, it was the first time I looked NikeSkateboarding.com; the rest is history.
But since I have to do this essay to keep an A in the class :), I might as well write about an event that I wish I could relive. I've finally come up with one: the day in 6th grade when I decided that I hated reading. I can't clearly remember if it was in 6th grade or 7th grade that I rejected reading, but I know that it was sometime in that period. There are so many reasons why I wish I could take this back, so here goes.
____________________________________________________
In the course of life, there are many situations, events, and problems that people would like to take back. Life is a series of decisions that you make, and you can look at your life as a large binary tree of possible outcomes; one decision can drastically alter your entire future. It must have been in the middle of 6th grade that I decided that reading wasn't cool and was a waste of time. I look back on this decision and regret it so much; I have stated time and time again in my blog that "the world belongs to readers", as Mrs. Oates always told me in 10th grade. I was too ignorant, arrogant, and stubborn to understand. Francis Bacon once said "knowledge is power"; power is one thing I will always wish I had more of. There are several reasons why I wish I could take back this decision; I would be able to communicate more effectively, I would have a much easier time writing essays, and I would be so much farther ahead of my competition. Finally, I would like to look at where I could be today if I hadn't made that decision.
Being able to communicate with people is one of the most vital characteristics of successful businessmen. How well you communicate with people has a serious effect on everything you try to achieve in life. Be it meeting potential clients, customer service, sales calls, relationships, interviews, or even being accepted in High School, it all involves strong communication skills. I would say the number one characteristic of an effective communicator is their relevance to any of their potential audiences; this is where reading comes into play. The more you read, the more you understand people and where they are coming from. Being able to put yourself into someone else's shoes gives you the power to be relevant to them, and by reading lots of books, you are able to understand the different backgrounds of different people. By understanding them, you have a better chance of connecting with them; and the more connections you have, the higher chances you have of being successful. But at the same time, you can know all the right people and have no ability; at the end of the day, you will be defined by your own ability, not the people that got you to where you are.
Ayn Rand says in the Foreword of her first novel, We the Living, "Too many writers declare that they never succeed in expressing fully what they wished to express and that their work is only some sort of approximation. It is a viewpoint for which I have never had any sympathy and which I consider excusable only when it is voiced by beginners, since no one is born with any kind of 'talent' and, therefore, every skill has to be acquired. Writers are made, not born. To be exact, writers are self-made." There are several attributes of an effective writer: how clearly he can organize his thoughts, how concisely he can voice his opinions, and how subliminally manipulative he can be. Writing plays a large role in the success of most businessmen, because you must be able to always be convincing people why you or your product is the best. How you write plays a huge part in how people perceive your company; if the diction you choose is that of a fourth grader, the value of your product is going to take a hit. But at the same time, you want to use a language that can appeal to the masses; not everyone went to Harvard and received a Ph.D. in English! The more you read, the bigger grasp you will have of what words to use when and where. As silly as this may sound, this could be the difference maker in your product; if an "influencer" (i.e., Mark Cuban, Robert Scoble) likes your product because they understand your friendly way of writing, you have just established a market presence without spending a penny on marketing. If I had been reading this whole time, I would be able to organize my thoughts much more concisely, and I would be at another level in my career.
To be successful, they say you must always be one step ahead of the competition. I would like to reject this paradigm and say one must be ten flights of stairs ahead of the competition. And NO, I am not talking about over-achievers; I am talking about those born with ability who use it as productively as possible. When you are compared to the "movers and shakers of this world" (more Ayn Rand for you) you could make them look like this: Warren Buffet like a homeless man; Rupert Murdoch like the owner of Friendster (hahaha); Richard Branson like an 8-year old boy with a franchise of lemonade stands; Hitler like a 13-year old babysitter; Stalin like my 3rd grade math teacher; ok this is going overboard :p. But just think of the possibilities! The first trillionaire; the world's most innovative entreprenuer; the world's most manipulative orator; a ruler of the masses that this world has never witnessed before; the first ruler of all seven continents on planet earth. Again, this is going a little overboard, but you get the picture :p. The number one thing that will get you ahead of your competition is real life experience, but a close second is what you know in your head. A lot of times, it is those quick decisions you make that will decide your future; you don't have much time to think about them, so you use reason, rationality, logic, and common sense to conclusively decide what to do in these situations. The more you read, the more you know, the better you will be at making these decisions. Which, in turn, gives you a higher chance of achieving a position in this earth that I stated before.
Richard Branson once said "fantasizing about the future is my favorite pastime." I agree with Richard; I love thinking of what could happen in the future I have ahead of me. But thinking about changing the past and what I could have become has never been something that I've cared for; it is a complete waste of time and is somewhat depressing. That's why there are people that never get anywhere in life; they are always making excuses and thinking of what could have been, instead of living in reality and accepting their current circumstances. But anyways, I'll do this exercise really quick just to hypothesize as to where I could be today had I not made the decision stop reading. First of all, I would be a much better Flash Developer. Usually, best writers are the best developers, because if you can convey your thoughts down concisely when you sit down and write, your code will mirror your deductive and organized thought process. This means less code, better scalability, faster development time, and getting paid more for each job. Secondly, I would understand a lot more about business. I understand quite a bit about the economy, and Silicon Valley as it is right now, but if I had started reading all of the books I am currently reading earlier, I would be so much smarter. One of the outcomes could have been that I would have lost touch with reality though; some people read a lot of books, and start to think that they are better than everyone else due to the intellectual capacity. I think this is a load of garbage; the only people that have the right to think they are better than everyone else are the ones that have actually accomplished anything (i.e. Mark Cuban, Warren Buffet, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, etc...).
After all is said and done, I am who I am today, and nothing can change that fact. The only thing that I can change is my future, and I believe reading has a very large impact on the outcomes of anyone's life. I wish that I would have kept on reading through 6th grade, and not have started back up just this summer. I would be better equipped for the rest of my life if I had done so.
The more you read, the more you know: knowledge is power.
____________________________________________________
I'm terrible with conclusions. And the fourth paragraph is terrible; I was having trouble putting it together. Anyways. I am done. What do you think?
If I could go back to 9th grade
This is what I'd do
#1 - I wish I would have gotten really good grades and kept on caring about school like I did at GVCA. After 8th grade, I didn't care about school whatsoever. I did the minimum possible to still get A's and B's on the report card. I've learned very little in school since 8th grade. Seriously.
#2 - I wish I had read soo many more books. And not just technical books; books on philosophy, books on analyzing people, books on sales, novels, etc...
#3 - I wish I could be a really good Christian; its soo hard for me. I have everything I want and most of the time I feel like I have no need for God
#4 - I wish I had never listened to Eminem. I haven't listened to him for a few months, but I used to play his stuff religiously.
#5 - I wish that I would have focused on Flash. I could probably be one of the best Flash developers in the world right now. Instead, I wasted my time with friends.
There's a ton of things that I wouldn't take back though. I've learned a lot since 9th grade, and I have so much more to learn. They say "the more you know, the less you know", and I totally agree.
Right now, the only thing I want to learn in school is Spanish. It's a reality that there are millions of Mexicans coming into California; anyone with half a brain and a 5th grade education could just imagine the economic opportunities possible if they could harness the power of this new population.