Comment by Aerbil313 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Aerbil313 | Hacker News Reader

I'm exactly this type of student. 18 yo, just starting university next month. Any advices?

Every single thing in the article fits my life so far, the boredom, the pointlessness of all things, the ease of brilliance, 1 to 1, sans the sadness because I'm still hopeful that the world can be fixed and am still an idealist. (I attribute this to my faith.)

My classmates always envied how little or none I work for the same results but very few realized it's kind of a curse at the same time[1]. When you don't have a habit of working, you can't work hard when you need it. I think this can be a problem now as I'm entering university (it happened to be a mild problem in late HS too). I would not throw it all up with girls and beer (cos I'm muslim) but I don't know whether I will be bored, because I heard the curriculum isn't exactly full of shiny things.

1: Still I'm forever grateful to Allah for it, no complaints. Learned so much in my all free time not spent doing pointless homework.

Diversify, socialize, and start things before they're due*.

Take classes / sit in on lectures from different fields (art history, painting, russian literature, architecture/furniture making... the list goes on, just make sure it's interesting to you). If you've got AP credits racked, your entire first year's worth of requirements just got freed. Use them piece-by-piece over your semesters to explore other avenues rather than graduating a year early. Don't be afraid of 300/400 level classes as a sophomore (assuming you're solid for the first 3 semesters). It's a great way to better integrate with upper classmen while you're still a fledgling.

Join clubs that do different forms of the work you're interested (applications of theory vs problem sets), or entirely different skillsets**. You should be able to meet people above and below you, enabling avenues to learn and teach.

*I never did figure out how deadlines work.

**E.g. sports. "The mind cannot exist without the body" - Morbeus

> *I never did figure out how deadlines work.

The failure mode goes "this thing will take two days, I'll start two days before the deadline, oops". The fix is "this thing will take two days, I'll start it immediately". You can then still drop it after two days if you wish, but you have options if your estimate was poor.

One piece of advice: some things in university might be pointless and/or hard. Treat it like a game, the goal is usually quite clear (grades, passing, etc.) and work as much as you can to achieve the best results. Don't think too much about whether there's a point, and if it's boring, find ways to not make it boring (read more literature about it, solve trickier problems)...

I think you're right to be concerned. I coasted through secondary school with a 4.0..and when I reached undergrad I didn't have the tools to apply myself. I wasn't a big fish in a small pond anymore, I was near the bottom of the heap. first year I did ok, but by the end of the second I was irrecoverably lost.

my advice is to figure out what you want to get out of it. sure, maybe you need a degree, but that's a really big space. most of it seems like a pointless sysiphysian exercise. but there are some really great teachers and peers in there, and a lifelong passion if you can find it.

Be as practical as possible; at the same time, compromise as little as possible on following your heart and your interests.

If something isn't practical and it doesn't bring you joy then it isn't worth your time. Don't fool yourself into wasting time!

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