site banner
PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2561 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for May 29, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

1
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

We know the common cliche of a guy (or girl) who's "the brain" at their school but has a major crisis when they find out they're merely average compared to everyone else when they start university. I'm curious how many folks here were nothing special in elementary and high school but went on to achieve something substantial academically?

I did mostly decently in school but was never anywhere close to a top tier student. Barely got into the high school I wanted, ie. the one with the shortest distance from my home (Finnish high school entrance is determined by your grades in 9th year). Had to settle for my second choice in university (EE) because I couldn't get in to study CS (and the actually hard to get in programs would have been right out). I went on to publish a couple of semi-influential papers in a subfield and AFAIK my professor still considers me one of his star students even though I never ended up doing a PhD (and let me tell you it's really fucking weird to keep receiving fan mail about a publication for a full decade from random people who've gone to the effort of figuring out your twice changed email address just for a single message).

I'm curious how many folks here were nothing special in elementary and high school but went on to achieve something substantial academically?

I feel like this describes me pretty well: my parents put me in the normal public school track through third grade, and none of my grades were particularly outstanding. None of the work was hard, but it was darn boring: who wants to sit there practicing adding multi-digit numbers together or "silent reading" for 30 minutes while the teacher focuses on the couple students having trouble with the concepts. I didn't do a good job doing the work and only got mediocre grades and messed around more than I should have, and nothing looked too unusual until I finally took a standardized test (the Stanford series) from the district and I scored remarkably well.

At that point, some combination of the teacher and my parents decided that maybe I'd do better in an advanced program, so I transferred to a different elementary school with such a program, and I immediately did a lot better academically because I found the work more challenging (although getting dropped into a new school always has its challenges), and I continued in advanced programs through high school and went to a rather well-ranked university, got a graduate degree, and now I do IMO complex engineering stuff for work. At each point in there, I'm rather proud I was (generally) able to rise to the challenge and perform well, although I'm certainly no von Neumann or Shannon, and I have a sense of the limit of my abilities.

I'm a firm believer in magnet programs, though.

I'm curious how many folks here were nothing special in elementary and high school but went on to achieve something substantial academically?

The high school I graduated from was in the state top ten for per capita overdoses, vehicle deaths, suicides, and teen pregnancies. I was suspended multiple times, had six weeks of unexcused absences my senior year, and nearly got expelled once.

I graduated from college. It's not much, but it's a win for me.

I’m curious to know what hood you come from and what set you claim. Lol.

Just redneck shit

The high school I graduated from was in the state top ten for per capita overdoses, vehicle deaths, suicides, and teen pregnancies.

Gotta say, even the existence of such statistics (ie. there being more than one per decade) already sounds bizarre to me. Cultural differences and all that.

I graduated from college. It's not much, but it's a win for me.

I say that definitely counts as a win.

had six weeks of unexcused absences my senior year

Ours was a very progressive high school as far as student freedom and responsibility went. You could be absent from up to 20% of classes from one course without requiring a reason and 30% if you had a doctor's note or similar. I had some "slight" motivation problems in my last year so I ended up skipping 50% of the math classes in the last period and the teacher didn't even notice (I missed something like 15 classes, he thought I missed 5). I outright arranged my schedule for that last period such that I only went to school three days a week. Good times.

Gotta say, even the existence of such statistics (ie. there being more than one per decade) already sounds bizarre to me. Cultural differences and all that.

How big are your high schools? It varies a lot across the US, but OP might be describing a school with over a thousand students per grade level, and you might be able to get meaningful statistics over a few years.

Graduating class was 216.

I was only there for a year and a half. In that time, we had four lethal overdoses, three suicides, six vehicle deaths (two accidents), one farm related fatality, one murder, and somewhere on the order of 30 pregnancies.

My high school had about 500 seniors but about half of them didn't graduate -- I barely did, on such thin margins that it literally came down to my grade on my math final -- so I guess our graduating class was also 250ish? Not sure how that works. There seems to be an assumption implicit in the term that pretty much everyone will graduate.

Sometimes I try to imagine what it would be like to show up to a reunion. Can't imagine many do. Not even sure they happen.

Location also matters. Rural schools usually have a much higher fatality rate than urban schools (some data here), typically due to a combination of dangerous farm work, dangerous driving habits, more miles driven, and more dangerous hobbies.

My own experience may be illustrative. I went to a rural high school of about 400 students. My freshman year was the first in 25 years not to see a single student death, though there were four more deaths my sophomore through senior years. In contrast, the large city schools near me (student population ~3,000–4,000) usually only have one or two deaths per decade.

Does Finland have a system where high school is different than the US definition? That sounds almost like my first year of college

It's the "same" but from what I've gathered of US high schools, also quite different. First, there are entry requirements (based on 9th year grades). Second, they changed it to course form just before I started in the mid 90s, so you got to pick and choose which courses to take and when. There's a bunch of mandatory courses and then the rest are optional within limits (eg. I took max amount of math and physics and only the minimum required history, biology and such). The entry requirements did wonders because while my high school wasn't anything particularly "elite" back then (it would acquire such reputation some years later), only people who actually wanted to study went there. The curriculum was and is still normal high school (which in practise means somewhat higher level than US but similar to the rest of EU).

First, Congrats! Hopefully the weirdness is offset by the enjoyment of being seen as important. For what it's worth I'm one of the people that will dig a bit to say "Thank you" when a piece of art or science transcends the mundane. I pretty much never receive a response but I figure people get negative feedback so often on things it's a way to put some positivity out there.

I was unable to meaningfully achieve anything academically. My ascent from a mediocre student to decent mid-level professional guy was a happy surprise. It's still crazy that the company I "co-founded" is still around almost a decade later and making $40m a year from $0.

I thought school was a monumental waste of time and hated nearly every minute of it. Now that I'm an adult, I'm even more miffed at all the people around me who tried to gaslight me into thinking it wasn't. I was absolutely fuckin' right about that.

Compulsory education is a repulsive mockery of genuine scholarship. I hate the people who defile the noble legacy of academia with this metric-chasing midwittery.

Had to settle for my second choice in university (EE) because I couldn't get in to study CS (and the actually hard to get in programs would have been right out).

What were the hard programs?

and let me tell you it's really fucking weird to keep receiving fan mail about a publication for a full decade from random people who've gone to the effort of figuring out your twice changed email address just for a single message

Were these, uh, Indians?

What were the hard programs?

Industrial engineering (think fast track to management for people who know math) and industrial physics (which for obvious reasons attracts people who are really good at math and physics).

and let me tell you it's really fucking weird to keep receiving fan mail about a publication for a full decade from random people who've gone to the effort of figuring out your twice changed email address just for a single message

Were these, uh, Indians?

No. Random people in the field and the occasional amateur interested in the topic. Eg. a few years ago I got a Facebook message from a German guy working for a prominent company in the same field saying he was a huge fan of my (then over 15 years old) work.

I’m curious about another scenario. I went to a private school in NYC where not everyone, but probably 40-60% of people were pretty smart. It wasn’t hugely selective but because it has or at least had at that time a reputation as being more academic than the hippie private schools, had a large contingent of smart kids. I did OK, maybe 70-80th percentile but outside of English and History was never top of the class. I went to a competitive and selective but again not HYPS tier college.

So I have the interesting but probably common experience (including professionally) of being mostly in ‘my league’ my whole life intellectually. I meet people both smarter and dumber than me all the time.

My life has felt similar. Was at a highschool that wasn't anything super special. But had enough well off kids that I was solidly in the middle of the top classes. Got into a large state school, but was in the honors program there. So again it was just me sitting in the middle of the top class. Got into the workforce and it felt similar. Was at a good tech company with smart people but I was still only in the middle.

Feels the same around here. If there is a group of people that belong in the top tenth percentile of users here I'd place myself in it. But I'm only in like the middle among that top 10th percentile.

One time I remember truly feeling dumb was playing a board game with Robin Hanson and another Econ professor at Bryan Caplan's house. Robin and I were new to the game, the other econ professor was not. There was a recognizable meta to the card game that I partly pieced together after having played it. Robin Hanson asked enough questions at the beginning that I realized afterwards he was piecing together the meta just based on the rules. I got slaughtered in the game basically playing according to the rules but without a useful strategy. Hanson and the other professor nearly tied, with Hanson losing out just barely. I only give myself partial credit for understanding the meta cuz of Hanson's questions, and some of his comments afterwards led me to 'get it'.

I meet people both smarter and dumber than me all the time.

I clearly move in the wrong circles because it's fairly rare for me to meet people who are obviously smarter than me while unfortunately the other end is not nearly as rare. I've arranged my life so I can mostly deal with my peers on that level but unfortunately such selection isn't always possible at the workplace. Internet forums are of course a near complete disaster when it comes to that.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats