[TheAceOfHearts]

I wasted tons of time while I was in high school, so kudos to you for aspiring for more and trying to be productive. Respect.

On the other hand, don't forget to have fun! You have your whole life to be "grown up", but only a few years to be young and reckless, don't squander em. I feel old for writing that, but whatever.

Don't overwork yourself, and don't let others take advantage of your enthusiasm. Burnout is real, so make sure none of your habits put you on the path towards self-destruction. Avoid the temptation of staying up 1 or n-more hours just to finish some thing; it'll always be there for you the next day, so it's usually better for you to get a full night of rest instead.

In my experience, some aspects of school are overrated. It's easy to get fixated on grades, but they're not always representative of someone's true skills. Of course, you shouldn't lie to yourself either, so strive to actually understand whatever subject you're focused on.

[tw1010]

Meh, you can be plenty reckless when you're old as well. There's always parties. I wish I had realized this when I was younger. It would have made me feel a lot less angsty about "wasting the best years on my life" on coding (which I really enjoyed) instead of spending my youth on parties.

Also; saying "don't overwork yourself" doesn't really work. It's better to let a person overwork themselves and learn the lesson the hard way. People told me that over and over but I never actually took it to heart until I actually did it.

[ams6110]

Yeah but unless you're just a person who never grows up, or you leave all household responsibilities to your partner, once you have a spouse, family, and a "real job" the parties are a lot fewer.

[tw1010]

Sure, but at least that's a choice. When I was a kid and heard "enjoy it while it lasts" I imagined being an adult as being chained under some big rock called "responsibility". But it really isn't. If you're an adult, and you want to party, and you understand and accept the tradeoffs that is associated to, usually you can make it happen.

[applecrazy]

Thanks for the advice! I have noticed burnout firsthand: as a teen in SV, there’s an extreme push from parents and people around us in general. We are expected to start charities or found startups and take as many advanced courses as possible. There are very few that can handle a schedule like this, and some teens have even taken their lives. Luckily, a lot of us have writing code as an outlet for this stress.

I agree with you, it’s best to focus on subjects you care about and just take regular classes for the rest. The goal of HS should not be to pad your college app or increase your GPA, it’s to challenge yourself in subjects you’re interested in and show colleges and universities that you’re ready for a higher level of work. Sadly, today this isn’t the case, and that leads to depression and anxiety. A 2015 study of teens at a nearby Bay Area high school[1] found that 80 percent of the student sample suffered from anxiety and 54 symptoms of depression (and this doesn’t include students taking AP tests on the day the questionnaire was given out).

Everybody needs to calm down.

[1]: https://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/01/03/opinion/sunday/is-the-...

Edit: added citation