[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