[Ambroos]

This sounds great! I remember teaching myself to read before I was supposed to (very standard Belgian education), and probably as a result I was from that point on always ahead of my classmates simply because I'm very curious. I tended to read ahead for subjects that interested me, and not really bother for those that didn't. Teachers were sometimes annoyed because they really didn't understand why I could do insanely well for some subjects (or even some parts of some subjects) and do absolutely horrible for others, with no reasonable explanation for it. Especially as soon as I discovered computers and the internet, things changed rapidly as I was learning how to do things (and even program some PHP and create websites with Dreamweaver). You could basically say I unschooled myself almost right up until I finished our equivalent of high school (at 18).

And then I was royally screwed. I always had enough grades for teachers to pass me on almost all subjects, but in my last year of high school I was really stressed out about what I wanted to do at university, and stopped making an effort for a lot of subjects at high school that were suddenly going at a pace I couldn't follow in "zero interest mode". It took me two years and a detour via a central government exam to get my degree.

Then I was screwed again in my final year of university college (software development). While I did great in the actual software development courses, I couldn't get myself focused on subjects I didn't care about (because I never had to, so I had absolutely no study methods for things that don't interest me). So of course after three years when I should've had my degree, I had nothing. Even though I had been to all classes and seen everything, on some subjects I just didn't pass because they didn't interest me at all.

So I just quit and started working, which was absolutely fine. I found enough at work that interested me and I became a pretty decent developer in no time. 26 now and I'm still coding cool stuff, so I'd say it ended well.

Based on how my education went I'd say unschooling would've been a great fit, but I really wonder if an unschooled kid would be more or less likely to encounter the same problems I have. While for programming you can easily get your professional life going without a sign of a degree, for many fields that's not a possibility and you will have to study (a lot). If you've never _really_ had to just process and memorize things that don't interest you, that might get really hard. I fear that being unschooled might be great at the start, but there's a point where (for most fields) you have no choice besides going into a classic education system, and you'd be less prepared than other students...

[wellboy]

Would you say that not getting the degree was justified, since getting a degree is 50% the display of having the intellect to the subject and 50% the display of having the diligence, persistence and discipline to finish something, which is one of the most important traits in the professional world.

Not trying to be snarky, but genuinely interested.

Did the "inability" to focus on things you're not interested in impede you later in life, e.g. with taxes, social life, exercise etc?

[Ambroos]

Absolutely, not getting the degree was justified. I also believe that in some fields (software development) a degree isn't really necessary, and I'm glad most employers see the value in experience and willingness to learn.

Taxes and administration: not that complex in Belgium so I can't say much about that, but I value correctness a lot and that makes my administration easy to do (I never ever postpone doing my taxes, paying bills, ...). I usually find a way to make things interesting too, by keeping my administration as digital as I can. I'm always an early adopter.

Exercise: I struggle with this. Once I get going it usually goes quite well (but always have to combine it with something that does interest me, for example running with "Zombies, Run!", a sort of interactive audiobook/running trainer combination), but tend to stop completely if I hit roadblocks.

Social life: maybe. I have a great core group of friends that I've known since high school but that's about it, and I am not great at forming deep bonds. I have some work friends, but not at the level that I'd invite them over for dinner on a random week night. It's not at all at a problematic level though. I don't really know. I tend to be extremely honest and open about basically everything, and that scares / freaks out a lot of people, so it's not easy to make new good friends.

If you want to chat more, feel free to message me on whatever messaging platform you like. My username is always Ambroos or AmbroosV.