[DaSHacka]

You hit it right on the head, I think.

Even at my own university, I struggle to maintain a 3.0 GPA while at the same time actively tutoring students for the very courses I'm failing.

The issue isn't knowledge or competency, it's a mix of work ethic and tolerance for menial busywork.

I think some of us just aren't made for the academia grind...

[meristohm]

It's true, and okay, that the academia grind is only for a subset of us. It is not the only meaningful path! I went on to gradschool by rote, and I do not push it on my high-school students or anyone else. It took me about 40 years to find a sense of purpose (having a child was the catalyst). Sadly, the push for STEM seems motivated by capitalists wanting further control of valuable labor, so I'm really chuffed by Bryan's Show HN post- even though open-source can be leveraged by capital, it doesn't have to be. It is a non-walled-garden model, and an example of what we can do collectively. Even if the Linux kernel is largely funded by corporations, it doesn't have to be.

A concern is that a laptop is still not something my community can make with the local resources, and thus the exploitation of land, labor, and money continues.

What would a fair-trade laptop cost?