Originally posted on r/AskReddit on April 23, 2022.
So, in your lives, do you encounter such folks, and what are their skills? How are they doing as of now?
Academics needs good discipline for the most part provided you have an okay head for it.
Somebody with a very high intelligence can cruise by for a while, but they will hit a wall eventually where they need to sit down and do the boring, borderline useless or administrative stuff too. Lots of people have a hard time to find the motivation to do these parts and fail.
This. Never studied, just kind of coasted through school disengaged. Low tolerance for repetition. Now i find myself cycling between learning new things and then having no motivation to apply them.
Yep, straight A’s in all AP classes right up until college. Party life and not being prepared for the stuff you are talking about really derailed my progress.
Ultimately I realized I can make good money in IT without a degree but it’s still much harder to get past the automatic screeners without a BA.
It would be nice if other industries had certification programs like IT does. I took a couple classes not long ago and really enjoyed them but it’s so hard to manage work, school, and parenting nowadays.
Stay in school kids!
I excelled in school until it came time to do homework. I couldn’t be bothered because it was a waste of time.
I’m 15 years into my IT career with no degree and zero certifications, but make 6 figures.
I was right - the homework was a complete waste of time. I haven’t needed a damn thing that school has taught me since about 6th grade. Basic math, reading, and good language skills (with a good chunk of luck) are all you need in life to succeed. School is great for some people, but absolutely a waste of some of the best years of your life for most.
Not everybody learns the same and schools insist on only teaching in one particular way, so yeah tons of people are not good at academics because of this. A lot of them are quite successful in their non-academic careers
In my work I’ve had a lot to do with successful inventors. Many of them have spotty academic background but have experience in technical trades like machining, fabricating or mechanics.
There are extremely smart and capable people who fall into cracks in the school system all the time. For example due to neurodivergence, family issues or poverty.
I would highly recommend books written by Temple Grandin to learn about neurodivergent education.
I think there’s two subsets of these people.
One subset is actually really smart, book smart even, but just doesn’t have a personality that aligns with the format of the education system. Those people tend to do really well in a different environment where they have more intrinsic motivation to succeed. For example, I know someone who didn’t do well in school even though he had the ability to because he just didn’t really see any reward, so he had no motivation. He went into finance and got through uni and his first few job with flying colors, because there was a reward at the end of the tunnel to pursue.
The other subset just doesn’t do well with any sort of “bookish” stuff - math, sciences, finance, engineering, etc. just don’t really fly. A lot of them I find feel a bit lost because they feel pressure to find a passion or orient themselves around a career when they just don’t have anything that sparks an interest. I find that those people tend to do well when they pursue “active” jobs that don’t feel like school. A person I know in this category struggled with school throughout his life, but was really good at working with people and interacting on that emotional plane. He went into social services and now works as a crisis counsellor. Most of the “schooling” was basically just situational training, and the job itself is so intuitive to him. Honestly if he didn’t have bills to pay I swear he’d do that job for free. Other people in this category are ok with a job just feeling like work, so any high paying trade tends to work well because they can go to work, do their hours, and then enjoy life.
Hi,
I kind of feel concerned by who you’re “targeting”. I did succeed in my studies, but at a cost that I felt astronomical compared to my colleagues ; I always felt not being correctly cabled to address school the way it is supposed to.
It’s sad, because I’m quite good elsewhere, but I do not behave or understand things the way school supposes I should, which made it a pain all my scholarship.
While it may seem weird, I believe the problem lies not in people, but in school which isn’t capable in its current form to adapt to every way of thinking. Yes, people have to adapt to society, but the fact I do well appart from school shows that I did in fact adapt correctly.
I’m the opposite, I did pretty well in my academics (top of the class, etc. even during college).
But I’m finding it hard to excel in my career.
I have family deep in Appalachia where education isn’t much of a priority there, most drop out to help farming, coal mining and helping the family whatever way they can.
One man I knew who dropped out at an early age was probably the best mechanic I’ve ever seen. He could fix just about anything, cars, appliances, you name it.
One instance I recall was that there was a boy with either downs or on the autism spectrum. Back then there was no distinction but I digress. This boy had an old, beat up and very cheap 8 track player that he absolutely loved and couldn’t ever part with it. The mechanic was able to keep it working for years and years.
pretty much anyone that’s not me
I’m that way.
I’d say a part of it is a rebellious nature. I’m not content walking a paved path, I carve my own.
I’m doing very well, better than most of my peers. The friends of mine that are doing better than me are the same way.
