How do I put my talents to good use?

[longbyte1]

Let me put this in a few words: I'm terribly occupied with school, my social life is almost nonexistent, and my talents are put to waste. Really, people think I am a walking encyclopedia, but how have I really put that knowledge to good use?

Over and over I excuse myself that "oh, I can't find people who are just as talented as me in computers." It sounds stupid when I say this here, but this is what I say in front of people when they ask what I do in my spare time.

I hate the situation I'm in. My friends are in band and model UN, play DnD, and some even have jobs. I don't ever hear them complain that they have so many things to do in their daily life. How does that compare to me? My daily schedule is as barren as a desert: school from 8 to 4, homework from 5 to 7, free time 7 to 8, dinner with family 8 to 9, there that's my day.

Last year, I shared my frustrations with a friend of mine who was having a similar problem: somewhat bored at school, no time for coding projects. By the end of the year he had decided to just leave and enroll in a virtual school. I have no problem with his decision: he wants to pursue his endeavors but wants total control over his life. But there's no way to compromise that while keeping a strong tie with the community by going to a real school and interacting with real people, so I did not fully agree with it.

For an inestimable amount of time have I looked for somebody - anybody - my age that knows as much as I do, but to no avail. For so long have I tried to compensate by resorting to an online life and talking to people older than I am, only to gain a little bit of inspiration and nothing more. When I make a great leap in whatever project, my friends respond to my excitements with meager interest, not really knowing half of what I had just said.

So when I founded (or rather co-founded, since my friend submitted the paperwork first) the school's very own programming club, unsurprisingly enough the club garnered relatively little interest. Most members were friends of friends, not really knowing much about programming but rather hoping they could just ride along and throw ideas whenever necessary. And much to my chagrin, I did not find the coder of my dreams.

This doesn't mean that my life is a total wreck: I gained a special reputation for helping teachers with their computers in times of need, from fifth grade, and I am still asked for favors to this day.

I could apply for a job at a small tech consultancy/support business and earn $$, but I don't want to live off exorbitant pricing and give people the impression that I charge for all of my services even outside of a professional environment.

I just want to stop wasting my time, find people like me, start a project, and help thousands. But how? Already this thread is sounding like a rant, and I do not want to give up before college admissions roll around because those really do count, and without making a significant contribution to society I am nothing.

Where can I find help?

[Bill Phil]

You need to expand your horizons. Your skills are useful, yes, but not in this stage of life. Gain more skills. People with multiple skills are more valuable. Expand. Join clubs or teams, find extracurricular activities.

There has to be SOME days where you have little homework...

Maybe start a project to make a text based video game... I don't know.

You'll just need to find others.

I was really bored in school too.

Btw, high school is more of a social place than a place for learning, but it is also about learning how to learn.

I'm not all that trustworthy, but a lot of variety is really good.

Edited November 4, 2015 by Bill Phil

[Robotengineer]

If you really want to do what you like, drop out. There's no point screwing around with stuff you already know or aren't interested in. Write an indie game, utility or app people will use, so that you can start putting together a body of work to put on your resume. I agree with Bill Phil that you should expand your horizons. However if you know that programming/computer science is what you really want to do, pursue it with all your effort.

Take every thing I say with a grain of salt though, I wasn't educated traditionally, which has it's pros and cons. The pros were that I got to do what I wanted and was interested in, the cons were I didn't get much social interaction at all. IMO, I'd rather have an extra dose of knowledge than social interaction, but opinions differ.

[Dispatcher]

The general focus of educational systems is job preparation. Consider shifting focus from working for someone else to working for yourself. Work towards being an entrepreneur, the maker of a product or service that you are passionate about. Think in terms of being a partner or an employer, rather than an employee. Yeah, that kind of stuff! Good luck!

[Camacha]

I just want to stop wasting my time, find people like me, start a project, and help thousands. But how?

Risking sounding harsh: if you need to ask that question, you probably need some more time to work things out. Meanwhile, excel at school and also pursue personal interests - because if you are bored, you are simply not trying hard enough to learn new things. Every day is a day to learn something new and every new thing you learn is a tool to make greater and better things. If anything, learn to debate, learn to sell, learn to convince. If you cannot rally people behind your projects, they are unlikely to happen. This is equally true in the real, adult world. Without investors or participants, projects are generally doomed.

Also, be wary of placing yourself in another category than other people. Some people really are special in a good way, but the bitter truth is that the vast majority is not.

[Just Jim]

Hmmmmmm….

This is a rather painful subject for me, but I’m going to share something with y’all.

Growing up I was ahead of pretty much everyone else in school. I don’t like to use the word smarter. That depends on the subject. I’m very smart in math, sciences, history… but a complete dunce in things like auto-mechanics, plumbing…. Things others excel at. But in elementary and Jr. high I was 2 grades ahead of where I was supposed to be, and all set to graduate high school and enter college a couple years early.

Then my mother re-married and we moved to a different, more “progressive†school district, and I was told I would NOT be allowed to graduate early, despite all the hard work I had done. It wouldn’t be “fair†to everyone else; even though some of these others were the laziest people I ever met! I was crushed.

Furious, dejected, hurt….. the next couple years were a nightmare. My 11th year in high school I literally had 1 class and 8 study halls. And my vice-principal absolutely refused to let me take any kind of extra classes! It was like he hated people trying to excel, and I hated him for making me his personel target. And I was becoming very bitter and mean to people around me. I snapped at people that used to come to me for help with their homework, and began to lose many friends.

So when I turned 17, I went and got my GED. Just walked in, took the test and passed… it was so easy... then took it to school and handed it to my vice-principal and told him I wouldn’t be coming back. The look on his face was awesome!!!

Then I went to a recruiter, joined the Army, and spent the next three years as a combat medic in Germany. And it was the best thing that could have happened to me. I learned and saw so much of the world… way more than a book or school could show me. And I lost my bad attitude really fast.

Now, I’m not saying you should do this…. But I wonder if it isn’t time for you to maybe pack it up and do some traveling, really see the world. You want to help people… have you considered doing something like a year or two in the Peace Corps??? Going to where people really need massive help? Something like that may not seem very intellectual, but I can pretty much guarantee you’ll learn more than you expect.

Maybe it’s time you go see the world a bit…. Take the road less traveled, so to speak.

[NeatCrown]

I'm actually in a very similar position as you are, but yet somewhat different. Personally, I think that I might have somewhat of a minor fear of getting ahead, so that may be one thing slowing me down. The more knowledge one has, the less likely one is to find people similar to them. For the first two years of secondary school, I was completely alone without anyone to speak to. My cycle was "Wake up, School, homework, free time, sleep". Further over time, I lost more motivation for schoolwork, though I still passed my classes. Though in school, I looked happy, cheerful, showing positive emotions, I was depressed over how I never had any friends. Though I have a very good companion today, I get depressed whenever I think of how in post secondary, any bonds made in high school will most likely be lost. After university, any bonds made will once again; likely be lost, since people go different ways.

I learned so much more from the Discovery Channel, Nova, documentaries, and my own parents than I could ever hope to learn in school. Division was barely taught in grade five, and squares and square roots until 7th grade.

Looking back to elementary and who I considered friends, they were more akin to "people who weren't anuses towards me". My somewhat unsocial behavior likely comes from the constant bullying I endured during that time, but I still wanted someone to relate to.

Due to that, I got a very short temper. One thing that didn't help was mt 5th grade teacher that said that horrible little phrase that spoke of "sticks and stones" when any verbal torture occurred. Even before that, no teacher took my cries or the others' actions seriously since they thought that "Kids don't know what's right of wrong". Kids aren't idiots.

It makes me both sad and furious that one of a few people I knew from elementary, who was an honor student; He received all As, and is the one carving male genitals in to the newly painted walls of the new school wing. At the moments that I'm pondering over things such as morality in philosophy, aircraft design, and whatever else; other (males) are having pissing contests and throwing obscenities seemingly every tenth word. I never pursued any friendships with females since my father constantly said that males and female can't have friendship and any sight of it simply means the male wants to seduce the female. (Now, that I look back, I'd likely be more able to connect with them)

I, myself would like to do something beneficial to the world, but I'm slowly losing more motivation. Another obstacle facing me is what career to pursue.

I want to do all I can! I'd like to become an aerospace engineer, quantum physicist, indie game developer, animator, astronomer, continue the family company- ...but all I have is 700,000 hours in total from beginning of life to the end. 550,000 hours left in total and about 377,000 hours when I account for time lost during sleep-

...I suppose I got a bit off track from the original topic... Sorry.

Edited November 10, 2015 by NeatCrown

[KSK]

Speaking as somebody who was in a similar position (top tier student at school but without much of a life beyond schoolwork), I would recommend getting yourself to college, giving yourself a couple of months there and having a re-think. With any luck you'll find your level, find people that are just as smart as you are (and in some cases probably a lot smarter) with similar interests and goals that you can relate to. Even better you'll hopefully find people that can give you different perspectives on life, new aspirations and new ideas about ways you can make a difference.

More generally, don't forget the soft skills and personal contacts. Unless you're at a truly exceptional level (which you may well be), technical skills are relatively cheap, although they may not seem that way right now. Again, I can speak from experience here - I went through a stage of being terribly impressed with what I was studying and terribly impressed with myself for studying it. As you've found already, the hard part is getting other people to be equally impressed. A lot of employers will take it for granted that you can do tech stuff and they'll be looking for whatever else you can bring to the job.

For that matter (as I learned the hard way) the same applies to some universities. And if you want to strike out on your own, start your own company, become a consultant or whatever, you'll need a whole raft of skills and (or the willingness to learn them) to go with the tech stuff.

Edit. As a quick aside, do you really have two hours of homework a night? Those guys with the other interests - how do they fit in the schoolwork with everything else? Are there ways you can 'work smarter' and free up some time for other interests?

Edited November 9, 2015 by KSK

[Goddess Bhavani]

I had a teacher who told me this in college. The strategy kinda works well, even 20 years later.

Basically you're a ship in a storm. You aren't supposed to run at flank speed and possibly break your hull trying to crash through the waves.

Instead, if you're feeling lost, stressed, or overwhelmed, maintain constant effort until you have clear horizons.

Once upon a time I was this depressed lonely person who had no friends and absolutely horrible grades thanks to the RL equivalent of being downvoted on sight - racial/gender discrimination.

I just toughed out the 'I am lost growing up' stage by doing what I'm supposed to do; be it work or study or both at once, and eventually got a great job at an international IT company, where opinions and new ideas are respected, and basically, it's worth waiting 20 odd years under social pressure, not conforming to what passed for normality... basically, I'm a self trained professional, and my unconventional skills are appreciated by the organization because they work well in high stress situations to solve problems.

Remember, there's no good in rushing or making drastic changes. Cruise through the thick of the present confusion. Do what you're supposed to do (school). Your path to glory will appear on its own