Who am I?

[Zero]

i refuse to grow up. **** that ****.

[Jaguar]

Originally posted by jdd2007


"skywalker and me." I'm 15.

There is an implied "am" there, so I think it's ok.

[Agathon]

You're young and impressionable, once you reach college age and learn to think critically, you might understand things better.

[Jaguar]

[monkspider]

Ah, to be a teen, to know everything and yet have your whole life ahead of you. I must admit I envy our younger members. Youth is wasted on the young, as they say.

[Az]

ahh, memories, I remember myself joining this forum at the tender age of 15, or so.

[Jaguar]

I remember myself joining this forum at the tender age of 11.

[Rogan Josh]

I am sure that you will be just like a large fraction of other kids out there with a 'superiority complex'. When you get out into the adult world and discover that you are not so hot as you once thought, you will fall into depression, maybe followed by drug addiction and a lonely death (at your own hand perhaps?).

[Jaguar]

[Cruddy]

Originally posted by Kucinich
On one hand, I'm a kid. I get excited about things kids get excited about, I worry about things that kids worry about, I don't have the experience that many adults do. My beliefs are still quite malleable - in fact, Apolyton has proven that true. I'm a very different person from the skywalker that posted a little speech he was very proud of in every single forum on 9/11.

OTOH, I'm an adult. For the most part, I converse with adults at or above their level.

Could it be that adults don't find it easy to accept you have adult thinking habits and treat you more childishly than you find acceptable.

It takes 2 to have an intellectual conversation... but until you reach the stage where you can walk up to a prospective partner and flirt, make a pass and (who knows?) get lucky, you are NOT an adult.

Jesse Jackson's got a good definition of fatherhood, by the way. "You are not a man because you can make a baby a child. You are a man because you can raise a child". (The quote's probably a bit off but the meaning is the same.

Originally posted by Kucinich
I'm far superior to the average adolescent when it comes to things like critical thinking, and better than many adults (though the adults here are in general above average).

What's the average adolescent?

OK, maybe you are bored by most conversations with people the same age as you. I know I was when I was a teenager... but that's enough of me.

Critical thinking in a straight line is very useful... but lateral thinking is much, much rarer. You're smart... but don't go thinking you know enough.

Most think that growth ends at adulthood and you don't learn anything new. The day I don't learn something new, shoot me - I'm already dead.

Originally posted by Kucinich
I have for the most part a much better perspective on life than people my age - I see things the way an adult would, not a kid.

This can actually be a disadvantage. Having a fresh perspective is again a much rarer thing (I generally think of rarity as valuable, although it does mean your career choices, while more diverse, can also be narrower).

Originally posted by Kucinich
I'm unaffected by peer pressure...

Maybe. Probably not if one of your peers has a gun at your head or some other means of coercion or blackmail.

Originally posted by Kucinich
I can see the long term, and I understand generally how important something really is and really will be twenty years from now. In some ways I'm much more mature than them, though in others less (I'm ADHD, so I'm also prone to impulsive behavior). Basically, I don't see immediate gratification as the ultimate goal.

So you are patient, and have vision?

That's useful - just so long as you remember when to apparently lose your patience (this is a judgemental thing and comes with experience) and that your farsight could be completely wrong.

Originally posted by Kucinich
I like Apolyton because I feel I can fit here ...

Etc etc. I just like a darn good argument - and I really do like the way that many points of view are represented.

It's good - and here's a great peice of advice I got from a priest when I related my teenage dreams of fortune and high achievement.

"Never forget to laugh at life. If you take it too seriously it will grind you down."

[Flip McWho]

Maybe. Probably not if one of your peers has a gun at your head or some other means of coercion or blackmail.

I'd like to think that that isn't commonly referred to as "peer pressure".

[Traianvs]

how old is skywalker?

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Rogan Josh
I am sure that you will be just like a large fraction of other kids out there with a 'superiority complex'. When you get out into the adult world and discover that you are not so hot as you once thought, you will fall into depression, maybe followed by drug addiction and a lonely death (at your own hand perhaps?).

w00t

[Pax]

Kucinich,
What made you change your name?

Having confidence in your abilities is half the battle. You also need social skills to pull us lesser beings into a cohesive group.

Feel free to mesmerize the people around you with your charisma and charm. At some point in your life you are going to have to interact with the common folk so be ready. Look at good points of public leaders if you need examples. By most accounts Napoleon, Hitler, Reagan, kennedy, and Clinton all had good people skills.

Don't let others take your faith in yourself away.

[BeBro]

You're on the best way to become a new supercitizen

[Az]

I am sure that you will be just like a large fraction of other kids out there with a 'superiority complex'. When you get out into the adult world and discover that you are not so hot as you once thought, you will fall into depression, maybe followed by drug addiction and a lonely death (at your own hand perhaps?).

Didn't you call yourself once "one of the brightest minds of this generation in the field"?

So, I don't think that you can preach modesty.

[Spiffor]

Isn't anyone glad that Skywalker fell in our trap to believe we consider him as equal, instead of the little immature runt he really is?

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Rogan Josh
I am sure that you will be just like a large fraction of other kids out there with a 'superiority complex'. When you get out into the adult world and discover that you are not so hot as you once thought, you will fall into depression, maybe followed by drug addiction and a lonely death (at your own hand perhaps?).

Bullshit.

I was in the elite of my highschool, and I felt strongly more mature than my peers. Since then, I belong to elitist studies where there are plenty of people as bright as me, or more. I don't feel stupid for this, but I stopped to feel "better" than the rest. I now consider everybody has something worth saying, and there are gems to be found even in ignorance (why else would I spend so much time on 'Poly? )

More seriously, I suffered a bit at the end of highschool, but I quickly overcame this, as I understood the humility lesson made me a better person.

Skywalker knows he's not the smartest on Earth. He is reminded it every day on Apolyton, where he can see people talking at his level, instead of people amazed by his smarts There is no reason he ever believes to be the top dog. However, it is true he risks feeling belonging to an elite above the rest of the population - this is common with teenagers, and pretty much any teen board (or any circle jerk between teens in any form) is full of self satisfaction. Just look at the L33ts

[alva]

Originally posted by Jaguar Warrior

I never realized you were younger than skywalker and I.

Better face it Jag..., you're becoming 'n old git...

[Jamski]

/me throws rocks at this thread *

(*As advised by Tassadar see above)

-Jam

[Theben]

Originally posted by Flip McWho

I'd like to think that that isn't commonly referred to as "peer pressure".

Only in America. And Afganistan.

[Boris Godunov]

You're Jean Valjean!

[Rogan Josh]

Originally posted by Azazel
Didn't you call yourself once "one of the brightest minds of this generation in the field"?

So, I don't think that you can preach modesty.

Yes, but I have proven myself in the adult world. I have already made it. I wasn't preaching modesty - I was preaching against false arogance.

[Az]

ah, ok, ok, THAT explains everything.

[Kontiki]

I'll never forget something one of my profs said during the first few days of my MBA program (paraphrasing):

Everyone here is used to being among the best. No one here did worse than the 90th percentile on the GMAT, everyone had good grades in undergrad, and most were the cream of the crop at work. But here, by definition, 50% will be below average, and it's going to shock you.

You're in high school, skywalker (or Kucinich). Rest assured, you'll learn modesty fast when you start running with the big dogs.

[Kuciwalker]

I've been told that constantly, and I've been waiting for it to come true.

When I entered the advanced programs in elementary school, my parents said that I'd be with people of my ability then. I sailed through it. When I entered the gifted & talented center in middle school, I thought I'd be with people of my ability. It was a breeze. When I got into the high school I'm in now (one of the top three in the nation, with an incredible reputation with colleges and an amazing academics program), my parents, the school counselor, and I all thought I'd finally be among people just like me. It's my sophomore year and I still have yet to find a difficult course. I'm no longer the single best, but I'm in the very top of our school. Already this year I'm taking three college-level courses, and next year it'll be five. I have been constantly disillusioned of the idea, not that I'm special, but that I'm NOT special.

[Nubclear]

Why is everyone reacting so violently to Skywalker?
Are you all just jealous?

What's the average adolescent?

Where I'm from? A little more intelligent than the average American

[Kontiki]

Originally posted by Kucinich
I've been told that constantly, and I've been waiting for it to come true.

When I entered the advanced programs in elementary school, my parents said that I'd be with people of my ability then. I sailed through it. When I entered the gifted & talented center in middle school, I thought I'd be with people of my ability. It was a breeze. When I got into the high school I'm in now (one of the top three in the nation, with an incredible reputation with colleges and an amazing academics program), my parents, the school counselor, and I all thought I'd finally be among people just like me. It's my sophomore year and I still have yet to find a difficult course. I'm no longer the single best, but I'm in the very top of our school. Already this year I'm taking three college-level courses, and next year it'll be five. I have been constantly disillusioned of the idea, not that I'm special, but that I'm NOT special.

Yes young skywalker, at 15 you've virtually exhausted the upper reaches of society. I'd say by the time you're 17, you'll have seen all there is to see and met every smart, tallented person on the planet.

I'm quite sure you're highly intelligent, and that no matter what you do you'll always find that you're among the smartest people. What you, along with so many other people your age (regardless of their intelligence), lack is perspective, no matter how much you might think you have it already. I remember what it was like being a teenager - a year or two is an eternity for you. You're not going to find out what I'm talking about for at least another 10, so don't hold your breath.

I'm sure you're ahead of me at that age, but I kicked everyone's ass in high school too, without ever trying. I literally slept and drank my way through undergrad and still pulled off A's and B's. But when I hit my MBA, I was in deep. I didn't do poorly at all, but it was an amazing eye opener. And man, if I went down to our structured products area right now, I'd be the dumbest person on the floor.

All your theoretical knowledge you have right now is great, but you'll really learn, eventually.

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by Kontiki
I'll never forget something one of my profs said during the first few days of my MBA program (paraphrasing):

Everyone here is used to being among the best. No one here did worse than the 90th percentile on the GMAT, everyone had good grades in undergrad, and most were the cream of the crop at work. But here, by definition, 50% will be below average, and it's going to shock you.
.

I had a similar experience when I went to law school. Breezed through HS and college, rarely studied. Then you reach an area where everyone is as smart and talented as you, not so easy then and ultra competitive. Pretty depressing to have just average grades when you are accustomed to straight a's and a few b's.

As my father would remind me, half the doctors in the world finished in the bottom half of their class.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

If anyone knows who I am, could they please let me know? Since that incident with the mescalin I've realised I have no idea.