I agree 100%. Heck if swiftcoder really feels that way he should just give up on life and start smoking crack or other illegal substances. In truth that is where the real fun is at and you only live once!

My high-school schedule typically looked like this:

8:10am - Wake up, roll out of bed, shower, dress, head to school.
8:30am - Classes start
12:00pm - Lunch, Bullshit with friends, then back to class
3:30pm - School's over, go to work
6:30pm - Work's over, eat, program.
1:00am - Sleep

Aside from revealing that I'm not much of a morning person, though, that hardly sums up everything I did. I went to school dances on occasion, I hung out with friends, went to parties, drank, did stupid, reckless things like throwing myself through tables in the local backyard wrestling league. I didn't do sports because a) I was far too apathetic to be required to dress up for game day or be beholden to general 'honor code' bullshit, and b) practices for any sport I was mildly interested in had morning practices. I didn't chase much tail because I knew I was moving across the country after graduation, and didn't want to feel tied down or attached.

I don't regret it, and the time I spent in front of the computer has given me a huge push, but I do think its important to experience the stupid, pointless part of life. My girlfriend and her sister grew up in a very strict Asian household -- Orchestra, academics, strict curfew, basically no sanctioned social life that wasn't in some way academically related. Denied of the experience of balancing the mundane and the frivolous, they've both spent some time awash in sub-optimal decisions -- some small, some large. There's a a wide band in the middle where you will be varying degrees of "ok", but going too far to either end can very easily set you up for woe.

[quote name='Cornstalks' timestamp='1322941207' post='4890200']
If that's all you ever do, you're missing out, and you may not even realize it.

How can you miss something you never lost? Can you lose something you never had?
[/quote]

Honestly, to me, that's what regret is. Sorrow over something you never did, had, or whatever. It's about the loss of what could have been. (*EDIT* Well, as long as there is potential for an event to happen. I'd agree about not being able to regret if there's no such ability for an event to happen...)

But I'd probably agree more with Promit. There are things I regret, but high school isn't one of them, despite living an outcast life. I hated high school, and was your typical nerd. But the great thing is, there was college. I don't regret high school, because I was able to supplement my life experiences through college.

Yes, you're only young once, but unless it's an opportunity with a limited time-frame, there should be nothing to regret. Sports, chasing women, etc., I'm sorry, those aren't events with such limited time frames. Even when you get older, you still have an opportunity for them. Sure, it might be harder, but there's more time before it becomes impossible.

What can high school offer you that under no circumstances can you ever acquire a similar experience? That's what you'll regret. I regret missing that last Christmas with a family member who passed on later that week. I don't regret spending time in front of a computer while in high school.

Well, I did not code in high school. I mean I fumbled around with C++ but I only got serious about it in my university years. I do NOT regret this at all, but I do regret not pursing art more in high school (I only did so in my final year). I had pretty bad grades in school but I had a great time, I did some sports but not so much. I drank too much, which was definitely a waste of time, but at least I got over it and got the stupid out of my system.

Here's my 50c worth though - think about what you really gained from high school? Do you really remember all you learnt? Chasing girls and being shot down by them - playing sports, getting injured, losing, dealing with failure, dealing with people, even work ethic - these things, they teach you a lot about life though experience. And they are important things to learn and are the things that can carry you far in any and every career - I know incredible coders who are great people, but they are socially retarded, and it has always hurt their careers and social interactions. Many people whom I respect - from technical backgrounds - have said that they learned more from playing sports than they did in their respective disciplines. That says a lot to me.

As has been said, it's all about balance - and you have to decide what's important to you. Personally, I feel that there is so much important stuff to learn outside of coding, and although you can always get to that stuff later, it's just a great environment in which to have such experiences. Some people on this thread are going on as if coding is all there is to life, and if that's how you choose to live your life, then fair play to you. But it hardly seems balanced to me.

The problem that keeps coming up here is everyone thinks they are always right. I would have said the same thing. What is your gripe with not having fun in the real world and meeting people?

I don't think anyone's saying this - on the contrary, the point of this thread seemed to be arguing against the idea that people should be doing one particular thing at school, and leaving programming to later.

Sitting in front of a computer is 1 thing to do. If that is all you want in life, then that is boring. I partied, played several live shows in band, recorded other bands, was a well known skateboarder, hung out with drug dealers, had a g/f, job, and still at the time of attending digipen, was miles ahead of everyone. If you never had fun in high school and weren't social, then you wouldn't understand. I had so much fun and so much time to do whatever I wanted, I learned a lot more things than just programming though.[/quote]I don't think anyone's saying you should do programming and nothing else - rather people are just saying that programming when you're young is fine, and not something you regret.

Once you are older you have time for maybe 1 thing, while working 9-5. When you are young you have the time to learn a lot more, meet a lot of people, and shouldn't be burnt out.[/quote]I wonder what sort of social life these under 18s have! As an adult, I have a much better social life, I have money, I have time, I have my own place, I'm not restricted by laws on what children can't do, and I'm not living with my parents, and needing their permission.




I meet a lot more people now, than when I was at school, when I could only meet the same people in my class every day, many of whom were immature. As for having time to learn a lot more - yes, that includes programming

I've met some people that are afraid to even smoke one cigarette just for the hell of it, because they are so afraid and isolated.[/quote]As an adult, I make the decision of whether to smoke based on reason, and my own opinion. In school, it seemed much more about peer pressure. Indeed, the way you tease someone for being "afraid" of not smoking is just the kind of attitude I saw at school...

Starting a stupid opinion (non factual) fight with another long term member on here does no good. His post also got 8 thumbs up.
[/quote]I would rather people disagree by posting their own view, than going by the popularity contest that is "thumbs up".

Here's my 50c worth though - think about what you really gained from high school? Do you really remember all you learnt? Chasing girls and being shot down by them - playing sports, getting injured, losing, dealing with failure, dealing with people, even work ethic - these things, they teach you a lot about life though experience. And they are important things to learn and are the things that can carry you far in any and every career - I know incredible coders who are great people, but they are socially retarded, and it has always hurt their careers and social interactions. Many people whom I respect - from technical backgrounds - have said that they learned more from playing sports than they did in their respective disciplines. That says a lot to me.

You're still associating sports with being social, and teenage programming with being unsociable, which is just the kind of attitude that people are disagreeing with.

I know plenty of programmers who are very sociable. And have sex with lots of people :/ Sure, it's good to gain experience through a range of things, but the same goes for people who play sports, or awkwardly chasing after girls (or boys). And I'm skeptical about the idea that if you have a job in a technical area, they learned more through sports than what they need for their job.

Does this work the other way round? Should professional sports players have spent time as teenagers learning programming, because it will be more useful to them than sports, and there'll always be time for them to learn sports later? Well no, no one says that.

As has been said, it's all about balance - and you have to decide what's important to you.[/quote]And no one is saying you shouldn't do sports if that's what you like. Just that there is nothing wrong if people don't do sports, and there is no reason they would regret that, more than not doing anything else.

You only get 70-80 years on this planet if you are lucky. If you want to spend that time hunched in front of a computer that is certainly your choice. But there is a wide range of things you are missing out on. If you are at some bar and guys are talking about crazy things do you want your story to be how you repelled down a sheer 100 foot cliff after a two day hike in the Utah badlands or that you got jacked up on Redbull to stay up for another WoW guild raid?

I don't think people are talking about playing WoW - the issue is learning programming. And I don't think a story about how you played some games of football at school are going to be a great life story either ;)

I wonder what sort of social life these under 18s have! As an adult, I have a much better social life, I have money, I have time, I have my own place, I'm not restricted by laws on what children can't do, and I'm not living with my parents, and needing their permission.

I feel bad singling you out, but this statement pretty much makes it's own counter-argument.

"I don't feel bad not having had a social life in highschool! I have a social life now with all sorts of benefits I never would have had in high school!" totally misses the fact that the social dynamic of highschool and university is a distinctly different experience than the social dynamics of the real world. University slightly less so, but the social life and shared memories you have outside of high school and university will be distinctly different than the ones you get afterward because of that even with everything else being equal.

Specifically in the op:

But I have a huge problem with telling our younger audience, hey, spend your time on frivolous stuff and come back when you're older. That's not right.[/quote]
When you are in high school and university you can afford to spend your time on the frivolous stuff. How often since you've been a professional have you been able to take 4 months off at a time every year with another month of vacation peppered throughout the year? Of your time in high school how important, really, was the knowledge you've gained compared to the knowledge you've gained since high school? Since high school have you had an opportunity where you could not only make life-long friends, but also take social risks that wouldn't drastically affect your life for more than 4 years? Since high school have you ever been capable of having your criminal record no longer exist?

Obviously you shouldn't spend ALL your time doing frivolous things, but if you're going to do frivolous things at any time, adolescence is pretty much set up for it socially and biologically.

There's a lot of good advice in this thread, and some very misguided. You have exactly one life on this planet. Things will pass you by that you can never re-experience.

It was so obvious who socialized in high school and who didn't when I got to college. The ones who had active social lives in high school were social leaders immediately in college. The ones who weren't were followers. Leaches. Personality bums. Sure, by the end many of them were able to play catch-up on social skills but by that point the social ones were already running organizations and events. Some never caught up. When someone who is apt at socializing is around someone who isn't, it's obvious. It's awkward. Social skills are one of those things that if you fall too far behind, it takes a lot of self-development to catch-up. And when you have them, they just seem so obvious you take it for granted. If you don't believe that, then you don't know. Sure social skills aren't everything, but they make life so much easier to go your way.

At the same time, if you're passionate about something --- do it. Lots of us are passionate about computers, so spend your sunday through thursday nights in high school learning to program. But when the weekend hits, go do things that you can only do when you're young.

I keep seeing people say the same thing over and over but i fail to understand what they mean. What is it that you can do in high school that you'll never be able to do again?

I keep seeing people say the same thing over and over but i fail to understand what they mean. What is it that you can do in high school that you'll never be able to do again?[/quote]

Sports. Clubs. Experimenting. Sneaking around. Getting in trouble with virtually no reprocussions. But it's not just what you can do. It's the scene. It's a time in life when people's personalities are starting to shape. Everyone's trying new things for the first time. For many people it's the first time you have real friends of the opposite sex. And friendship/dating lines blur. It's also one of the last times in life of little responsibility. Lots of people miss out on it and still live happy lives, but they'll never know what that part of life could have been. You can never go back. If their kids have good social lives in high school, they'll never understand. It's not that high school is somehow better than other times in life --- it's definitely not. But it's unique and passes quickly.