• Escaping High School, by skunkledger.substack.com, discusses what it takes to succeed in the modern world of learning and working.
• As a UX Designer, the book offers key advice on how to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and cultivate an innovative sense of practice.
• It teaches readers to cultivate self-discipline, optimally use technology and digital platforms, create a routine for organizing time, and look for opportunities to take on responsibilities and challenges.
• Additionally, the book encourages readers to reconsider their idea of success and define ambitious goals that go beyond grades or diplomas.
• If you are looking for more books related to UX Design that would align with Escaping High School, you might enjoy Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, or The Design Thinking Playbook: Mindful Digital Transformation of Teams, Products, Services, Businesses and Ecosystems by Michael Lewrick.
✏️ Highlights
high school is supposed to give kids somewhere to go while their parents are at work and keep them from ending up pregnant, in jail, or dead.
The standard model of learning is that you should take lots of information and shove it into your head, so that later on when you finally start doing things, maybe some piece of information you learned earlier will be helpful.
(e.g., your teacher has you make a poster illustrating the mechanisms that cause ocean pollution, whereas in reality, you should be off patrolling the beach and seeing what kinds of trash wash up, or calling up some conservationists or marine scientists and helping them carry their equipment around as you ask them questions about the biggest bottlenecks of their latest project.
creating a bunch of artificial fake tasks, like tests and projects whose only purpose is to show off your learning, will help you learn, but it won’t help you learn what’s actually worth knowing, and besides, it still won’t help you learn nearly as much as doing work you actually care about will.
Your job is to get out of the mindset of applying for slots.
Remember that mostly school administrators just want to keep everyone alive, unpregnant, not in jail, etc.
Be as well-behaved as you need to in order not to mire them in scandal if they let you have your way, and offer them some excuse, even if flimsy, for why your case is different from other people’s,
Get a computer – a real one, not an iPad, and not a Chromebook if you can help
Get a computer – a real one, not an iPad, and not a Chromebook if you can help it.
Get access to as many creative tools as possible: musical instruments, woodworking tools, electronics parts, design software, watercolors. Your high school might have quite a few, depending on how large and well-​heeled it is; see if you can borrow or use them even if you aren’t taking the relevant classes. Alternatively, try a library, community center, or makerspace. Poke around on Craigslist, especially the “free” section.
Whatever your interests are, do the real version of them: get as close to the version that adults do as possible. Instead of submitting the story you wrote to your teacher or even to a contest, try submitting to some literary journals. Instead of writing a program for AP Computer Science, contribute to an open-source software project.
Here is a list of particular things you could do, which comprises about 0.01% of all the possible things you could do: Write a blog interviewing well-​known people Ask your local community newspaper to let you write a column Host a podcast and interview people who seem interesting Host an event: a conference, fundraiser, yodel-​a-​thon, festival, hobby gathering, adventure Record music and publish it on a streaming service
Build a robot Perform a magic show Make an app Invent your own sport and get a group of people to play it Plant a garden Build a building Write a bill and see if you can get the government to pass it Play an elaborate prank Think of a question nobody seems to know the answer to and try to come up with a good answer, then write up your findings Start a business
Build a statue Start a band Write a novel Create a board game Start a social movement Carry out a hoax
Find people (usually, though not always, adults) working in an area you’re interested in, especially if they’re doing the work outside the context of an official job for a big company with lots of red tape, and ask if you can be their intern. Professors, researchers, grad students, startup founders, writers, artists, craftspeople, musicians, people running small businesses near you, retirees working on elaborate hobby projects. Ask what little tasks they don’t have time for but they’d love it if someone could take on. Be realistic about what you can deliver – if it’s something they’ll rely on you for, err toward doing things that are too easy rather than things that are too hard;
Find people (usually, though not always, adults) working in an area you’re interested in, especially if they’re doing the work outside the context of an official job for a big company with lots of red tape, and ask if you can be their intern. Professors, researchers, grad students, startup founders, writers, artists, craftspeople, musicians, people running small businesses near you, retirees working on elaborate hobby projects. Ask what little tasks they don’t have time for but they’d love it if someone could take on. Be realistic about what you can deliver – if it’s something they’ll rely on you for, err toward doing things that are too easy rather than things that are too hard; once you succeed at something small, you can build up skills and trust toward helping in some larger way.
If they say they might be able to use help but they need someone more skilled or experienced, you can ask them what skills and experience are most useful.
Some adults are too busy to help you much, but in general, everybody likes to feel like they’re helping out an ambitious young person interested in their field. It’s a signal that you have an unusual amount of inclination toward the topic and an unusual amount of agency in general, and so people will likely be impressed, as long as you’re polite and respect their time.
(successful adults procrastinate just as much as you do!) or forget to get back to you if what they have to do feels nebulous.
Prioritize consistency over competence One important thing, when you’re convincing adults to let you work for them, is to be consistent. You shouldn’t try too hard to be competent. If they really cared about the thing getting done impeccably, they wouldn’t have enlisted a random teenager.
Unless you’re very organized, you’ll probably screw up at least once or twice and overpromise,
Unless you’re very organized, you’ll probably screw up at least once or twice and overpromise, communicate poorly, whatever. You just have to accept that you’ll take the L from time to time, try to think about where you went wrong and improve (or start smaller) in the future, and apologize if it’s warranted but don’t beat yourself up over
If you spend all your time in school, you won’t realize how much you’re missing out on by exploring the larger world. For many high schoolers, the biggest obstacle to this is transportation. If you’re in a city well-​connected by trains or buses, you’re probably all right – get a pass and go on your merry way. But if you aren’t, your milieu will expand drastically if you can maneuver yourself independently to the nearest city, or at least culturally dense town.
If you have a car, great. But driving is often more trouble than it’s worth – you have to wait till you’re old enough to get your license, go through driver’s ed, pass the test, possibly buy a car, get gas all the time, worry about repairs, find parking. If you’re borrowing your parents’ car, you have to ask permission, make sure nobody else is using it, and be subject to their scrutiny. Probably the best thing is to get a bike (though depending on how far you have to go, a skateboard or even rollerblades can suffice). Do the following: Get a helmet (the self-​folding ones are very convenient). Get the bike checked out at a shop (or google how to do it yourself) to make sure it’s in good condition; learn basic repairs. Get a pump and inflate the tires when you need to. Learn the basics of road etiquette – hand signals, lanes, right of way, etc. – so you feel comfortable riding on main roads and city streets. Get lights for the front and back.
high school is supposed to give kids somewhere to go while their parents are at work and keep them from ending up pregnant, in jail, or dead.
The standard model of learning is that you should take lots of information and shove it into your head, so that later on when you finally start doing things, maybe some piece of information you learned earlier will be helpful.
(e.g., your teacher has you make a poster illustrating the mechanisms that cause ocean pollution, whereas in reality, you should be off patrolling the beach and seeing what kinds of trash wash up, or calling up some conservationists or marine scientists and helping them carry their equipment around as you ask them questions about the biggest bottlenecks of their latest project.
creating a bunch of artificial fake tasks, like tests and projects whose only purpose is to show off your learning, will help you learn, but it won’t help you learn what’s actually worth knowing, and besides, it still won’t help you learn nearly as much as doing work you actually care about will.
Your job is to get out of the mindset of applying for slots.
Remember that mostly school administrators just want to keep everyone alive, unpregnant, not in jail, etc.
Be as well-behaved as you need to in order not to mire them in scandal if they let you have your way, and offer them some excuse, even if flimsy, for why your case is different from other people’s,
Get a computer – a real one, not an iPad, and not a Chromebook if you can help
Get a computer – a real one, not an iPad, and not a Chromebook if you can help it.
Get access to as many creative tools as possible: musical instruments, woodworking tools, electronics parts, design software, watercolors. Your high school might have quite a few, depending on how large and well-​heeled it is; see if you can borrow or use them even if you aren’t taking the relevant classes. Alternatively, try a library, community center, or makerspace. Poke around on Craigslist, especially the “free” section.
Whatever your interests are, do the real version of them: get as close to the version that adults do as possible. Instead of submitting the story you wrote to your teacher or even to a contest, try submitting to some literary journals. Instead of writing a program for AP Computer Science, contribute to an open-source software project.
Here is a list of particular things you could do, which comprises about 0.01% of all the possible things you could do: Write a blog interviewing well-​known people Ask your local community newspaper to let you write a column Host a podcast and interview people who seem interesting Host an event: a conference, fundraiser, yodel-​a-​thon, festival, hobby gathering, adventure Record music and publish it on a streaming service
Build a robot Perform a magic show Make an app Invent your own sport and get a group of people to play it Plant a garden Build a building Write a bill and see if you can get the government to pass it Play an elaborate prank Think of a question nobody seems to know the answer to and try to come up with a good answer, then write up your findings Start a business
Build a statue Start a band Write a novel Create a board game Start a social movement Carry out a hoax
Find people (usually, though not always, adults) working in an area you’re interested in, especially if they’re doing the work outside the context of an official job for a big company with lots of red tape, and ask if you can be their intern. Professors, researchers, grad students, startup founders, writers, artists, craftspeople, musicians, people running small businesses near you, retirees working on elaborate hobby projects. Ask what little tasks they don’t have time for but they’d love it if someone could take on. Be realistic about what you can deliver – if it’s something they’ll rely on you for, err toward doing things that are too easy rather than things that are too hard;
Find people (usually, though not always, adults) working in an area you’re interested in, especially if they’re doing the work outside the context of an official job for a big company with lots of red tape, and ask if you can be their intern. Professors, researchers, grad students, startup founders, writers, artists, craftspeople, musicians, people running small businesses near you, retirees working on elaborate hobby projects. Ask what little tasks they don’t have time for but they’d love it if someone could take on. Be realistic about what you can deliver – if it’s something they’ll rely on you for, err toward doing things that are too easy rather than things that are too hard; once you succeed at something small, you can build up skills and trust toward helping in some larger way.
If they say they might be able to use help but they need someone more skilled or experienced, you can ask them what skills and experience are most useful.
Some adults are too busy to help you much, but in general, everybody likes to feel like they’re helping out an ambitious young person interested in their field. It’s a signal that you have an unusual amount of inclination toward the topic and an unusual amount of agency in general, and so people will likely be impressed, as long as you’re polite and respect their time.
(successful adults procrastinate just as much as you do!) or forget to get back to you if what they have to do feels nebulous.
Prioritize consistency over competence One important thing, when you’re convincing adults to let you work for them, is to be consistent. You shouldn’t try too hard to be competent. If they really cared about the thing getting done impeccably, they wouldn’t have enlisted a random teenager.
Unless you’re very organized, you’ll probably screw up at least once or twice and overpromise,
Unless you’re very organized, you’ll probably screw up at least once or twice and overpromise, communicate poorly, whatever. You just have to accept that you’ll take the L from time to time, try to think about where you went wrong and improve (or start smaller) in the future, and apologize if it’s warranted but don’t beat yourself up over
If you spend all your time in school, you won’t realize how much you’re missing out on by exploring the larger world. For many high schoolers, the biggest obstacle to this is transportation. If you’re in a city well-​connected by trains or buses, you’re probably all right – get a pass and go on your merry way. But if you aren’t, your milieu will expand drastically if you can maneuver yourself independently to the nearest city, or at least culturally dense town.
If you have a car, great. But driving is often more trouble than it’s worth – you have to wait till you’re old enough to get your license, go through driver’s ed, pass the test, possibly buy a car, get gas all the time, worry about repairs, find parking. If you’re borrowing your parents’ car, you have to ask permission, make sure nobody else is using it, and be subject to their scrutiny. Probably the best thing is to get a bike (though depending on how far you have to go, a skateboard or even rollerblades can suffice). Do the following: Get a helmet (the self-​folding ones are very convenient). Get the bike checked out at a shop (or google how to do it yourself) to make sure it’s in good condition; learn basic repairs. Get a pump and inflate the tires when you need to. Learn the basics of road etiquette – hand signals, lanes, right of way, etc. – so you feel comfortable riding on main roads and city streets. Get lights for the front and back.
