Getting hired straight out of high school: how does it feel?

To be honest, I don’t think I’ve fully processed this fact. I got carried away with the exciting tasks and ideas from the get go.

The most valuable thing so far (one month) is that I gained insight into how real startups work (when there are investors, millions on the line, and an emerging economy). I also understood that sometimes your dream job doesn’t have a name yet, is not listed online, or has a dedicated college major for it.

I am under NDAs and stuff but I can say one thing for sure: this stuff is cool asf. I am getting immersed in our founder’s philosophy. I am reading the books, watching the movies, conversations with him on topics I’ve never heard of before.

I also started looking at college differently in general. When you already have a job and potentially have the freedom to skip college, and just build your career from this point on, you start approaching college applications with more intention. It becomes less about “getting into a good college, getting good grades, having internships, and landing some job after graduation”.

For me, college is now about what kind of connections it can give me, what kind of knowledge or cognitive skills I can acquire that I would not have otherwise acquired by chasing money, and what I can internalize in 4 years that will be central to my life regardless of the job market, trends, global events, disrupting technology, etc.

This is why I am willing to take more time off formal education if needed if it means taking the necessary steps to be where i would get those named things.

This is also the reason why I didn’t settle for a local university just for the sake of being enrolled “somewhere”. Education should never be just a label. I wouldn’t waste my time on classes and lectures that don’t contribute to my real intellectual development and don’t lead me to asking better questions.


I also understood why people drop out of colleges like T20, Ivy League, SKY, ISTs, etc. When you firmly believe in an idea and it requires more of you than university spares, you need to make a choice.

Decentralizing formal education is so liberating