Twenty minute autobiography
My favorite old WB cartoon is Rhapsody Rabbit - Bugs Bunny endures murine interference while performing Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody no.2. Cartoons are much more important than school. Music class was my favorite, I joined Mrs. Davis’ special chorus - my first public performing experience. In second grade I wanted to play piano, she recommended Mrs. Koenig. I took lessons from her till 5th grade. I found Michael Crichton books more interesting than classes.
One reason Tom Riddle turned to the dark side was that he never had any interest in children’s stories. A convenient argument by a profitable author, but she didn’t make it explicitly till book seven. The focus of school - and the pressure parents apply - is skills for a career. This has bothered me since I was Harry’s age in book one. If you’re on the wrong side, greater proficiency merely amplifies the harm. If Voldemort was a lousy wizard but just as evil, he would’ve done significantly less damage. Becoming a doctor doesn’t automatically cure someone of racism or misogyny, but it does empower them to actually hurt people. Voldemort excelled in his Hogwarts classes, becoming the most skilled wizard of his generation. Even in the wizarding world there are significant structural problems with schools.
TV series are an entertaining and inexpensive way to provoke ethical thought and avoid being evil. You could also crack a book occasionally, but this is ‘Merica. My early focus was the TNG/DS9/VOY era of Star Trek. Most of the main characters are fundamentally good, like Captain Picard, so the conflict is ethical: their struggle to determine the right thing to do. I also liked The Practice/Boston Legal, The West Wing, The Sopranos, The Wire, Six Feet Under, The Shield, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Deadwood, Mad Men and the Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica reboots. Today there's a ridiculous number of shows on par with the best from before. I've never regretted investing a lot of time appreciating TV.
Utilitarian ethics has the goal of providing the greatest benefit to the greatest number of people. “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few,” is Spock. However this doesn’t mean you should kill one healthy person and harvest their organs to save multiple lives (The Good Place). So temper Spock’s logic with McCoy’s compassion. Finally, remember the dying words of the mailman on Arrested Development, "Love each other." This is ample guidance for every conceivable ethical dilemma.
My first exposure to video games was probably when my grandpa got an Apple II/e with The Legend of Blacksilver. I was too young to understand much, but I remember getting excited about being stalked by a screaming nug. He also had Ataris. The first console I bought myself was an SNES, Super Mario World and Donkey Kong Country being my favorites. Then an N64 with Goldeneye and Mario Kart, after which I moved to computer games.
My early interest was strategies: Warcraft II, Lords of the Realm II, Heroes of Might and Magic III. Also builders: Sim City/Farm/Tower, Caesar III. They’re essentially about managing economies efficiently: acquiring and protecting resources, building and upgrading infrastructure and units, then overwhelming opponents if necessary. The balancing of tactical and strategic decisions is the sort of critical thinking that runs circles around school. Making disciplined, informed long-term financial decisions is about the most useful skill in a capitalistic civilization; games are a means of practicing without risk. More importantly, they’re fun, which is why players persevere through all the defeats in pursuit of perpetually more difficult achievements. Learning the patience to stick with something until skilled is essential for most any career.
Like TV series, many games also tell great stories. Though sometimes the single player story mode is more of a tutorial for the multiplayer metagame. Games that effectively incorporate storytelling into the multiplayer endgame are MMORPGs like the obscenely profitable World of Warcraft. Final Fantasy XIV is more storytelling than game.
Middle school
My tenuous respect for formal education ended with elementary school. I’m an autodidact; like Mark Twain, "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." I resented getting up early and wasting so much time - which doesn’t distinguish me from sensible adolescents. I thought about Starcraft during geometry, and watched Star Trek instead of doing homework. I also acquired enough piano skill to fake my way through my first paid performances at age thirteen. This wasn’t love of music; it was to buy myself the TV/VCR, game consoles, computer hardware and games my parents weren’t happy to subsidize.
Sleep and exercise are free, I don't understand why so many feel these are the activities to cut when short on time. Practicing two hours at dawn is the same as two hours each afternoon/middle of the night, you need only be sufficiently rested to have the will to do it consistently. The same goes for having the energy to go for a walk. Extolling the alarm clock is merely advocating sleep deprivation. Claiming that a movie/book puts you to sleep and actually meaning it is ridiculous. If you have children you brought this on yourself.
High school
I went through ninth grade apathetically, and nearly failed a couple classes. Lest I simply dropout, my parents "homeschooled" me by suggesting some books.
After my year of high school, I became very involved in the new social computer game EverQuest. EQ is the genre precursor to World of Warcraft, and had WoW not stolen all the players and revenue. . . The setting is high fantasy lore, but the core is a social economy. You’re trying to acquire more experience and equipment for your character, with obvious time constraints (you have to sleep) that encourage efficiency and cooperation. You make friends, enemies, frenemies. Individuals and small groups can’t become powerful enough to defeat the most challenging encounters alone. This incentivizes large organizations - guilds - capable of fielding many competent players. The difficulty in equitably distributing the rarest equipment to individuals within these guilds can create new economies (for example, Dragon Kill Points) that reward players for participating in guild activities, even if encounters offer no other immediate gain to individuals. Many economic and sociology papers have been written about EQ/WoW.
Raiding (and arguing) with other players more than offset what I missed in high school. Much of the appeal for me was the opportunity at age fifteen to interact freely with adults in a virtual meritocracy; that is, not high school. Most of the forum battles at least obliquely involved my guild’s economic system. This mirrors history (I’ve also spent hundreds of hours playing Civilization IV-VI). The complexity and fervor of the Keynesian vs laissez faire arguments presented by my fellow computer nerds, desiring the fairest and most efficient method for equipping everyone's virtual warriors and wizards (with perhaps a slight advantage for themselves) was educational.
College
In what would’ve been 11th grade, I started community college (with a sufficient ACT score and being technically dual-enrolled through homeschooling). This was a very economical way to acquire lots of general academic credits, including four semesters of music theory. I also took piano lessons from Linda Danford, which began my transition from faking it to playing mostly classical stuff. As I approached the maximum number of credit hours that would transfer, I switched to Webster and majored in audio, unenthusiastically. My family was footing the bill, and my parents coerced me: they said it was college or a job. I thought (correctly) that earning a degree would take less time. At worst, it seemed like a good fallback in case my piano playing didn't work out. And I figured a thorough understanding of audio would ensure good sound systems for the rest my computer gaming/TV watching life. Although I took no music classes, I learned Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, my first concert level piece, while attending Webster.
While I had some impressive Webster professors, there were others with questionable expertise and ethics. At STLCC Meramec many of my professors had master's degrees or PhDs. My first class at Webster was with a guy whose primary qualification seemed to be that he'd earned a BA at Webster. I perceived an expectation that students pursue careers and make money after graduation, presumably because this affects some aspect of college rankings. Doing the right thing wasn't discouraged - my favorite electives involved human rights, plus an ethics class and cultural diversity class were required - but overall this wasn't the primary focus. I became disillusioned with how Webster bought electronics. I already had experience purchasing computer hardware for gaming, and understood minimizing bottlenecks to maximize affordability and performance for the intended use. It irked me seeing professionals making wasteful acquisition decisions, especially at a university where you'd expect expertise and an efficient bureaucracy. Looking back, I feel community college was useful. But I would've been better off had my family simply given me the money they spent on Webster.
School makes sense if the alternative is child marriage or sweatshops. Also there’s the benefit of keeping the kids who aren’t content to watch TV/play video games off my lawn. However, once you’re able to read and use a computer, school is a relatively ineffective way to learn things. College at least is structured so most of what you do is useful homework: reading books and writing papers. I earned a BA at 23, so I remain dubious about the value of middle/high school. Also the standards of Webster - I refuse to respect any institution that would accept someone like me. Marx brothers movies may have contributed to my interest in piano.
After graduating I spent less than two years as a hardcore EQ raider. This was unhelpful to my goal of moving out of my parents' house, so I scaled back and ultimately quit EQ. This freed up time to earn money to buy my house, and to try other games and TV series.
Frequently when I perform, people tell me they used to take piano lessons, and wish they'd stuck with it. The most common excuse is that they just didn't have the time. As Mark Twain implies at the conclusion of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, you may envy Huckleberry's free time, but how many are willing to actually resist conforming to have it?
Renly: "Easy for you to say, not everyone's such a gifted swordsman."
Loras: "It's not a gift, no one gave it to me. I'm good because I work at it. Everyday of my life since I could hold a stick."
Renly: "I could work at fighting all day everyday and still never be as good as you."
Loras: "Yes, well, I guess we'll never know."
-Game of Thrones, episode 1.05 "The Wolf and the Lion"
The non sequitur
Many Americans end up working at jobs they claim not to enjoy, and when asked, say they'd much rather be doing something else - movie, game, nature hike, socializing. But then, instead of saving their money so they could work less and have more time for other things, they just buy superfluous stuff and create more obligations for themselves. For example, you can walk around the same safe St. Louis suburb and find several move-in ready houses in every price range: $50-100k, $100-200k, $200-400k+. (The cost of vehicles varies similarly.) They share the same schools, government and infrastructure. Are the additional square feet and granite countertops really worth all the extra time you'd have to spend working (or making moral compromises)? Tony Soprano’s McMansion has multiple air-conditioner condensers, and he drives a luxury SUV. Yet his family lacks genuine financial (or physical) security. Conversely, 2400 years later, Plato still gets respect (despite Carl Sagan’s appropriate objection to his body/soul split) because he used his wealth to gain time to learn, think, philosophize and record all those dialogues.
I’ve earned money by performing at eldercare centers since 1997. Spending your life unhappily working may allow you the luxury of retiring to spend $7k+/month trapped in a failing body/mind, until you die. Unless you die first. Instead, I spend most of my time with TV series/movies/games/books/music and nature walks. I’ve no interest in having children. If you’re exceptionally frugal, it’s possible to get by on about $10k/year. You need only own a modest house and about $300k in conservatively allocated mutual funds to live this way indefinitely.