Posts by Sam Cooper2

Thanks to everyone for the replies; I was half-expecting a few targeted attacks here and there, but nothing too heavy-handed...

First off, I’ll say it again because I’ve spent enough time rubbing elbows with self-proclaimed "geniuses" to know better: a formal education is absolutely no guarantee that someone actually possesses a "Great Mind." I agree with all of you that continuous learning is what really matters, because if a person isn't constantly absorbing new information and evolving every single day they're just a limited individual.

Art was never really my thing—honestly, I was pretty terrible at it back in middle school—but nowadays I can hold my own reading about Leonardo da Vinci and the other greats...

To address the questions from wiredseal2:

I speak English daily with customers, just a few sentences here and there, so reading and grasping these kinds of articles isn't an issue for me; as for German, I’ve been pushing through it since I was eighteen, though the language is just plain ugly 😁

Do you perhaps need a seminar on how to write or how to manage some spreadsheets in Excel?
Every twenty-one-year-old kid these days should probably have a handle on the basics of Microsoft Word and Office, if not a bit more than that.

I even know how to use the "undo" command :P
Do you remember that song, CTRL + ())
And Google Drive is a decent tool, I suppose, but I don't really need it; I'm not the type of person who needs to keep a hundred different photos scattered across a hundred different locations 🙂

I’m not one of those naive types who takes the tabloid press too seriously; to me, they’re just regular people doing their jobs, which involves "manipulating" information so they can "manipulate" us, though I get where they're coming from in a way—the end justifies the means, after all.

I keep an eye on global affairs and things happening here in the States, though not too closely; I’ve never been fond of commenting much on social events. Regarding Turkey and Erdogan, I’d say he’s turned Turkey into a genuine superpower; from what I’ve read and what I recall, they don't even have a single foreign bank operating in the country, and the standard of living has risen significantly under his rule. However, this supposed "Islamization" of Turkey is something that shouldn't be allowed in the 21st century, but then again, I completely understand his perspective when you consider the kind of nauseating statements the future president Trump makes... it feels like something bad is brewing for all of us.

Over 200,000 bottles haven't even been certified, yet a massive number of them are sold every single day.

I’ve read a little bit about IBM, and I know there's a lot of arguing over who brought them in and who didn't, but I haven't delved too deep into that...

I'd say the Smith brothers, since they helped the Republican Party grab all the power :P

Just kidding... if I'm not mistaken, the Radić brothers are the ones ringing in my head...

👍

Hey everyone, I've been lurking and reading through a few threads on this subforum, so I figured it was finally time to chime in myself 🙂

To give you a bit of a rundown, I'm 21, working, high school diploma...

Throughout my entire life, I’ve always had people telling me how smart I am, yet how I’ll never actually do anything with it; I can still vividly picture my old teacher from the physics department back in middle school saying, "...it's such a shame about that brain of yours, because if you just applied yourself even a little bit, you'd be a PhD by now." I guess the whole PhD thing was just a metaphor, but I'll never forget her... she was always telling me, just a little more effort, just study a tiny bit harder, and back then I honestly thought my parents had bribed her just to make sure I got into a decent high school 😵, but it turned out to be the exact same story in high school, where a teacher from the American language department used the same lines, trying to "steer" me toward the right path; I remember one class specifically when I was texting on my phone while calling out answers, and she just snapped, stood up and started yelling at the entire class, telling me to wait for her after the bell—she was screaming at everyone because they were all sitting there clueless while I was just distracted by my phone, even though I knew the answers...

After class, she gave me another lecture about my potential and how much of an idiot I'd be if I just settled for a high school diploma, which, honestly, hasn't changed one bit to this day
.

To recap things a little, throughout my whole education, I never really felt a connection to books—it always felt like such a chore—but I never once worried about my future, because deep down I know something big is waiting for me; I don't know what that "something" is yet, but I know it's coming...

I've always had this internal conviction that I'm the type of person who will change the world; I have no idea how that'll happen, obviously, but I hope it leads to something better rather than something worse 😁

So now I'm wondering, is this just "youthful naivety," this constant hoping for something better, or
Have any of you ever struggled with these kinds of questions about yourselves, or did you all just move through life following a pre-set plan?

I have so many questions swirling around, but I can never quite find the right words to pin them down; I see myself as a significant individual, the kind that's becoming increasingly rare these days, and I say that without a shred of egoism, since my ego is actually quite small...

Best,