Low Tolerance for Boredom
Lisa Nielsen stumbled across my psychological testing results from when I was 7 years old and wrote about it. She is giving a talk about innovation in education and asked me to share my story, so here it is.
I’m 26 years old. When I was 23 I founded a software company that was recently acquired by Google, and before that I went to MIT where I got a degree in mathematics and nearly perfect grades. None of my early teachers, however, would have predicted this.
At Estabrook Elementary School, I lit fires and sprayed graffiti in the bathrooms. At Diamond Middle School, I stole all the mouse balls from the computer lab, prompting an all-hands meeting of the students and teachers in the cafeteria. I was permanently banned from riding the school bus for doing something I am too ashamed of to publish on the web. In 7th grade, I sold a 3″ Israeli army knife to Matt Fallon, who pulled it out during English class. These are just some of the things I remember getting caught doing. Detention, suspension, and attempted expulsion where regular occurrences in my early life.
Everything changed during the summer before high school. My dad suggested I read the book Hackers, by Steven Levy. I was already interested in computers because they provided a great source of stimulation at a pace I could control. But after reading Hackers, I had a new purpose in life.
I wanted to go to MIT and be a hacker myself. In order to get into MIT, I realized, I needed good grades and a clean academic record, so I made that happen. I was fanatically motivated to go to MIT, and this created a goal toward which I could leverage my energy and learn to control my impulses.
I’m not saying it was OK that I acted like a hoodlum in middle school. I feel bad for my teachers and my parents for all the grief I caused them. But I also suffered. I had a tremendous amount of energy and a craving for challenge and stimulation, yet I was forced to try to sit still in a classroom and passively take in information at a slow pace. School was a boring prison for me, and I did what I could to bring excitement into my life in an environment that seemed designed to prevent it.
At 26, I still have a low tolerance for boredom and consider this a virtue. It’s what led me to entrepreneurship and gives me a healthy appetite for risk.
I don’t have all the answers for how to fix the situation for other kids like me, and I don’t know how common my situation is. My message to educators is simply to keep an open mind when it comes to rambunctious little problem students. Maybe they just have a low tolerance for boredom.
Aaron – interesting psych review and testing and I’m not surprised that you have been successful – it was just there, waiting for something to catch your attention. Thank you so much for sharing. Do you have any suggestions for what we teachers can do? I have a student who, particularly, is not engaging with absolutely anything that we’re doing. I don’t know how to reach him, but he tests as above average. I’m sorry to hear that you had such a hard time figuring out what would make you happy and that you got into a number of bad situations. Do you think that the adults should have intervened or figured you out better? What do you have for suggestions for us? Thanks!
bellavolup
January 21, 2010 at 5:14 pm
How fortunate you were to find your passion when you did. Having read about you from a post by Ben Gray at Tech and Learning I have had some time to reflect on how I approach students similar to you. Do you think something could have been done at an earlier age to help you, or do you think you had to decide to “straighten up”? This may not be a fair question, but it could really help my colleagues and I with how we approach the troubled students.Wm ChamberlainNoel Elementary SchoolNoel, Missouri
wmchamberlain
January 23, 2010 at 4:45 pm
In response to your story, I’ll add to the growing chorus of “Thanks.” I work as a sixth-grade teacher in Tucson, AZ, USA. I also serve on a team at my school to support teachers working with academically and behaviorally “at-risk” students. I’ll definitely be sharing your story and your About Me page with my team. I feel embarrassed that you had to survive your schooling to reach your current level of success. Hopefully, we in education can shift our practices, systems, and traditions to launch students into success, rather than punishing them into compliance.To answer bellavolup, I would recommend a program from MIT called Scratch:http://scratch.mit.edu/This free application serves as a very fun and visual introduction to computer programming. If it’s not immediately apparent how to create a project after downloading and installing, select the “Open” option from the file menu and navigate to “Examples”. You’ll find some pre-made projects that illustrate the capabilities of the program. Also, a multiple intelligence survey might be a helpful step toward finding where your student feels intelligent, and how you might design activities to better engage him.
Joel Zehring
January 23, 2010 at 8:05 pm
Aaron, thank you for sharing your story! Your story is uncommon in that you ended at MIT but it is common in that: 1) many kids do not fit the school mold even though, like you, they have amazing gifts, 2) kids will act-out when what is asked of them is threatening to their identity and 3) many successful adults were not good students (even in high school and college).Thanks for your inspiring story — you will help many parents, kids and educators!
Christine Duvivier
January 24, 2010 at 6:58 pm