iNow

Thanks, Captain Obvious. Appreciate that clarification.

Hope for the best. Plan for the worst.

Perhaps a more appropriate question is, how is a creator possible without some kind of evolution?

Keep it simple, stupid

A fair point, Zap. Don’t disagree. I’ve just seen too many folks close to me plan on the GED then college route and not ever reach either destination. It’s so easy to give up a 2nd time once you’ve done it a 1st time. As I’m sure is quite clear by now, I’m an advocate of not giving up that first time. I wouldn’t want it for my kids. I don’t want it for raider. I also respect whatever decision he makes and sincerely wish him the best.

No, I don’t hire people without a high school diploma. I don’t hire people without a college degree, either. I rarely hire anyone with less than 10 years of experience, for that matter. I think there is a massive opportunity for us to improve our education system. I think too often we teach kids to memorize nonsense for tests instead of understanding concepts for life. I think we focus on (to borrow from Seth Godin) teaching kids too often to collect dots instead of teaching kids to connect dots, and I think we over rely on the SAT and various other similarly checked boxes. But I also think that until we change the system and until we rewrite the rules of the game, we must still do everything possible to maximize our chances within those rules. It’s basic game theory. Thinking the system is flawed doesn’t mean ignoring it helps us win. Reading on paper that a GED is equivalent to a diploma doesn’t mean that in practice it is. Mine’s just one opinion among many, but I say... Just put the god damned work in and get it done. The treadmill of life is fast enough already, so don’t intentionally handicap yourself and make it even harder to keep up if you can avoid it. Get the piece of paper. Put it behind you. It makes everything later SOOOO much easier, and later is when you begin to finally appreciate things being a bit easier. Cheers.

This isn’t rocket science, raider. When I have one job to fill and a hundred resumes on my desk, your reasons for dropping out are too insignificant for me to care. I’ve got five minutes to make a five year decision and all I see is, “he dropped out.” Not worth the risk... Next! Moving on to the other 99 who don’t share such flaws. Diamonds in the rough are great, but too rare to bother, too short on time to find them. To be clear... College recruiters aren’t much different, except they sift through thousands of applications to fill only a few scores or university seats. I think you agree with me. I think you already know this and that’s why you opened this thread. High school sucks. So what? Man up and finish.

Sure. I think you’re smarter than this, though. Maybe I’m wrong. Whatever. It’s your life.

I grew up surrounded by friends smarter than me. They were bored in school and decided to go the GED route. One is working now as a handy man for a mental hospital trying to support his three kids and wife and pot habit, the other wound up shaving dogs for a living at Petsmart and just drank himself to death. They were smarter than me, but I got the diploma and at much happier and better off than both of them combined all these decades later. Sometimes you just have to check the box.

Consider staying until graduation easy money. You’d be surprised how many thousands of jobs won’t even consider you if you fail to check that simple box. No matter how smart you are, failing to finish is just plain dumb. Unless, of course, you wish to spend the entire rest of your life in a menial job any monkey could equally do.

Cool it off

It’s a lightning rod to prevent religious discussion from littering up the other science based sections. When religion was removed as a subforum in the past, biology and cosmology became where these unavoidable conversations kept landing. Better to acknowledge these conversations will occur and given them a properly quarantined home. Also, like politics, the topic is inherently interesting to many of us and it’s nice being able to explore its various intricacies with other generally rational and intelligent members here.

I disagree that it wasn’t doing any harm, or at least that we can state such a thing with any certainty whatsoever. Neither you nor I can know that, but we have actual evidence that maybe it was, in fact, doing some harm. I’ve seen members get treated differently when other members found out they lacked a penis. Sad, but true. Examples of this are both recent and historically consistent. I also have to imagine that any LGBTQ individuals may have found the binary choice insulting and frustrating, as yet another example of a place in this world where there’s too much friction when trying to simply fit in and be ones authentic self. I believe this is what triggered the OP, which basically asked for 68 more gender choices (I’m paraphrasing). The intent was good and the hope was laudable; to be more inclusive, but following the original recommendation would’ve IMO actually added friction to the process, not reduced it. At SFN, when we submit posts, what matters is the structure of our argument and our ability to defend and support it; our ability to convince others of the veracity of our position and do so in a cordial manner. It doesn’t matter if I’m black or white, old or young, gay or straight, male or female, sick or healthy, rich or poor, fat or skinny, or anything in between. This is a merit based site, not a tribal one or one where phenotype or crotchal plumbing are in any way relevant . So, I’ll ask... if the gender option was as unimportant and harmless as you and others keep claiming, then why are so many of my fellow members getting their panties into such a twist now that the path of least resistance was chosen and gender was removed from profiles entirely? Help me understand... cuz I sure don’t get it.

When I type a post, does it matter what plumbing I use to piss? If so, how? If not, then maybe drop it.

You seem to be suggesting,a false equivalence between gender and occupation or place of residence. Why are you doing that?

Nope. Not much at all

Can’t you do that already?

Hmm... I think something went wrong. I just glanced into my pants and suddenly I look like a Ken doll.

Well, for that last one anyway, they become POTUS.

Or in any way valid or supportable beyond personal bias... What are we waiting for? Just remove the option. Make it so, Hypervalent!

How would we know how interesting it is or is not were it not for V’Gers trip?

Not to minimize this phenomenal achievement, Voyager 1 already did this over 6 years ago. A great special called The Farthest that I very much enjoyed available here (is on netflix, too):

This could be its own thread.

If it's even configurable at all, I'd prefer gender be removed entirely from profiles as opposed to adding more options.

Visualize this: It’s November 7. You wake up to discover Republicans kept control of the house, senate, along with most state legislatures and governorships. What does that mean? What best explains how it happened? What comes next? Let’s not assume it’s impossible. After all, who thought they’d wake up to see Donald Trump as the US President on November 9, 2016...FiveThirtyEight gives 15% for GOP taking house, 81% for senate, and at least 26 state governors. This is clearly opinion based. Let’s please keep in mind that none of our crystal balls are more accurate than anyone else’s. What would it mean, how did it happen, what happens next?