From the Thiel Fellowship website: "The ideal candidate has ideas that simply cannot wait. She or he wants to change the world and has already started to do it in some fashion. We want fellows who dream big and have clear plans [...]" I'm interested in what you have in mind for your Thiel grant--some singularity-promoting project? Have you already done some work in that direction?
I have a lot of ideas. Mainly education reform and media curation and community building, but also some ideas for the application of environmental technologies. But, currently lack business knowledge. Working on that right now (I'm reading the Personal MBA and Getting Things Done. 4 steps to epiphany is on my list. I'm hoping that if I got the scholarship, I would be directed to mentors and resources that would help me pick up the business information I lack). I will be making a post soon about my ideas in more depth shortly. They will be imbedded within one of those "how can I help?" style posts.
As a continuation of the original Welcome thread (if you haven't gone there, go there fist) I think we need a separate introduction thread for highschoolers.
Who: As a demographic, I think that we can probably be characterized by:
1. Our newness to LW.
2. Our uncertainty about which college or career to choose.
3. (if we are in a public school) Looking for ways to game the system (because we're not learning much in it).
4. Our potential to make a huge impact (the best advantage is an early start).
5. An lack of face to face interaction with intellectual people.
Why: I can think of several things this could help highschoolers with.
1. See where you stack up compared to others your age (We're probably all big fish in small ponds. At least I am. Let's get an idea of what the big pond is like).
2. Make friends with people like you.
3. Consider college and career ideas you hadn't considered before.
4. Perhaps find people to apply with for the Thiel Fellowship.
5. Find a chavruta to go through the sequences with you.
What: Tell us the following:
1. How old/what year are you?
2. How have you tried to enhance your education beyond what's normally offered at schools?
3. How many rationalist/philosophical people are at your school/family?
4. What careers/schools are you considering?
5. Are you going to apply for a Thiel Fellowship?
6. EDIT: link to your old "introduce yourself" post.
If you're not in highschool, tell us what you would have told your old highschool self.