Why geeks make better adults than the in-crowd
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Robbins followed seven self-described outsiders at public and private high schools for a year and concluded that what makes kids popular—conformity, aggression, visibility, and influence—won't make them happy or successful after they graduate. She distinguishes between perceived popularity, when peers say someone is at the top of the social hierarchy, and actual popularity, when peers report actually liking someone. Her book focuses on the former, a state that Robbins says tends to evaporate outside of the high school gate.
In good news for nerds everywhere, what makes people unpopular in the hallways of high school, mainly an unwillingness to conform, tends to translate into success as an adult. Robbins lists several companies—including Yahoo!—that prioritize hiring quirky individuals who shun conventional thinking. She also name-checks historical and current celebrities, including director Steven Spielberg (who was taunted for being Jewish in high school) and Lady Gaga (a self-described former theater "freak"), whose weirdness led to later fame. (Other now-validated former outsiders she touts: Steve Jobs, Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen and Angelina Jolie.) end quote from above article.
I never saw myself as a Geek, I was a street racer(I raced cars on the streets and a surfer) sort of like the 60s surfer movies combined with "Grease" and "American Graffiti". However, I sort of kept myself apart, had my own ideas and a few close friends, didn't usually go to football games, and didn't go out for any sports after I was 14 years old because I wanted to work and buy a car and take girlfriends out on dates. Though I was a fairly good student in Grade School and mostly an A student my senior year I wasn't someone constantly on the honor roll but I did take "Advanced Science" in 9th Grade and was the only "non-geek" in the class and got teased a lot for taking this class by surfers and street racers. But I loved science and really got into science after all the astronauts took off into space starting in the early 1960s. We used to watch them live on TV in our 8th grade science class. That's why there were so many science majors then because Space was really sexy to us all back then.
The thing I most see that leads to success is not wasting your mind away on alcohol or drugs and being able to stay focused enough to actually accomplish something useful, take care of your kids and raise them well etc. So all the trying to fit in people in large clicks were all lost when they hit the real world and all wound up working in fast food places and gas stations. It was really depressing to see the most popular people in school working in a gas station they didn't own or a fast food place when they were 32 back in 1980 (I graduated in 1966) Whereas all the people who didn't fit in and stayed focused on their long term dreams often succeeded in life because they didn't give up on their long term dreams.
Popular people in High School were living their dreams in High School. They didn't have any dreams after that. That was their problem.
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