Why I’m Leaving High School
A tale of the brave new world we live in and my journey through it.
Try to imagine your life - past, present, and future — along a single axis. I know, the entirety of our journey cannot be distilled into a single, straight path. I know things change at a terrifying rate and we make choices every day that determine which path, of many, we will walk for the rest of our lives.
Many believe one must acquire diverse talents and experiences to survive the changing tides of a changing world. I disagree. I feel it hinders people’s ability to excel and experience what they truly enjoy. Instead of spending years of our lives preparing for what we might do, we should actively pursue what we want to do. It might not be as much fun or easy as taking the well-walked path of overpreparation, but a direct path exists.
Once you know what you want to do in life, life becomes incredibly simple. Do what I have to do to take me from Point A to Point B. Every decision can be decided by: Does this help me get from Point A to Point B? Or what will get me closer to Point B?
Answering those questions are taxing on a daily basis but will surely get you to Point B at some Point in time, but this method doesn’t work for most people because they are trying to answer how do I get from Point A to Point B-Z. Let’s change that.
Point A -> Point B
Where I Am -> Where I Want to Be
Point A starts for me in high school, among millions of other students. I was lucky enough to attend a prestigious private school in Los Angeles where I was allowed to explore my own interests and curiosities. However, my Point B is quite different than most people’s (if for no other reason than I found my Point B):
To solve problems I care about with technology.
While my Point B may seem a little vague, I’ve experienced this process of creation before and can see the concrete results of this pursuit. I want to spend my life building great products & businesses. Since realizing my Point B, I have been taking every step necessary to realize that dream. Today, that meant leaving high school.
And it is that particular intermediary point, that is leaving high school breaks down into a few smaller points.
Does high school help get me to Point B?
The short answer is no. Most people end up completing their primary, secondary, and (hopefully) some level of higher education on their path to their own nebulous Point B, a Point B they hope will become apparent to them at some point in the future.
I’m lucky enough to have found my Point B, meaning school as it is currently defined doesn’t directly help me as much as pursuing my own interests would. I was incredibly lucky to attend Harvard-Westlake, one of the best private high schools in the nation, but building products is infinitely more educational and useful in reaching Point B than sitting in classes and finishing homework.
Don’t get me wrong: I love learning about the world and exploring my curiosity. Harvard-Westlake did a brilliant job at fomenting that pursuit of knowledge (and supporting my move to pursue Point B). However, at this point, I’m ready to try things on my own, without classes, syllabi and pop quizzes, by immersing myself in topics that interest me, like product and design.
You learn by doing.
And anyone who “does” agrees. So, the long answer to our original question is no, going to school does not help get me to Point B.
Does going to school get me to Point B faster than not going?
It’s a valid question, but again, the answer is no. In fact, it slows me down. Contrary to what many believe, the new horizons and opportunities that a liberal arts education promises will not help me get to my personal Point B. They might help someone who is unsure of their Point B as they jump between subjects and interests, but I know where I want to go.
While I certainly do enjoy reading about John Winthrop in AP U.S. History, or vectors in AP Physics, neither help me get to Point B but rather, hinder my journey as those two hours could have been spent working on Bond or reading about behavioral economics.
I’d like to use my departure from the education system to highlight what’s possible if you find your Point B. And, I earnestly hope that that everyone finds their own Point B because everything else becomes immeasurably simpler once you do.
So find your Point B and start moving towards it.
So what’s next?
As of Thursday, September 24th, I am no longer a student at Harvard-Westlake as part of a specialized gap year program.
I will spend my time working on Bond, the vision for which I will share when they are ready. I’ll finally catch up on my Pocket and book backlog, and continue writing on Medium (starting with this post!).
El Finale.
I left a lot of questions unanswered in this post as I felt digging into the minutiae of the decision would be a futile effort at conveying the underlying thesis behind my exit. I would encourage you to speak up if you have any questions or counterpoints as I would love to respond and intend on following up on some of the issues I left out of here.
This post largely requires some context about my life to make full sense so I’ll summarize it if you don’t know me. My name is Daniel Singer and I’m from Los Angeles, until now I built a startup called Backchat, which let you anonymously message the people you knew and grew that to many great people, both in traction and a wonderful team. I currently am gearing up to launch my next venture, Bond, which connects you with the people you should know.
This is a big step for me to fully getting towards Point B and I’m confident it is the right one. I’ll continue to write about how it’s turning out both on the Bond front but also personally so stay tuned.
Thank you.
-Daniel Singer
Daniel is the CEO & Co-Founder of Bond Labs, Inc. Bond connects you with the people you should know and will be introducing you to great people later this year.
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Catch me on Twitter at @danielsing3r or Instagram at @danielsinger.
