<p>Anyways though, could a lot of the stress be due to the assumption of free will? Honestly, many people try to ingrain into you the idea that "you can do anything if you can put your mind to it." But that idea can actually stress people out - because if you waste your time, then you are not realizing your full potential.</p>
<p>But when one looks at the psychological and sociological evidence, one sees that it's only a very small subset of people who are privileged enough to even have the option to be at the top of their class in high school. Intelligence is highly heritable (0.8 correlation IQ with parental IQ), and on top of that, socioeconomic status also has huge correlations with what one can do. The number of those who go from "rags to riches" is very small compared to the number of those who stay in "rags."</p>
<p>That research isn't particularly liberating to those of low IQ or socioeconomic status (but those of low socioeconomic status can at least obtain steps to obtain cultural capital and learn about just how to advance through society - many urban city kids don't even know how to apply to college!), but to us here, it's more liberating. And why care about a social construct that has no intrinsic meaning other than the interpretation that institutions put to it?</p>
<p>Of course, you'll be fine where-ever you go (your socioeconomic status is high enough already for you to have a very high chance of acquiring a stable career). Your attitudes and behaviors will be modified in the experiences that you perceive in between now and adult-hood, and if we abide by the experiences of most of your age, you no longer have to worry about this high school angst (or your classmates, for that matter). Of course, some people do suffer from depression, but this doesn't seem to be much of a problem at College Confidential...</p>
<p>...and the privileged lives of upper-middle class Westerners are lives that very very few can enjoy, and yet they still find stressors, over how "good' they are relative to each other. Humans are funny creatures...</p>
<p>(and there still is reason for me to stress out since I want to go to grad school...). Oh, and yeah, I asked the key question "why is it that I happen to be conscious in this body"? When I am no more important than anyone else? The only difference between me and everyone else is that the world can only be perceived through my own perceptual experiences, rather than those of someone else. When this body dies, such perceptual experiences are no more. Which brings up an excellent thought experiment. What if I could share the same exact perceptual experiences as someone else? (by means of say, having access to a special camera that recorded every sight and sound of his? That someone else could be a Nobel laureate, for that matter. Then he would no longer have privileged access to his perceptual experiences. And then, why value my utility over his utility? (other than for reasons of the basic essentials of food and water)). Well, I can change my behaviors, of course. Because if I could control his behavior, then I could have access to perceptual experiences that are more desirable to me than they are to him. But when you think of it, all of your behaviors are granted towards trying to access perceptual experiences of a sort that you expect, based on what you've read. RSI is nothing more than a perceptual experience (from one's reference frame). An Ivy League college is nothing more than a perceptual experience. Everything is nothing more than a perceptual experience. Starvation and pain are also perceptual experiences, but are things that we never think about as figures of relatively high socio-economic status.</p>
<p>Anyways, though, a good suggestion would be to read a book about the lower classes, to put things into perspective. Tracking does a good job of isolating ourselves from them. One such book is "Ain't No Makin' It."</p>
<p>Ugh, I sounded weird or something. I think I'm barely awake..</p>