Laziness is a virtue

I am pretty much fed up with what people say- hard work is success. I believe that this is not true, especially because many of the world's most important advancements were made by generally lazy people. Sure, there is a good number of advancements made by people that were hard working, but many of the advancements that make life easier are thought up by lazy people. There is no real reason why people have to work their asses off in order to reach some achievement. There are people that have already went to the same conclusion faster for the reason that they are lazy. Trivialities do not have to be proven, they just have to be stated, and the person who is reading could ponder and decide whether it is a triviality or not. There is no definite wrong or right answer for anything, and nine out of ten times, the best solutions would be the shortest and simplest ones. Why would you not use tools given to you to do something, instead of doing it in some way you know will take longer. You know that it is easier, but someone demands that you need to show your path of thinking. It does not matter who you are or what you are, but it is always safe to speak out or rebel. This is the hidden right that many people have not thought about, for fear. As President Roosevelt once said, the only thing we need to fear is fear itself. Take advantage of that hidden right. Take advantage of what you have It is completely impossible to take away the right to speak out. Consequences would not work, as they only determine what happens if a person who is determined enough to speak out actually speak out. You are never forced into it, it is just that you consented or you were stupid enough to not struggle. Beware- trickery is also used.

 

Back to the topic. There is no reason to work your ass off if you need do something. There are almost always easier alternatives. In many cases, you are given two choices- to do it, or to suffer the consequences. But what are those consequences? Those are nothing. In many societies, including the United States, there is a subtle repression from the authorities to not speak out. However, there are people who are speaking out. If your case is strong enough, you could bypass the consequences.

 

There is also a principle that many people do not know- if you do not want something, you do not have to work for it. You only work for what you get. Hard work can ensure you that you achieve and get what you want, but laziness is a shortcut. Because of the shortcut, many people say that it is not fair for some people to have that edge. Life is not fair, and get over with that. Just because you are a paragon does not mean that you will be always known. If there is a way to do something, then there is always an easier way. Getting that edge involves being lazy, as slothful people usually would not accept the path that is given to them, but strive to find a shortcut to the path. When they do, they belittle those that think were in front of them.

 

Just accepting what you have is not enough. You must not accept your terms and find an easier path to your goal.

Homework- I WANT SOME REAL WORK

Don't know what is with public schools these days, but they seem to give off less and less homework. Granted, I am in eighth grade, but I have less assignments than when I was in sixth grade. This is odd, as the amount of work that is assigned to a student is supposed to increase as they get older, not decrease. When I went into school I expected much more homework, as if the teachers are going to crush us with homework. Turns out they did, but not in a good way. Even though they did give off a lot of homework, most of it seemed to be busywork.

The bulk of my homework now is Language arts. This is not what I expected of it. According to the previous students, this year the students were not going to slack off; rather, they were supposed to be crushed with load upon load of work. Moreover, they were saying that the bulk of it is in projects, rather than with regular work.

According to the teacher, she does not want to grade multiple assignments. This could not exactly be considered, but she at least could think about what is happening, instead of boring us with weekly assignments that are mostly monotonous. Although many teachers do not exactly think of their assigned work to be monotonous, it IS. Sure, this is not what we expect from such a hardworking teacher, but just because  you are not going to rate our work does not mean that we have to be deprived of projects.

Turns out it did not end up to be that way. I got a worksheet every so often, with a review or something like that the comes in every two weeks. This is not what I want. I want some real work. If the instructors can permit it, I want extra projects and extra reports. Those are the two things that homework is supposed to be about. Why this lazy busywork? Why just credit? Can we have more work that is worthwhile to do?

The United States of America Mathematical Talent Search

USAMTS- the main thing for students under eighteen if they want to participate in a research contest. This is truly a great idea. Hopefully it will remain this way.

 

I am participating in this contest this year, and I feel as if I am on a great start. I have done all the problems and, according to my opinion, have done a really good job on this. Even though this may not be the best score on there because I missed number 1, I still feel as if this is a great thing for me to do, unlike some of the other math contests that I have done in the past. For one thing, all resources are allowed. This means that I get to do whatever I want, as long as I don't discuss these problems with other people. Feasible options include downloading a pirated or beta version of Mathematica. Hopefully I learn how to use it! Anyways, my score should be around 20 points, since I correctly did every single problem except for number 1. Even for number one, I spent a lot of time on it, and this should get me another three to four extra points. If I continue this, hopefully I get the gold recognition.

School Newspaper

Recently, school just released its first newspaper. It is a great job for a black and white middle school publishing, except, in my opinion, it is way too short and has a lot of junk.

First things first- this one is the first issue, so it has a letter from the editor and leadership announcements. I do not mind that. They say that they will take that away from the newspaper after this issue. Good. Now most of the stuff is out of order. Everything is bunched together, and that poses a huge problem. How do you find some item from another? I suggest them putting on an online version. In school we don't have too many web designers, so that is going to pose a large problem. Another one of my pet peeves is all the extras that are supposed to go in the Entertainment section or omitted altogether. This is not exactly what I consider as interesting. What gives newspapers its punch is how well the articles are written, and how many articles are written. To be concise, I will sum it up in two words- quantity and quality. Unfortunately, the paper has neither of these. Sure, you can put out an abridged version in everyone's hands, but that lacks the impression that many other newspapers have. Besides, the only way to get a reader to continue reading is to extend the article without boring them.

Also, there is that unsightly fashion section right smack in the middle of nowhere. That is not exactly interesting, as it is considered filler, or advertisements.  Besides, not a lot of people care about fashion, especially clothing, these days. *ahem* My point is that that section should not be too large, or too often. Who cares about what you are wearing? Who cares that you have the best smile in the school? All we care about is that we can get what we need to do done. Besides, only one half of the school *ahem* the females care about fashion. Sure, there is a technology section inside the newspaper, but I think that it should be longer and contain more information than than the fashion section. Besides, we are in Silicon Valley, not in the Platinum Triangle of the Los Angeles Basin.

National news was a great section. However, please get the spelling right. How are you able to spell Barack Obama wrong? He has been on the newspaper for so long, and you still cannot spell his name wrong. Even so, that would be considered the least of my problems. There was also that odd interview about two teachers. That would be considered good content. Also, the technology section was interesting, although it was not what we people in Silicon Valley were expecting. Considering that, think that this section should be drastically lengthened.

Sports, however, is the antithesis of the national news. We know about what the school team is doing. We know what the cross country group is running. We know the RBI of every single person on the softball team. Now you have to repeat that again? What a mess. Skateboarding is also completely redundant. Sure, we have a lot of skaters around here, but they do not deserve a whole section completely dedicated to them. They could have their own paper, if that is what they want.

I still think that the opinion and educational sections are missing. We should have a section of student complaints or something like that. Student works sounds a little bit too ambiguous. Besides, what if all the stuff that the students send in are fiction? Then how could we spark public outcry? It may take up two whole pages, but as far as I know, that is a really good use of paper.

Ask Annie was a great column. However, some of the questions were immature, and some of the other questions' answers were a little bit... let us just say... awkward. There could be some more questions, and there could be better answers. But for now, I say that this one of the good portions of the paper.

Horoscopes- NO, NO, NO!!!! Why would you want to have horoscopes on there? There are already enough sources for you to find out what is your horoscope. This is just a waste of paper. Let us replace this with something that is actually worth putting here. Every day, on the newspaper, there is a horoscope section. Every day, on the internet, there are daily sources of horoscopes. What we do not need is another source of that blab.

Educational section- This newspaper is considered cool in the school. What we need is the school to maintain this image and use it for the benefit of the student. The school is around 50 percent Asian, which is neither good nor bad. Some of the people inside the school think that the school newspaper is cool, but not the books themselves or the San Jose Merc, USA Today, or the San Francisco Chronicles. Therefore, we could have a section on education, to instill the values of education and some stuff into their heads. Maybe this will not work, and they will only want to look at the fashion section. Either way, this will be good for the newspaper.

Conclusion- This newspaper has had a great start, and I hope that this newspaper will live up to its standards, However, there are still things to be fixed, and there are a lot of things to change. Hopefully this newspaper will really good for the school, contributing to the general good, and [hopefully] this will be a good idea.