[2065] in Depressing_Thoughts
Re: pres dinner
dkk@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (dkk@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Sun Apr 21 22:55:16 1991
> but what about the people who fall between the cracks ?
We had a saying in Random 230/240 when I lived there:
"Nice guys don't finish."
It's not quite true, of course, but we knew lots of not-nice people
who made it through, lots of nice people who didn't, and some people
whose success in completing school was dependent on how mean/slimy
they were.
It shouldn't be *too* much of a surprise that often the most
interesting MIT students are the ones who don't make it through. The
"boring" ones spend most of their time tooling, while others perform
on stage, hack, devote a lot time to their living groups, lead student
activities, or take part in some other such time-sink.
I've been kicked out of MIT twice -- in 1983 and again in 1987. (I've
also come back twice. The administration tried to convince me to go
away, but they failed. :-) For almost all of my 10 years around MIT,
I've been in the "interesting" category. I've also been on academic
warning. I've had to change quite a bit to get through MIT
(graduating in June). Not all those changes were for the better.
I'm a lot less cynical about MIT than I used to be, but my cynicism
will never be gone completely.
