What’s that all about then?
I see this everywhere online and it’s like pretty standard jaded millennial stuff, but people blaming the mundanity and depression of existing in a failing financial system on being told they were really smart in school? Seems like the same anxieties that those of us who were told we’re naughty little shits who wouldn’t amount to anything are facing. What am I missing?
Americans
90 percent of terrible discourse on the internet really just comes down to
Americans
It’s just the complete & utter failure of capitalism dawning on people …but usually in totally the wrong way
Humblebrag basically
Everyone who is an adult is a former kid, you don’t need the “gifted” addendum.
Junior maths challenge gold award 2001, all downhill from there
Can’t have been that gifted if they didn’t see it coming imho
The housing crising wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t come top of the class for maths in Year 9. The thickos have always known they’re destined for drudgery.
I daresay there’s a point to be made whereby the things you might be praised for at school (creativity, critical thinking, curiosity) are actively not wanted in adulthood by most employers or society at large or whatever. But being hung up about the fact that a teacher pinning your short story to the class wall display hasn’t translated to stable home ownership is absolutely fucking borked
I mean I’ll be seething about it in any case but that’s my own business
Isn’t this just Mis-shapes by Pulp but with more self-absorbed social media posting and less writing of indie classics?
I got the best GCSE results in my school year and I’m now spending my 30s dossing through work days speaking with a group of people who think the best drink they have collectively ever had is water #noregrets
"You can be anything. you’re good at. as long as they’re hiring. And even then, it helps if you know somebody”
I remember in my first job after getting my degree throwing a right tantrum because I’d been asked to do some photocopying and I thought I was above that. Does that mean I had “former gifted kid syndrome”? Or was I just a cocky twat?
There’s an element of “I used to be able to coast through life without much effort but now it turns out I have to work like everyone else???” about some of it, too.
Yeah seems to deny / obscure pretty material class politics that blocks any kind of social mobility or getting a bearable job for most people no matter how capable they were in school.
I spent my childhood either
Or
So when I see a
I don’t know whether to exist in it or [REDACTED]
“Also the company has been sold off and the new owners need you to get really into ChatGPT”
I think I see more people complaining about former gifted kid discourse than actual former gifted kid discourse
See it a lot in neurodiversity circles, particularly for late-diagnosed folks. I guess because you’re more likely to go undiagnosed if you’re succeeding academically, can talk to adults more easily than peers, and occasionally and entirely accidentally hyperfocus on something that is seen as a predictor of future success (whatever that means).