What were you doing at 16?

[Frabjous]

Here’s what Schwinger was doing

 

[Borek]

I wasn't anywhere near this level then, and it shows up to now,

Borek, not 16, but 61.

 

[mcastillo356]

I was having fun at Bilbao, Biscay, Basque Country, with my best friend. Now I am 58. I look back in longing (did I use well the word "longing"?)

 

[Math100]

When I was 16, I stressed out so much in high school because I wanted to get into a good college. School life was very overwhelming.

 

[Baluncore]

I was watching the Vietnam War on B&W television news, and so being taught to protest Government stupidity, and to rebel against conscription.

 

[jtbell]

At 16, I was taking my first physics class in high school, in 11th grade.

I was also a photographer for my school's yearbook. The summer after my 11th grade, a bunch of the yearbook staff including me went to a yearbook-production workshop at Kent State University, not far from our town. This was a few months after four Kent State students were killed by National Guardsmen during a Vietnam War protest. We attended a hearing on campus by a presidential commission that had been set up to investigate the student unrest triggered by the war.

 

[mcastillo356]

I forgot to tell. I passed all exams in June, and my parents made me one of the best gifts of my life: I went to the USA on July. One month. Guided, of course: I was only 16. Visited New York for three days (I remember I climbed all the stairs inside the Liberty Statue; don't know how I managed to make a short escape to see the Bronx, by night, alone; I also stood in front of the famous jewelry Audrey the actress made famous, and got impressed by the smallest shop window ever seen...
Then San Francisco for three days (those buildings, the island, that curvilineous road with flowers asaids), the Santa Monica beach. the store where I bought those trousers,...
And Los Angeles, with a lovely family who made me feel at home. Those six lane's roads to get downtown.
So lovely every thing.
Best wishes!

 

[pinball1970]

I was 16 in1983 I would have been studying and playing music. "O" levels in the May/June to start college in the September.
I have no memories of what was going on in the world. I remember a lot about the Falklands war the year before.
I do not think I was heavily into thinking about the universe!
Unfortunately I think I rated myself intellectually, probably because I did not have an awful lot of competition. Just a few clever friends.
That arrogant bubble was burst in September, where all my new class mates at 6th form were at the very least on par.

 

[Mondayman]

Playing sports (hockey and football), playing guitar, and partying too far too much! It wasn't until I was about 24-25 that I developed a serious interest in math and science.

 

[erobz]

I was doing anything but schoolwork, mostly the wrong things. I graduated High school 2nd from the bottom of my class at age 17. I went to work as a farm hand, sandwich shop cook, cashier, cook, lawn care, 3rd shift quality control at concrete plant. It was there that I became interested in math (dealing with the calculations for pre-stressed hollow core slabs-temperature corrections). I started college as and adult student part time.( I had to beg to be let in on the condition I got all A’s first semester). I was working full time overnights at the plant, and attending school part time undeclared. I did that for about a year and a half, until I decided to quit the concrete plant and enroll full time. I picked up a part time job working as a loader at UPS ( I was about 24 at that point). Every morning before going to school I would do 4 hrs (4am to 8 am) loading packages. I managed to do that for 2 year until my grades took a hit. Graduated ( with honors ) in at the ripe age of 28 with a B.S.M.E.T… Now almost 40 -stay at home dad.

I realize this is more than what I was doing at 16, but I felt I would just explain, since my start was ( I imagine) very atypical for the path to this website.

 

[mcastillo356]

Hi, @erobz, amazing, but, did you take the time to sleep the mandatory hours? I haven't got a clue, @berkeman could tell, but I think you really had a year of living... Hard, crazy, intense... How many hours without rest, did have your days? Anyhow, good work.
Best wishes, PF

 

[erobz]

Hi, @erobz, amazing, but, did you take the time to sleep the mandatory hours? I haven't got a clue, @berkeman could tell, but I think you really had a year of living... Hard, crazy, intense... How many hours without rest, did have your days? Anyhow, good work.
Best wishes, PF

In my 20's I didn't notice it. I'm high strung, looking back always have been. In college I was certainly drowsy reading textbooks, but nothing I wasn't used to. I think I always had sleep problems and didn't know it. But my extremely poor performance in high school was also my choice to hang out with a crowd that had less than no interest in learning from books.

Now, at almost 40 on anxiety medication and sleeping pills just recently. You may not believe this, but 2 months ago I went 2 full weeks, having less than 10 hours cumulative sleep by my estimation - my wife can confirm! I had no idea anxiety could do that to you...Also, google searching led me to prions disease- inability to sleep - Fatal Familial Insomnia. It sent me into a loop a panic driven by lack of sleep, and lack of sleep driving panic attacks. I almost cracked. I still only sleep 4-5 hrs. a day even with the pills, but I feel much better now.

 

[mcastillo356]

I still only sleep 4-5 hrs. a day even with the pills, but I feel much better now.

Same as me. Same hours. Same pills, probably
I've recently noticed that the more I sleep, the better I get along at everything (studies, work, communication skills - in my context, this last means I tend to listen to the folk I'm in front of, instead of myself...).
Best wishes, truly.
Marcos

 

[erobz]

I guess this just reinforces the point that there are different levels to average... I'm farther away from @Frabjous ( who understands what's even being talked about in the excerpt), than Frabjous is from Schwinger!

 

[haushofer]

Consuming way too much alcohol, listening to Queen and Led Zeppelin, being frustrated by not understanding Hawking's Brief history of time, reading Brian Greene on string theory and spending most of my time playing the piano.

Leaving no room for school, now I think about it.

 

[gleem]

Hmmm,I can't seem to remember what I was doing at 16.

 

[erobz]

Hmmm,I can't seem to remember what I was doing at 16.

That bad huh...

 

[jrmichler]

HMMM, let's see if I can remember that far back...

Climbed and painted some obnoxious messages on the water tower.
Hitchhiked for the first time.
Started a boat project that I never finished because it was beyond my abilities.
Learned that I could stay up all night and still go to school the next day.
Beer parties, except that it was actually homemade wine.
A 50 mile bicycle trip.

That's about it.

 

[collinsmark]

Consuming way too much alcohol, listening to Queen and Led Zeppelin, being frustrated by not understanding Hawking's Brief history of time, reading Brian Greene on string theory and spending most of my time playing the piano.

Leaving no room for school, now I think about it.

Some significant overlap with Homer Simpson's youth, right there.

 

[nsaspook]

I was in the electronics VICA at one of the first 'magnet' schools in America.
https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/c...was established,design, even a floral program.

Bragging About Skyline High School, America's First Magnet School​

 

[DeBangis21]

At 16 I was in SSS I.

 

[mcastillo356]

At 16 I was in SSS I.

You mean Selective Service System? First year maybe?

 

[DeBangis21]

You mean Selective Service System? First year maybe?

Nope, Senior Secondary School (i.e Senior Hight School) or Grade One. Is this class 10th in some system?

 

[DeBangis21]

*high

 

[Mayhem]

Getting expelled.

 

[DeBangis21]

Getting expelled.

From where?

 

[Mayhem]

From where?

School.

 

[mcastillo356]

Nope, Senior Secondary School (i.e Senior Hight School) or Grade One. Is this class 10th in some system?

Nowadays maybe "Cuarto de la ESO" (Mandatory Secondary School, fourth grade) in Spain.
But I prefer to talk about myself. At 16 I was in Bilbao, at a private catholic school (Jesuits) attending what was called "segundo de BUP" (translated, Unified Polivalent High School, second academic year). But to be more concrete, I took classes on Maths, Physics, Philosophy, Inorganic Chemistry, History, Spanish Language and Literature, Basque Language, English, Religions of the World, and Latin language.
I remember Maths teacher, Mr. Varona, one day getting into the classroom, and unexpectedly drawing a straight line along the blackboard, and starting to talk about infinity. It was fun.
Best wishes!

 

[DeBangis21]

Nice.
It was during that academic stage that I tightened up my belt more, as was given this orientation by our English teacher, and got the interest to study mechanical engineering at varsity. I'm still in touch with many of my teachers.

I'm going to enter 3rd year now majoring in physics (my 2nd choice then, my 1st choice now!). Currently doing SIWES at a radio and TV station.

 

[yungman]

I was playing in a pop band when I was 16 (1969) as lead guitarist in Hong Kong. Started doing parties already. I won the 1st champion in contest in 1970, 2nd one in 1971 and two major competitions in 1972. I thought music was my life......Until I found my ultimate passion, not for fame, recognition, just for myself.....In ELECTRONICS.

I quit playing in 1979 because it took too much time away from my passion, I was in San Francisco then, never really look back. After 45yrs, Electronics is still my passion, made a career out of it and retired. Still designing extreme high end hifi power amplifiers.

 

[yungman]

I was doing anything but schoolwork, mostly the wrong things. I graduated High school 2nd from the bottom of my class at age 17. I went to work as a farm hand, sandwich shop cook, cashier, cook, lawn care, 3rd shift quality control at concrete plant. It was there that I became interested in math (dealing with the calculations for pre-stressed hollow core slabs-temperature corrections). I started college as and adult student part time.( I had to beg to be let in on the condition I got all A’s first semester). I was working full time overnights at the plant, and attending school part time undeclared. I did that for about a year and a half, until I decided to quit the concrete plant and enroll full time. I picked up a part time job working as a loader at UPS ( I was about 24 at that point). Every morning before going to school I would do 4 hrs (4am to 8 am) loading packages. I managed to do that for 2 year until my grades took a hit. Graduated ( with honors ) in at the ripe age of 28 with a B.S.M.E.T… Now almost 40 -stay at home dad.

I realize this is more than what I was doing at 16, but I felt I would just explain, since my start was ( I imagine) very atypical for the path to this website.

I have similar history in the sense I was so sure I'd a musician when I was young. I did went to 4yr college in Chemistry just because my parent supported me and I did it for them. In 1978, I realize I hated Chemistry, I got married. I actually started out as pizza delivery. I was still into music. BUT it's hard over here in US. Back in late 60s and early 70s, guitar was in, you went far being a good guitar player. But that changed. I can't sing, I am not good in writing songs. Still there's not much of a future.

When I was playing guitar, I had the best amplifier at the time and still it's very limited, one cannot make it sound good until really cranking it up. At the time, only available amps were just overdriving the preamp to get the distortion. But it didn't sound good. I came up with the idea of lowering the voltage of the output stage to make the signal clipped at much lower level and it sounded great. I literally let the preamp section power at full voltage, the filament of all the tubes at full voltage. Then I put a variac to control the voltage of the power tubes to control the clipping. It was beautiful. That's how I first got into electronics.

After working in pizza delivery, that's not the way to live. I started looking for something that I can use the little knowledge of electronics I know. I got a field service tech job for Norelco which made micro cassette recorder used by attorney and other office people to dictate the message and have the secretary type it out. I started learning more. The more I got into it, the more I love electronics. I started staying in the car between service calls and study. It's to the point I screwed up my job and I got fired.

I then spend 3 months studying 18hrs/day and got a better job, a real test technician job in the production. I managed to transfer to the engineering division to test new circuit boards. I started writing assembly test program for testing. Before I knew it, they literally dumped all the programming to me. I literally started as programmer. I got promoted to jr EE in 1980.

I worked very hard, I got a chance to get into LeCroy(one that make digital scope) in 1981, first designing controller using 8085, then I got a chance to move into designing the front end of the ADC unit. Did I study to keep up. I did it. Long story short, I got into RF analog design, Promoted to Sr. EE in 1987 in Seimens and Manager of EE in 1990 in another company.

I really never have formal education in EE, all by self study and using common sense( you won't believe a little common sense go so far even in electronic design). I felt bad to the point I actually started studying all the calculus to PDE AFTER I RETIRED IN 2005. I study Electromagnetics and all AFTER I RETIRED. I just want to be WHOLE. Believe it or not, I was actually RF engineer design circuits before I study all that!!! Just good old common sense.

Speaking about my variable power guitar amp above. I SHOULD HAVE PATENTED IT. NOBODY CAME OUT UNTIL THE 90S from a company in Canada!!! But I was too busy chasing my dreams and just let it go.

Here is a dumpy recording of my playing in street jam in 1978, you can hear the sound of my amp even recorded with a handheld cassette recorder. I quit soon after that. Don't laugh about my playing, this is 46yrs old.

 

[erobz]

I have similar history in the sense I was so sure I'd a musician when I was young. I did went to 4yr college in Chemistry just because my parent supported me and I did it for them. In 1978, I realize I hated Chemistry, I got married. I actually started out as pizza delivery. I was still into music. BUT it's hard over here in US. Back in late 60s and early 70s, guitar was in, you went far being a good guitar player. But that changed. I can't sing, I am not good in writing songs. Still there's not much of a future.

When I was playing guitar, I had the best amplifier at the time and still it's very limited, one cannot make it sound good until really cranking it up. At the time, only available amps were just overdriving the preamp to get the distortion. But it didn't sound good. I came up with the idea of lowering the voltage of the output stage to make the signal clipped at much lower level and it sounded great. I literally let the preamp section power at full voltage, the filament of all the tubes at full voltage. Then I put a variac to control the voltage of the power tubes to control the clipping. It was beautiful. That's how I first got into electronics.

After working in pizza delivery, that's not the way to live. I started looking for something that I can use the little knowledge of electronics I know. I got a field service tech job for Norelco which made micro cassette recorder used by attorney and other office people to dictate the message and have the secretary type it out. I started learning more. The more I got into it, the more I love electronics. I started staying in the car between service calls and study. It's to the point I screwed up my job and I got fired.

I then spend 3 months studying 18hrs/day and got a better job, a real test technician job in the production. I managed to transfer to the engineering division to test new circuit boards. I started writing assembly test program for testing. Before I knew it, they literally dumped all the programming to me. I literally started as programmer. I got promoted to jr EE in 1980.

I worked very hard, I got a chance to get into LeCroy(one that make digital scope) in 1981, first designing controller using 8085, then I got a chance to move into designing the front end of the ADC unit. Did I study to keep up. I did it. Long story short, I got into RF analog design, Promoted to Sr. EE in 1987 in Seimens and Manager of EE in 1990 in another company.

I really never have formal education in EE, all by self study and using common sense( you won't believe a little common sense go so far even in electronic design). I felt bad to the point I actually started studying all the calculus to PDE AFTER I RETIRED IN 2005. I study Electromagnetics and all AFTER I RETIRED. I just want to be WHOLE. Believe it or not, I was actually RF engineer design circuits before I study all that!!! Just good old common sense.

Speaking about my variable power guitar amp above. I SHOULD HAVE PATENTED IT. NOBODY CAME OUT UNTIL THE 90S from a company in Canada!!! But I was too busy chasing my dreams and just let it go.

Funny story, I too thought I was going to be a musician (rock star) circa 2001. I did essay in 11th grade Civics telling my teacher that! He laughed hysterically and bet me 100 dollars I wouldn't! I still owe him that 100 dollars...

 

[erobz]

Here is a dumpy recording of my playing in street jam in 1978, you can hear the sound of my amp even recorded with a handheld cassette recorder. I quit soon after that. Don't laugh about my playing, this is 46yrs old.

P.S. sounds like a pretty good jam band to me! Gov't Mule esq...without Warren Haynes, but still solid playing!

 

[yungman]

Funny story, I too thought I was going to be a musician (rock star) circa 2001. I did essay in 11th grade Civics telling my teacher that! He laughed hysterically and bet me 100 dollars I wouldn't! I still owe him that 100 dollars...

It's not easy, I really tried. Being able to sing is very important. If one can't sing, it's hard to write songs with singing. Just playing guitar is not enough. I was playing in nightclubs before also. It's not a steady job. Pay is not that good. People keep thinking about those big stars earn millions, That's like one out of a million people, the rest hardly can survive, have to work a second job to make a living.

 

[yungman]

P.S. sounds like a pretty good jam band to me! Gov't Mule esq...without Warren Haynes, but still solid playing!

For 1978, that's not bad, but the world moved on. Mine is old style before shredding. It's still Santana, Eric Clapton days.