12 year old me would disagree with you. The movie hackers and the manifesto inspired me. Being a gay geeky kid in the 90s, this helped me feel not alone.

I respect your opinion, but we would have had some flame wars back in the day ;)

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bitwize 18 hours ago | parent [-]

12-year-old you would have resonated powerfully with that sort of thing. Adult you probably realizes that being smarter than everyone else really doesn't matter as much as you think it does. And even (especially!) the smartest people show their work if they want credit for it. Age is like that. It puts things in perspective.

The enduring bit of the Manifesto, I think, is the idea that we need to cultivate our curiosity even when society tells us we shouldn't. I mean that in the sense of both "we ought to" and it being a physical need, like an addiction.

The rest of it sounds a bit like Julia Stiles in Ghostwriter (PBS TV series): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLlj_GeKniA

	▲	hsbauauvhabzb 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The whole ‘we exist without nationality, race, gender, etc’ is what I’m referring to. I don’t think I considered myself particularly smart, but did feel that structured education is largely a waste of time for some people.