Not many teenagers care much for world news. Raging wars, famines, politics, market shares, the affairs of world leaders ... all of these are far-away events that apparently don't affect us - although sport sections and celebrity gossip are not as easily discarded.
What did affect us recently, however, was the death of Steve Jobs. He wasn't a random businessman belonging to an unexciting grown-up world where their idea of a fun night out is talking stocks over dinner. When a guy's gone to the trouble of setting up Pixar and creating the Toy Story films, you sit up and take notice. When that guy brings computers to the masses, allowing us to surf the internet idly on the pretext of doing homework, you sit up a little bit straighter. And then, when that guy brings us a device that you can pop into your ears to block out the grown-ups' whingeing, you award him the label of "not a bad bloke at all", which is the nicest title teenagers can think of, and be bothered, to confer on you.
I counted a minimum of 24 Facebook statuses on my news feed telling him to rest in peace when he died. Our priorities are as clear as the best-quality Swarovski crystal there is: we aren't concerned about how countries are run. We are concerned about the future of our beloved iPods.
After Jobs's death, all of a sudden, his 2005 commencement speech to a batch of Stanford graduates has found itself in the limelight. I YouTubed it simply because everyone was talking about it. For a college dropout, he's done a pretty impressive job.
We are all a little more than struck by the Hollywood eligibility of his life story: adopted by a couple who promised his mother they would send him to college; went to college; dropped out; went on to co-found one of the most successful companies in the world; revolutionised technology; coaxed goodbye statuses on his death from most likely millions of Facebooking teenagers who'd never met him. What I'm getting at here is that you don't need university to do well in life. The Microsoft founder Bill Gates, too, was a dropout, and people like him and Jobs and have done well in life by anyone's definition.
Jobs's parting line is one of the most famous quotes of this generation: "Stay hungry. Stay foolish." We teenagers are admittedly always the former, and, according to some, also always the latter in the literal sense of the words.
However, as impressionable adolescents, we don't usually follow the advice he actually meant to give us. We don't particularly want to stay curious and hungry for knowledge; most of us just want to get to university, get a job and then retire in the Maldives or somewhere nice. If one of the most influential men of the 21st century didn't feel the need to squander his parents' savings on college, though, why should the rest of us?
I have just read the latest book by the best-selling Indian author Chetan Bhagat, called Revolution 2020, and it's one of those plots where you can't stop shaking your head at the irony of life. The poor kid doesn't get into the best college in the country, IIT, despite his father taking a loan for coaching classes, stressing out big time and finally, in a strange turn of events, dying in exasperation. The kid learns instead the art of bribery and corruption, ending up rich and getting the girl. The idealistic bright kid, who does get into the most prestigious university around and gets his face in the newspaper for it, tries to change the world for the better and goes broke.
Does that confirm that slogging away at your desk doesn't pay after all? Following in Jobs's footsteps and giving the security of higher education a miss isn't an easy decision. It could lead to fame, glory and riches - or to the dole. What happened after Jobs dropped out is inscribed in indelible ink on the pages of history, but his story is the exception, not the rule. Is university worth the money, the effort and the peace of mind? The question remains unanswered, so I'll just shut down my Mac now and download a song or two on my iPod, the most fitting tribute I can think of.
The writer is a 16-year-old student in Dubai.
Follow us on Twitter and keep up to date with the latest in arts and lifestyle news at twitter.com/LifeNationalUAE
GOLF’S RAHMBO
- 5 wins in 22 months as pro
- Three wins in past 10 starts
- 45 pro starts worldwide: 5 wins, 17 top 5s
- Ranked 551th in world on debut, now No 4 (was No 2 earlier this year)
- 5th player in last 30 years to win 3 European Tour and 2 PGA Tour titles before age 24 (Woods, Garcia, McIlroy, Spieth)
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
SANCTIONED
- Kirill Shamalov, Russia's youngest billionaire and previously married to Putin's daughter Katarina
- Petr Fradkov, head of recently sanctioned Promsvyazbank and son of former head of Russian Foreign Intelligence, the FSB.
- Denis Bortnikov, Deputy President of Russia's largest bank VTB. He is the son of Alexander Bortnikov, head of the FSB which was responsible for the poisoning of political activist Alexey Navalny in August 2020 with banned chemical agent novichok.
- Yury Slyusar, director of United Aircraft Corporation, a major aircraft manufacturer for the Russian military.
- Elena Aleksandrovna Georgieva, chair of the board of Novikombank, a state-owned defence conglomerate.
The specs
Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors
Power: 480kW
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)
On sale: Now
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
Read more about the coronavirus
Ticket prices
- Golden circle - Dh995
- Floor Standing - Dh495
- Lower Bowl Platinum - Dh95
- Lower Bowl premium - Dh795
- Lower Bowl Plus - Dh695
- Lower Bowl Standard- Dh595
- Upper Bowl Premium - Dh395
- Upper Bowl standard - Dh295
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COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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Results
2pm: Maiden (TB) Dh60,000 (Dirt) 1,200m, Winner: Mouheeb, Tom Marquand (jockey), Nicholas Bachalard (trainer)
2.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh68,000 (D) 1,200m, Winner: Honourable Justice, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer
3pm: Handicap (TB) Dh84,000 (D) 1,200m, Winner: Dahawi, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi
3.30pm: Conditions (TB) Dh100,000 (D) 1,200m, Winner: Dark Silver, Fernando Jara, Ahmad bin Harmash
4pm: Maiden (TB) Dh60,000 (D) 1,600m, Winner: Dark Of Night. Antonio Fresu, Al Muhairi.
4.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh68,000 (D) 1,600m, Winner: Habah, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson
Generation Start-up: Awok company profile
Started: 2013
Founder: Ulugbek Yuldashev
Sector: e-commerce
Size: 600 plus
Stage: still in talks with VCs
Principal Investors: self-financed by founder
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
THE BIO
Bio Box
Role Model: Sheikh Zayed, God bless his soul
Favorite book: Zayed Biography of the leader
Favorite quote: To be or not to be, that is the question, from William Shakespeare's Hamlet
Favorite food: seafood
Favorite place to travel: Lebanon
Favorite movie: Braveheart
Common OCD symptoms and how they manifest
Checking: the obsession or thoughts focus on some harm coming from things not being as they should, which usually centre around the theme of safety. For example, the obsession is “the building will burn down”, therefore the compulsion is checking that the oven is switched off.
Contamination: the obsession is focused on the presence of germs, dirt or harmful bacteria and how this will impact the person and/or their loved ones. For example, the obsession is “the floor is dirty; me and my family will get sick and die”, the compulsion is repetitive cleaning.
Orderliness: the obsession is a fear of sitting with uncomfortable feelings, or to prevent harm coming to oneself or others. Objectively there appears to be no logical link between the obsession and compulsion. For example,” I won’t feel right if the jars aren’t lined up” or “harm will come to my family if I don’t line up all the jars”, so the compulsion is therefore lining up the jars.
Intrusive thoughts: the intrusive thought is usually highly distressing and repetitive. Common examples may include thoughts of perpetrating violence towards others, harming others, or questions over one’s character or deeds, usually in conflict with the person’s true values. An example would be: “I think I might hurt my family”, which in turn leads to the compulsion of avoiding social gatherings.
Hoarding: the intrusive thought is the overvaluing of objects or possessions, while the compulsion is stashing or hoarding these items and refusing to let them go. For example, “this newspaper may come in useful one day”, therefore, the compulsion is hoarding newspapers instead of discarding them the next day.
Source: Dr Robert Chandler, clinical psychologist at Lighthouse Arabia
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
About Proto21
Date started: May 2018
Founder: Pir Arkam
Based: Dubai
Sector: Additive manufacturing (aka, 3D printing)
Staff: 18
Funding: Invested, supported and partnered by Joseph Group
Persuasion
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The view from The National
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Pathaan
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Pieces of Her
Stars: Toni Collette, Bella Heathcote, David Wenham, Omari Hardwick
Director: Minkie Spiro
Rating:2/5