Defaults are for what a person with no information should do without thinking. Everyone at 16 has a huge amount of information about themselves, their dreams, their abilities, how they relate to school, how they relate to others, what the contemporaneous world is like. The default is not responsive to any of that. It’s completely inappropriate to be applying some super-general policy about norms and conformity when considering some giant extremely specific high-stakes offer that is only about your own life. This is what I disagree with the most in this dialogue.
I think your counter-point to the chesterton’s fence point is pretty good; however I think it’s genuinely hard for many teenagers to understand what the choice is that they’re making. I don’t think I had much idea.
I really like the option that someone (I think Saul) proposed where you go to college for one year, with a commitment to take a gap year for the second year, after which you actually know what you’re choosing between.
I think your counter-point to the chesterton’s fence point is pretty good; however I think it’s genuinely hard for many teenagers to understand what the choice is that they’re making. I don’t think I had much idea.
I really like the option that someone (I think Saul) proposed where you go to college for one year, with a commitment to take a gap year for the second year, after which you actually know what you’re choosing between.