> he went to Oregon State and worked at a Denny's while Lisa Su went to Bronx Science and on to MIT.

Seems like a bad vibe to imply someone shouldn't aspire to go to state school or work a humble job for money to get through it, even though given both options, indeed they may dream about the fancy one. Denny's has the best milkshakes anyway and state school is probably a much more sensible place to attend.

This makes Jensen one of those people that climbed all the way from the bottom to the top, which is more admirable.

And yet this is exactly how families talk about their cousins in hushed tones, as bad and immoral as it is.

Although he did graduate high school two years early, so he had the intuition. Maybe his parents thought working food service for a bit was a rite of passage.

Hm, if he graduated early perhaps I can't use him as a positive example to stop me from killing myself. I guess I need to read his early-years biography.

I have to take this comment at face value. Contact NIMH[1] or your local equivalent.

If you or someone you know is in crisis Call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 (para ayuda en español, llame al 988). The Lifeline provides 24-hour, confidential support to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress. Call 911 in life-threatening situations. If you are worried about a friend’s social media updates, you can contact safety teams at the social media company . They will reach out to connect the person with the help they need.

[1] https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/suicide-prevention

The "cousin you don't want to be like" is someone with an electrical engineering degree at 21?

Graduating with an EE degree in 3.5 to 4 years is basically the norm? I know dozens of people from my own state school that did that.

And then he went to Stanford so hardly a failure...

Not a failure at all, but Stanford Masters isn't nearly as selective as MIT undergrad or Stanford undergrad.

He also graduated at the age of ~29. Not sure if it was a full-time MS or a part-time program paid for by his employer.

I'd check your numbers on that from 30 years ago. They weren't even in the same universe of selectivity as they are now. Full-time/part-time is totally irrelevant. What, are you the most elitist credentialist of all time lol? Jesus.

It's relevant - some companies have seats effectively reserved for them at good grad schools for masters programs for their employees, even today at less prestigious companies like Carrier and GE - the selectivity isn't based on who won beauty pageants or had 7 first author NeurIPS papers like it is for typical MBA and PhD programs at the same institutions.

Getting a Stanford MS while working was somewhat normal then (possible for mere mortals and not superhumans) if you worked at the right company, not really the same as getting into undergrad at all.