Valedictorian implies two things: Phil was smart enough to be top of his class, and Phil was nice enough that his teachers wouldn't have docked him points because Phil probably treated them the way he treats everyone else who isn't immediately gratifying him.
I still call bullshit on him getting honors in college. Like I'm sure it did happen but he must have cheated or something. Phil is dumbest person I've encountered in my entire life. Like the guy has no critical thinking skills at all or research skills. How the fuck did he get honors in college? Something doesn't add up. I've met some really smart people in my life and they all share similar characteristics none of which Phil has.
Implying that being a valedictorian actually means anything in life besides the point at which you're 18-19 years old.
Supposedly there are like 25,000 high schools in the US, which means there must be in the region of 50-100,000 other valedictorians in Phil's immediate age bracket. Once you expand that on a worldwide basis you're looking at at least 1-2 million people who probably have some equivalent award. Just in his age bracket.
And also implying that any "honors" or whatever counts for shit beyond getting your first job.
No one who was a valedictorian or an honors student will need to tell you that information provided they actually ended up in a fulfilling, successful place in life and beyond that there is plenty of valid argument that both of these two distinctions do not guarantee any amount of success in life nor do they guarantee that the systems upon which they're based are true & honest.
And no, I'm not trying to denigrate people who attend tertiary education, or who push themselves to achieve better, I'm specifically denigrating people who in their mid-30s aren't saying "well I've been working at Google/Fortune 500 company for the past 2-3 years and I'm enjoying my job" but rather those who still see fit to mention that they achieved some title in high school or university.
I suppose there is some conflict about whether Phil actually mentions Valedictorian/Honors shit on a daily basis, and it doesn't seem that he does, however the fact anyone even knows this about him means its obviously an important "distinction" he was awarded. It's Phil's gold star.
I cannot fathom even a single person I've met in life who has told me what they achieved in high school, much less university (beyond mentioning they got a degree in XYZ). The only people I've spoken to about high school have been high school students. I'm not gonna powerlevel on that point, but I've met enough people from all walks of life to know that no one with a job or life that means anything probably ever tells anyone about being a valedictorian in high school.
Education is there to teach you how to learn, the number of people who can actually take the opportunity and begin systematically dividing their time into what lets them learn the most is very low. There are plenty of people in the world who don't end up being the spitting image of success; having said that, maybe being a gas station attendant is more fulfilling a life than sitting at home crying about your backtaxes.
Phil's job requires him to stand on his own two feet, not just financially, but also from the perspective of rapidly developing skills in order to best adapt his business model. While he may truly have absolutely no control over the business models of YouTube or Google, he does have absolute control on how he spends his time.
Given that he's been doing this for a decade and doesn't know how to make a thumbnail, its fairly easy to see that any title afforded to him during his earlier years was simply because he participated in class and not because he actually has any learning skills. You can also see this clearly with the way he lashes out at people on his forums, anyone who had learning skills would know that is a hugely unproductive thing to do yet Phil has never learned himself real good in that department.
