High functioning autism wasn't as recognized back then, basically you had to communicate mostly with tardgrunts and smear shit on the walls to be diagnosed, so high functioning autistics slipped through the cracks and were merely considered odd. "The boy ain't right" is where it began and where it ended.
Wouldn't you be embarrassed if DSP ended up being the valedictorian of your high school?
There was something Phil said once when talking about high school and how he came to be his class's valedictorian. I believe the context was Current Phil laughing about seeing "The Asian Girl", who was his main competition for valedictorian, crying in the hallways because she had gotten a 'B'. Current Phil was saying this was funny because, "she tried so hard, and I didn't try at all and was doing better than 'The Asian'". Phil went on to say that before high school he also used to have to try really hard and would "study 3 hours a night" and still not get it, but then when he got to high school "something clicked" and he would barely have to study 45 minutes and be able to remember all the material. Phil describes this as "it was like some kind of fog lifted", and seemed to view being able to read, remember, and regurgitate information as some kind of super power he stumbled in to that allowed him to "beat The Asian" at general high school courses.
And even with a diagnosis the support available would have been next to none, probably just a therapist to provide general life skills/social skills/coping strategies, unless they were willing to drive all the way to Hartford, NYC, or New Haven for specialist treatment.
And I could see him making it all up from whole cloth because of his ego + tendency to pass off fictional plots as things that happened to him IRL.
Especially finding out some years later that he's some shut in loser online begging other social retards for their SSI checks, yes. It definitely reflects the school's image, especially online, where some poor underpaid secretary is used to getting harassed by people online asking about some retard that was valedictorian 20+ years ago.
Do you think Phil’s sudden “click” in high school was more about a change in study habits and maturity, or could it really have been a late realization of a natural aptitude he didn’t recognize before?
No? I said in my post my speculation was that he got diagnosed with ADD and started taking a Ritalin prescription around the time he started high school.
My theory is that he was droving slow
Before the gin brain, Phil thinks in black and white and can easily memorize the material. Any sort of critical thinking, creative thought, or anything that may require a hint of a rational thought is outside of his wheelhouse. In high school, he most likely memorized the dates, the names, etc...and was able to achieve that way. Also, his graduating class had 50 people in it. All you REALLY had to do was give a hint of effort: show up to class with a body temp of 98 degrees, and a reading level above the 5th grade.
It was also a very, well, diverse school that is best known for its sports program. If he showed up to class, didn't get into fights, and turned in most of his assignments he was most of the way to valedictorian. For all his bluster about going to Fairfield instead of BU out of modesty I suspect it's because his ACT/SAT scores were just that bad.
If I remember right the specific class that made him give up was algorithms. That is typically a sophomore level class so he didn't even get to the things that make people lose sleep, he got through a year of intro to programming (which depending on his school might have been required for other STEM majors and dumbed down accordingly) and gave up at the first class where he couldn't lean on what he learned from playing with a compiler in his spare time. Even if it was an elective/a required class that could still be deferred because it was not a pre requisite for anything, he must have taken it fairly early because he didn't need an extra year to get a degree despite switching majors (lack of overlap between CS and business majors means those CS credits would mostly be converted to general education requirements, maybe with a STEM credit or two if he was lucky).