Advice with life

InfinitusEquitas said:

Also not every college is for everyone, and college itself is not for everyone. Consider learning a trade instead, if you find yourself having trouble with it. Including myself, I know far too many people who have gone to college only to find that it was mostly a complete waste of time.

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I don't really agree with the waste of time idea there.

If college/university is not for you don't bother with it, but i would not base attending just on practial application either.

Personally i've been in university for 5-6 years, graduated with a masters degree in biochemistry, but now run a business that deals with programming for websites mostly.

I don't consider the university years wasted at all though. While I don't use the knowledge regularly anymore, i still use the methods, and those were really enjoyable years of my life as well. Those were the years where I met a lot of friends, but also the ones where I learned to do very simple tasks as my own laundry. The best thing is going through that transition with some peers at your side though, all facing the same challenges and getting some input from people a few years ahead of you.

I don't mean to say that college is a complete waste of time, by no means, you do developer socially there, and grow as a person, generally, even aside from the formal education.

That said it is a waste of time, and in the US very serious financial resources, if that similar kind of social development can take place outside of a strictly academic environment. For too many people the US, while the years may not have been wasted, the degree itself, far too often is. People find themselves working in fields completely unrelated to their formal education (psychology, history, criminal justice here ).

Make your own future
Analyze all options, then act
Don't look back
No balls, no blue chips
Always, always, always have an emergency fund ($)

You'll be fine, just believe in yourself.

InfinitusEquitas said:

That said it is a waste of time, and in the US very serious financial resources, if that similar kind of social development can take place outside of a strictly academic environment. For too many people the US, while the years may not have been wasted, the degree itself, far too often is. People find themselves working in fields completely unrelated to their formal education (psychology, history, criminal justice here ).

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Sadly this is the case in the US where completing a university degree will end up in a considerable debt. This situation is now becoming more common here as well, and i fear it will deter people from spending some years in university, regardless of if their actual degree will be relevant to their carreer in terms of facts learned.

At age 18 i had to choose a subject to study at university. I picked chemistry as i find it interesting, and i still do. A few years later i realized i really wanted to have my own company and chemistry is not a very good field for that as start-up costs are enourmous, a basic biochemistry lab costs millions to set up and noone is going go invest that into some guy straight out of university).

I ended up getting some work experience in IT, and since i also like programming ended up in that field. I make a decent living off that at the moment, and also enjoy interacting with customers and such, though i'm not that good a salesman at all.

Things are not forever set in stone though. Honestly i could not say that i'll still be in IT in 10 years, perhaps i will be back in biochemical research. Then again i could end up in a different field like robotics, there is no way to tell, and the best thing is just accepting the latter if you ask me.

When i started to attend university there was little indication that 'the internet' would become this vital part of infrastructure at all. Considering that I think there is no real way to tell what the next 'big thing' will be in a decade or two.

2 next really big things, in order that they will impact most will be virtual/augmented reality, and ai automation/robotics. I am very concerned that within the next 10 years we will see a lot of traditional jobs simply disappear. First area where we will see this impact is with cab drivers, then truck and bus drivers. The development of that technology will inevitably lead to further developments in automation on a more personal scale, longer down the line. The vast majority of low qualification and requirement jobs are going to go away, which will cause huge problems, to a degree far greater than what already took place in the late 1800's and start of the 20th century with industrialization. Bigger problems than with the shift of labor intensive jobs to china as well, since those are exactly the kind of jobs that advance automation coupled with AI will eliminate. We can expect to see personal assistants of a sort, as more of a curiosity within 5 years, and actual companion and caretaker type of robots by 2025.

The plus side is many people will likely want to just plug into the virtual matrix

Realistically a lot of jobs are going to be automated away, which could be a consideration in carreer and education choices. As you point out there would be little reason to train as a highway lorry driver as those will be replaced by automation in a decade or two. This does not mean that humans driving large machines is a thing of the past, i'm sure that in certain fields like mining and cargo handing people will still work such positions in 20 years.

It would be best to avoid jobs you can be pretty sure will disappear soon. I still remember getting airline tickets from travel agents in a brick an mortar shop back in the early 90s. Internet made them obsolete so fast they could not adapt and most of those stores have closed their doors by now.

Then again, university level education is not intended to teach you one specific skill, the point is to learn a way to go about things in general. This is a rather human trait that machines have yet to tackle, and perhaps will never be able to.

I don't think it would have mattered much if i chose a different subject than chemistry, a masters in biology or physics would have yielded me the same skills in the long run.

If it helps I'm 22 have no IRL friends just one in a suburb near Pittsburgh that I knew for 10+ years. I only have one brother and he moved out. no grandparents and my parents fight. Haven't been doing too well at college. I learned no matter how bad things seem always stay positive a solution will work out for you. The day you give up is when life will crush you. Another thing I learned is never try to change who you are deep down it won't work , especially if you're doing it for someone.

Actively trying to change 'who you are' would seem pointless indeed.

But that does not mean 'who you are' is a constant thing. It changes over time and with experiences gained (or perhals dreams lost).

You will be a very different person between the moment you roll out of highschool, and after completing university, living on campus or on your own for a couple of years etc. This change is not something you choose at such, but one that happens.

And this will continue, 5 or 10 years later you might have children, a job that to some degree defines you, and many other options. You could also end up homeless and drug addicted, there is no sure way to tell, nor to avoid one path.

The choices you make when you're 20 years old will definitely result in a different you at 30 years old, but this is not a predictable process. Going to college will not guarantee anyting, starting a job will not, inheriting or winning 10 million dollars will not.

And you may forever wonder the 'what if' things: by the time you get to 30 you will wonder 'what would i have become if i did/didn't go to college', regardless of your choice.

Sorry about not replying back to this!

So I'm basically going to be going back to NY from the 14th to the 31st, to get an idea of what it'll be like living with my grandpa first.

After that, it'll come down to how it was there, and what schools I get accepted to. Hopefully I get accepted to all three (I was already accepted at one when I applied about a year ago...) and I get free choice, but we'll see.


I'm already really excited about going back as is. I miss having a real winter, and snow!!


Only thing I'm still worried about, is HOW it's gonna be living with my grandpa, and also having to deal with old memories of being with my ex, since we spent a lot of time together in Buffalo. :\

I hope it will all work out well for you, or that at least you don't regret not doing things