Ask HN: Staying motivated with school when I'm already getting job offers | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Staying motivated with school when I'm already getting job offers

3 pointsvaline5 comments

So heres my problem: I'm finding it difficult to stay engaged with school when I'm not encountering new material I haven't already studied in my free time.

I started learning to code when I was 11. I know my way around C++ and python, and Objective C (although I'm really digging the Swift thing now), Java, SQL, HTML, Javascript, etc. I have several apps on the app store and google play store. I built my own portfolio site. I run my own web server, vpn, and mail server. 6 years ago I decide 3D modeling was cool, so I devoted a significant amount of time to learning the ins and outs of blender. I build my own character rigs, created environments, 3D print stuff, etc. That in turn got me interested in graphic design. I actually had a minor in design before I graduated from high school by taking early college classes. I've used just about every flavor of linux I could find and I feel at home with BASH. I love vim.

I'm currently in the freshmen year of my undergraduate CS degree, and its boring the heck out of me. I want to be teaching myself the basics of graphics programming or neural processing, but instead I'm stuck copying android code out of a textbook. My grades have started to suffer simply because I dread the thought of sitting for hours competing mindless homework.

I had a really good internship over the summer where I was designing and implementing UIs for android apps. I'm currently working there part time, and my boss is all set to offer me a full time position.

All of that to ask, how do I find the motivation to get through school?

First year CS can be boring, the more interesting classes come later. I highly recommend sticking with it, I was in a similar place freshman year and really enjoyed the later years of the degrees.

I also recommend talking to the TA's and professors to see if you can get involved in any of their research or projects. That's something I was able to do junior year, and if I'd known about it I probably could've gotten involved much sooner.

I would absolutely love to get involved with a research project. Unfortunately the CS program at school is relatively new and I'm pretty sure there nothing like that going on. I know most of the TAs and they have a habit of coming to me for help with their coding homework. So that's a bit of a dead end. I'm sure you're right about the later classes being more engaging, so at least I have that to look forward to.

Maybe a CS degree isn't the right choice. Maybe it's design, art, math, music, journalism, anthropology?

Maybe CS is the right choice, and instead of working part time on Android apps, reading Knuth or learning Haskell or hacking an Arduino is a better way to supplement the classes?

Is designing and implementing UI's for Android apps your long term ambition?

My impression is that developments at interesting edges of graphics programming and neural nets depend on mathematical and algorithmic competence that comes from deep understanding. School is probably the most accessible route to experts, structure, and a socially acceptable excuse to invest time in those topics.

The second route is working at a place that values people's interests in those things.

Good luck.

I'd say a college degree that is somewhat related to what you like doing is a good to have. Spend the remaining of your time doing whatever it is that you want to do.

What would you like to do in the long run? There are some things that doing well in school would help a ton on. Other things, not so much.

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