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Comment by webnrrd2k | Hacker News Reader

I'm about 55 now, and if I was high school or college age again, this is what I'd study. There is huge potential in future biological developments.

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What if you were 33? Asking for a, huh, friend.

I'd get ready for the mid-life crisis.

How?

I believe the traditional approach is a Corvette you can't afford and a new partner that violates the half plus seven rule.

I think what I’ll do is get a hobby that is not too expensive. Like, you have to buy something overpriced to satisfy a midlife crisis, but at least I will try to get some nice headphones (not harmful at least, and with nice headphones you can play your music quieter, save your hearing) or a good bicycle (healthy!) out of it.

Anything but a sports car, really. Driving around in a sports car is just advanced sitting, which I already do to much of, and they are very expensive.

Huh. So that must subconciously be why I got into birdwatching at age 35 and am now slowly leveling up the purchase price of the binoculars…

Another good one is keyboards.

Maybe Warhammer?

Sports car does not need to be expensive. I think it's more about having a purpose and being useful rather than anything else. I saw it in me and other people I know that went through that period. The greater the thing you're working on the less you'll feel any change.

Continuing with the dev bio theme, I'd suggest kicking off a mid-life crisis with a decent microscope, petri dishes, and maybe some planeria or something else to study.

By all means go back to university, even do a PhD, if you find a subject you’re passionate about (and have the beans to finance it). That’s what I did and it was great!

I find the probability of someone on the internet being able to give you sound advice, without knowing your situation and personality extremely small.

For me personally it is most of the time about the balance between what you can afford, what would you think you would like to achieve and what you miss would. Reasonably, most of the people can't "have it all" (family, money, peace of mind, results, etc.).

Well it’s not lucrative in the tech company sense but it is interesting science. It keeps the brain engaged. So less competition but a harder space if that makes sense.

The larger breakthroughs will be driven by AI and new instruments. Biological understanding has always been about developing the right tool/instrument to answer a question.

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