Ask HN: What would you be doing if you weren't a hacker? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What would you be doing if you weren't a hacker?

2 pointsjosefresco8 comments

My first and only career (9 years now) has been Internet related in the fields of web design/development and consulting.

Because of this I often think about the professional career I'd pursue if the PC and (more importantly to me) the Internet didn't exist.

For me I have interests in Finance/Investing and possibly Politics (not as a political figure but a behind-the-scenes guy)

If you are a young hacker who has only worked with computers (not counting summer jobs) what is it for you?

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I quit programming and went back to school for a PhD in math. I plan to become a professor/research mathematician.

Join a hedge fund! My day job employs a bunch of pure maths and physics gents to create algorithms for predicting market movements. It's all done in an open source statistical programming language called R. We have 68 billion dollars too - you can have some!

I would be a university professor, either in mathematics or computer science. Odds are that I'm going to end up there eventually -- just a few years later than if I hadn't taken this detour into industry.

Architect. As in buildings.

Or a creative for an Ad Agency.

professional martial artist. it was my first job.

ninja / pirate

politician

I have thought chemical engineering would be interesting. I know there is some cross-pollination between the chemical engineering and software industries (chemical engineers becoming programmers or testers and vice-versa). I love science for one thing, and also seems like the sort of "engineering mindset" - eye for quality and processes, and just sort of logical thinking skills in general, that one needs in software one could also apply to chemical engineering. Doubt I'd ever make this move, unless the bottom just totally fell out in the software industry, but I think it is an area I could probably pick up quickly if push came to shove.

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