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Comment by intrasight | Hacker News Reader

I realized after getting a degree in engineering from CMU that I should've loved biology so I went back to school after working as a software engineer for a year and studied neurobiology. And since then, I've suggested that people early in their career should take a break and go back to school and study something totally different.

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In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig suggests something very similar. He makes the point that students should go and work a job before picking what to study because they'll see where the value comes from (he of course puts it in much better words)

I've heard this advice a lot with respect to graduate school/PhD work. And indeed, the students that came from industry jobs tended to be much more impressive; some of that was probably from the "real-world" experience, and some probably from a self-selection effect where folks who came in from a presumably well paying job had to have really wanted it and were therefore more motivated.

That might be difficult given the job market now compared to Pirsig's time. Of course you could get menial job but that won't tell you much about the real job you want, just about what work is like in general.

Definitely true. I still frequently think about this and how I'd value school so much more now. I think I'd literally be excited about every subject.

With what money?

I went back to graduate school - where you get paid to be a student

PhD programs in technical fields usually give you a stipend

the money you got from your lucrative job you got easily after graduating from the worlds top computer science school of course

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