SpanishConf

> I can relate with some parts of this story. Used to be a "throwaway" kid with no future, dropped out of high school, etc.

> The best advice I can give you is to not care about education (it's a waste of time for the most part) and learn to solve real problems. Every second of your free "work" time (don't forget to also take time off to go out and enjoy yourself) should be invested into your skills so you get a return on that investment later. When you're doing something, ask yourself how is this relevant to your goal of earning money and whether it will give you a skill/experience you can reuse later. If it can't, then stop and do something else.

Capitalism at work :), but yes. I also find it hard to self-asses if what I am doing sometimes is "lucrative" or not.

> Learn a web framework (I recommend Django); web development is easy and doesn't require advanced theoretical knowledge (where a CS degree might actually be useful), pays well and will stay relevant even in the "apps" era as those still need a backend server to talk to. This will also give you the ability to build projects end-to-end which is extremely valuable when you're trying to launch your own startup and don't necessarily have the funding to pay someone just to make you an MVP.

Okay, I could get started on that. Thanks for making a specific recommendation, I'll look into it for sure.

> Once you do this, build a few projects, open-source them (just so you have a portfolio to show off) and then move out to London or similar non-shit town where people are valued by their experience and skills instead of meaningless pieces of paper (I am from France and this was the situation there, and I assume Spain is sadly similar although there might be a startup scene in Barcelona so maybe try there?).

Hahaha, I can't move out of Spain atm because of family reasons sadly so London is a big no-no for me and sadly Barcelona is expensive "af^99" compared to literally anywhere else in Spain, except maybe Bilbao or Madrid especially housing wise. I've heard about Barcelona's vibrant startup scene (afaik it's the biggest one in S. Europe) and I also speak Catalan Natively but I'm not Catalan (actually it's my "first-first native language, other than Spanish" which means I am already ahead integration wise vs other people there, but again it's just too darn expensive. But I guess I'll see if I make it after vocational school.

I've read the situation in France in regard to what we call here "titulitis" (titulo-> degree, "degreetitis" making it sound like a bad medical condition) and that it's hard for people there to get an engineering job unless they have master.

In Spain it's also bad but afaik with Vocational School it's better but not great.

Also, we got fucked pretty hard with the Bologna Plan in regard to unis.

If anyone who reads this understands Spanish, this video is a must watch to just comprehend how much we got royally fucked over: https://youtu.be/sUYBKSm9Si4

> Good luck!

You too, thanks for your response, neighbor :)

I guess I have to ask how does one get started with that?

> Do you really want to do CS? If not, that is OK! There is no One True Path (TM) to geek bliss.

I hope, but here in Spain, may I reiterate, it's a stable job so you get an idea why I like CS further than just liking because of whatever other reason, and all the other paths other than software development are weird and very not stable. I like CS, but I am lazy and again, not very smart (which I am not ashamed I am not very smart and so on, it's just a matter of fact, call it IQ call it whatever, I don't have a talent for logic).

> Is there anything else you'd like to do? Maybe something that's more of a technician role, where you use tech rather than designing it? Say, like an auto mechanic or IT administration, where you'll be using your hands and "doing" rather than cranking out lines of code.

I don't like cars so auto-mechanic is sadly a no-no for me, IDK about IT Administration, afaik, most people get to be managers and such at IT Companies after being for some years proficient coders and software developers, which I guess would not be the best path for me. But indeed, I should investigate!

> Also, good on ya for going to talk to a professional. I was in a similar jam a while back and it made all the difference.

Great for you :)! After going to the doctor here a lot recently because of many reasons, she finally decided to send me to one, so we'll see how it goes!

Thank you for your response :)

> I'm reading a book now which I recommend, "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F^ck", and which has been mentioned on HN before. You may find it helpful or at least interesting.

Great, I'll read it.

> You communicate naturally, so I encourage you to find a job where you can talk with a lot of different people every day. That will also help expose you to more and different things.

I'm sorry, but such as? Tech Support?

> Don't beat yourself up for not fitting into one of the molds that the educational system defines. Read the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson and you will realize just how much of a misfit he was.

I'll try to read that too! Yeah, I'm definitely a misfit for sure.

Thanks for your response :)