

Ask HN: CS Student - Need Help. - watermel0n

I&#x27;m a CS Student in Italy, I have a good GPA Score (something like 3.4&#x2F;3.6); but I feel useless. Everyday I woke up, and I start my usual routine, studying and studying and programming.<p>Now, from few days apart, I&#x27;m feeling really useless to myself and the world in general. I&#x27;m studying less and I&#x27;m trying to connect with more people around me, but it&#x27;s a no-go. I see here people that just don&#x27;t care about the courses. I really LOVE what I do; I see my programming as an art, the art of a problem solver.<p>Have you ever feel that emotion inside that take you down and down and let you do anything? Well, I&#x27;m there, I&#x27;m stuck there... in a bubble full of nothing.
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roq
This is not exclusive for a CS Student, or even for a student. Everyone can go
that way.

Tip: change your thoughts, change your syntony. You already know what you
like, you just need to start working yourself in something big.

Listen to music you like, read the books you enjoy, talk to people. There are
plenty of projects you can get involved. Start using Debian. Go to a new
restaurant. Eat something new. Go and walk in a new park. Count the stars.
Start contributing at Wikipedia. Meditate, Kriya Yoga. Smile more. Greet
everyone. Buy a present for someone you like (a flower to your mother). Write
a real letter. Just do.

People too smart and not so intuitive, tend to use the mind more then they
should. You, of course, need to use your mind but you also need to use your
intuitive felling (some call just "heart").

When you start to go to the right path, you will feel that. No one can say to
you, only you can sense.

This is just what I think and what I do.

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pirosb3
Hi man I am a student in Italy too! We are lucky to have such a cool passion,
every day I feel really graced and lucky. One of the best things is that our
profession does not have a location and the culture is so vast! Uni has tought
me really little! especially italian uni is really retro. Do you want a
school? GitHub is your teacher. Learn to understand source code and contribute
to it. With regards to connecting people: many think that a programmer has to
live in his lab and, to be more focused, isolate himself. That is complete
nonesense! I find myself so more creative and driven when I do completely
unrelated things. When I come back from a trip I feel that drive of innovating
because I have seen so many things! You solve problems if you don't have the
problems. I hope this helps, as an italian too I understand you. Do not get
dissapointed.

TL;DR Dan :)

~~~
markyc
solve problems, create more than you consume

PS: I think you're using TL;DR wrong ;)

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jaimefjorge
One of the most exhilarating things I have ever experienced was applying my
coding skills to making stuff people can use and then (the important part)
have people use it. I can't perfectly describe how awesome it feels but this
is a good description (I suspect it has something to do with this:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_sensory_meridian_res...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_sensory_meridian_response)
).

So if you love your engineering, do stuff for other people!

If you love open source, join a project.

If you like the scientific side, implement a paper and open source it.

If money drives you, create an mvp for a need of a person you know has.

If you can't find that need do what I did a year ago: micro dev task
delegation, i.e. rent yourself by the hour to help devs around the world (I
actually published it here on HN) - it paid my vacations and I got to code for
awesome people in awesome projects.

If you love good software design and awesome architecture write about your
opinion with code samples demonstrating them. Hell, learn a new programming
language (Haskell makes your brain tick :)).

I think a good developer that loves his craft is always a few hours away from
something amazing. You probably just don't know it yet.

Disclaimer: MSc in Soft. Eng. so I know it sucks to feel the void.

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codyb
I just graduated. It gets better.

"Everything in moderation, especially moderation itself." \- Not sure of
source.

If all you do is program and study every day you're going to burn yourself
out. It's great to be devoted, but make sure you're also doing things you
enjoy that are different as well. Talking to people and socializing are a key
element of life. Humans are social animals.

I suggest traveling, exercising, and socializing as a key part of every life.
Get out there and play some basketball at the university courts, it doesn't
matter how bad you are, you'll get better (I should know, I was terrible at
the beginning of this summer but after playing a lot with my friends I'm a lot
better). Programming is an art, but living is also an art. Make sure to spend
some time perfecting that art as well.

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admford
Personally, I think that universities in Italy just stuff you full of theory
and practical, hands on work is extremely limited. I did Aerospace Engineering
in Milan, and it was all books and nothing else (I started supplementing my
studies with high powered model rocketry just to keep me interested in the
courses, it didn't last long).

If you're passionate about a profession, that you know you have talent in it,
then use it. A degree is just a piece of paper showing that you've gone
through the usual path that says "you know the subject". What most companies
look for is what's in your portfolio. What kind of projects do you help out on
github? Do you make your own programs, just to make them and see what you can
do?

I've heard stories of some game developers that literally did a game a week
and posted them on their own site. Sure the games were crappy most of the
time, but it showed how that person advanced in their knowledge in game
development and design. And if that's not your thing, grab an Arduino and
start messing around with it, make some projects (like an internet or android
remotely controlled robot, make a weather station and a website for it,
anything like that).

Your business card as a programmer is not what courses you finished or how
well you did, but how well you know how to apply your knowledge to the real
world. These small projects are your calling card.

Even if you're down in a rut, just look around for inspiration, or just pivot
and try something else for a while. The road in one's life isn't linear, so
you can't expect to continue to find inspiration/motivation doing the same
thing over and over again continuously.

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philtar
I felt like that. Didn't get help from anyone. It just went away after I
graduated.

I think the main reason you feel like that is because you don't express
yourself enough. Your programming is your art. Express yourself.

Make something for the HN community or for reddit or for whoever. Make
something people love. You'll fail. And then you'll fail. And then you'll fail
but you won't feel like this and you'll be a completely changed person.

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hansbogert
Very familiar. As other suggested create some real software, use tools, apply
what you've learned and go beyond.

About the "..I see here people that just don't care about the courses. ..",
try to get people involved, that is the biggest hurdle throughout life I think
whether it's the uni or in your later career -- get people involved in a
project to see it your way and why your way is better, more importantly if
you're wrong, admit it.

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cliveowen
I hear you. I too am an Italian CompSci student and I too feel useless. I'm in
an even worse situation than yours, since I recently found out that I'm not
really suited for the academic environment. I did all the interesting courses
and now I'm stuck with difficult, boring courses that I can't overcome because
I lack interest and this means I won't finish the 3-year coursework in the
expected time. Also, I now realize that I will probably never have a career in
software development because Uni doesn't teach anything useful in that setting
(and it isn't supposed to) and I don't have the patience and dedication needed
to start anything on my own. I'm confident that when I'll finally finish I'll
find something to do with my life. With a degree, any degree really, it'll be
a bit easier to find a job, whichever that might be, so don't give up hope and
plough through.

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siscia
Break the routine is the only way to get out of such condition. I am Italian
too and I know what you mean with "I'm stuck here..." well, you are not. CS
give you a lot of liberties, you don't need to be in a specific place to work
nor you need an office, you just need your laptop. My summer plan was to pack
my stuff and move in either German or Spain, find a local support thanks to
the online community, find a little room for myself, and live there for 3/4
months working as freelancer and learning a new languagge. A pretty average
rate for a freelancer is around 25€/hr you can actually make a pretty good
life out of that, and when your lesson re-start you can just come back... How
that sound ? I know that your family may be a problem, but that is a problem
that YOU have to fix, nobody can do it for you. For anything you should be
able to see my email. cheers Simone

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artumi-richard
Break the routine. Pick a city, or a part of a city, you have never been to
and spend some time there,even if it's just a day. Find galleries, or
something out of your comfort zone. Perhaps go hiking or camping or sailing.
It doesn't matter. Get out of your routine and meet new people.

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cinbun8
What you are feeling is not restricted to your school / college. I've seen
toxic work places do the same thing to some of my friends. If you are
passionate about X but are surrounded by people who do not understand your
passion, it can make you seem like an island to everyone. That would explain
the `bubble` effect you are feeling.

Participate in online communities; Get involved in an open source project;
Find people in your area that love to code or share other interests (surely
there must be some); Make a cool project and show it to us. The possibilities
are endless.

Know that what you are feeling is a passing shower. It will wear off when you
connect with like minded people and do / share different things. Ups are downs
are normal.

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gyardley
The best way for you to be useful to the world is to be a good child to your
parents, spouse to your partner, parent to your child, and friend to your
friends. You don't have to embark on some quixotic 'save the world' quest to
be useful - just taking care of the basics is _huge_. Many many many people
mess this up, including many of the ones who think they're off saving the
world.

Right now you're trying to learn skills that will make you economically secure
- which will make it far easier for you to be a good child to your parents,
spouse to your partner, parent to your child, and friend to your friends. In
other words, you're doing exactly the right thing. Carry on with it.

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chrisgoman
Tactical (you can do this in the next 5 minutes): Find a good IRC channel that
is active and you can connect with people with similar interests with you.
We've seen people as far as Nigeria at #digitalocean

~~~
beigeotter
Definitely-- I'm a admin on the DigitalOcean IRC channel and we often have
large discussions on development and server configuration on our channel.
Please feel free to stop by and join in-- you may be able to find a lot of
peers that think the way you do :)

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kooka_k
When I was at university (Russia) I felt something similar. After graduation
it didn't change much, except I started to earn money.

The only way I aware about to change the situation is just find something
interesting and dedicate yourself to it. Just forget about people around for a
while, concentrate only on a few (close family members), after some time
people come to you because you become more knowledgeable and have deeper view
of the world then ordinary people.

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late2part
Quit school after finding a mentor to go work for cheap. Learn how to do real
productive work. Anything that school can teach you, you can teach yourself or
learn online. What you really need is real world experience. Get started.

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thesmileyone
You need exercise. It is as simple as that. Get into something, cycling or gym
or anything you can do outdoors that will hit your endorphin peaks and you
will feel energised!

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jyz
make sure to find a company that values engineering when you graduate. People
like you won't be happy when stuck under 200 levels of management.

