Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Thanks for the advice (I'm assuming it applies to me too).

I've spent the past year getting really interested in Lisp (I just finished my senior year of high school, in which I took Lisp as an independent study). For a science fair, I got into genetic programming (https://github.com/tsmacdonald/Genetic-Tic-Tac-Toe), and that project got me interested in AI, and I think that I'd like to spend the summer working through Peter Norvig's Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming. This is in addition to my job--doing code monkey, pay-by-the-hour work in Java.

But I've been bothered by a persistent thought: "Sure, Lisp is cool and AI is cool and there's probably interesting research to be done...but you want to make a startup in a few years, and all the cool kids are making websites or smartphone apps. Say...you know Java, you just got an Android phone...you have four (or maybe three) years of college to get all academic with. A professor already expressed an interest in doing FP research over the summer with you. The smart thing to do would be to crank out an app this summer, use the experience to crank out a better app, hopefully make a revenue source for while you're in college..."

But to heck with making a bit of extra money, and to heck with overanalyzing the startup market of 2015. I'll do what I find really interesting, and assume that something awesome will present itself in due course.




You can't go wrong doing what's interesting.

I did a degree in biomedical sciences at Waterloo, a school in Ontario with a big focus on tech. I went to events, met people. Earned a degree in something almost entirely unrelated. I worked in several foreign countries in the summers because of my knowledge of web programming and made money making web stuff during school. I'm now doing a law degree and continue to build websites. A major web company tried to recruit me last year but I turned it down. I'm now working for another major tech company in the legal department. You never know where things will take you and keep doing what's interesting. Tech will open doors. Keep an eye out for them.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: