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I definitely have. I enjoy programming and I think I'm pretty good at my job, but I can't help but think that maybe there's something out there. A lot of my mo

I definitely have. I enjoy programming and I think I'm pretty good at my job, but I can't help but think that maybe there's something out there. A lot of my most compelling business ideas I've ever come up with haven't been apps or anything I could start programming right away, but rather have been totally different brick and mortar retail businesses. Opening a retail business is something I've thought about doing for a while, but I looked into some of the details and was somewhat turned off by the extremely high startup costs. I simply wouldn't be able to afford it without some partners. One of my largest interests nowadays isn't software, but rather cities and urban planning. The idea of designing city features that would have a real, dramatic impact on people's every day lives is really compelling to me. I've thought about taking a break from software and working in this area, but at this point I really don't know if going back to school for this stuff is worth it at all. It's unfortunate that I hadn't discovered I was so interested in this topic when I was in highschool or early university.

Synroc 10y ago
I feel the same pull towards cities and urban planning. I've been thinking about how best to combine programming, data analysis and urban planning, but apart from data visualization of city data, it's quite difficult without being actually involved with the local government. I've thought about potentially starting a consultancy for cities, in which I could work with cities, by analyzing their data for insights and future projects.
protomikron 10y ago
> The idea of designing city features that would have a real, dramatic impact on people's every day lives is really compelling to me. Maybe you might want to go into urban water management? It is done both at an academic level (environmental engineering), governance level (the city's sewer and water supply planning organizations) and private level (e.g. companies building special-purpose solutions for urban water management). Although you said you want to get rid of programming, keep in mind that your programming capabilities get you miles there. Most stuff is still done in Excel, etc. but the field is getting more and more technical, and cities start to plan and simulate their sewer and water supply systems with sophisticated simulators (e.g. SWMM or Epanet), so your knowledge might be well received.

Synroc 10y ago

I feel the same pull towards cities and urban planning. I've been thinking about how best to combine programming, data analysis and urban planning, but apart from data visualization of city data, it's quite difficult without being actually involved with the local government. I've thought about potentially starting a consultancy for cities, in which I could work with cities, by analyzing their data for insights and future projects.

protomikron 10y ago

> The idea of designing city features that would have a real, dramatic impact on people's every day lives is really compelling to me. Maybe you might want to go into urban water management? It is done both at an academic level (environmental engineering), governance level (the city's sewer and water supply planning organizations) and private level (e.g. companies building special-purpose solutions for urban water management). Although you said you want to get rid of programming, keep in mind that your programming capabilities get you miles there. Most stuff is still done in Excel, etc. but the field is getting more and more technical, and cities start to plan and simulate their sewer and water supply systems with sophisticated simulators (e.g. SWMM or Epanet), so your knowledge might be well received.