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Thank you for your answer, and the time and detail you put into it. I will consider it. Everything that I have learned related to programming, hardware, networ

Thank you for your answer, and the time and detail you put into it. I will consider it. Everything that I have learned related to programming, hardware, networks, etc in the last many years has been on my own. I have run my own law firm for more than 10 years now. I believe I am capable of self-motivating and being productive. But, you know, you never know. I have also had success in formal academics. Sometimes I feel like it'll really boil down to picking one option and seeing what happens. My main concern in wasting a bunch of time by picking an option that won't get me anywhere, but there's never a guarantee against that anyway.

wikibob 8y ago
As an alternative view, I cannot strongly enough suggest to get an academic degree if you can afford the time and money. Self-directed learning is ok if that's the best you can do, but having the structure of an academic setting is absolutely invaluable. You'll immersed in an environment where those around you are doing the same thing, and the value from discussing difficult concepts with others is impossible to overstate. Self-directed learning will put you in a bubble of the overhyped web technologies. What is extremely hard to understand from the outside is that there's an ENORMOUS hidden level of much more interesting problems and work in fundamental engineering. But it doesn't get discussed online much, because it's more difficult to get into, and there's no point arguing with people online when they don't have the background to participate. Happy to discuss my thoughts further if you have questions
- checkyoursudo 8y ago
  My instinct is to get a degree, because that's what I know. I've gone to school for four of them in my life, after all. There are some interesting programs around. I don't think I will qualify for a masters program yet, so where do I look at bachelors degrees? In Germany, I think they are all in German, which means improving my German quite a bit (I don't think my level of proficiency is sufficient). I have looked at a few post-baccalaureate online degrees, where if you already have a BA/BS then you just complete the major coursework requirements and they grant you a degree. That is definitely interesting, but it's sometimes hard to judge the quality of the institutions or what their degree would actually get me.
notanMLawyer 8y ago
My original answer was targeted towards you re-entering the job market at some point in time and leveraging your legal domain knowledge as a weapon against ageism. If you don’t have to or don’t have the urge to enter the job market in the next 2-3 years, an on-campus degree might be ideal. For this to be really an option you should ask just someone who teaches advanced German how fast they think you can pick it up while living in germany in order enroll in an engineering program at a german university. If you live close to a decent school and the time required is not an issue, do that. While you do that you can also do the” working on your own” thing and drop/pause it when you start your degree. Otherwise, I have only come across master programs taught in english at german universities, not a bachelors, and those have a b.sc. as a prerequiste. If you were very close to the dutch border, maybe dutch universities could be an english option :) The online options: 1. A “masters” that doesn’t require a B.Sc. The only thing with a reputable name attached to it that I’ve come across is the one by Penn through Coursera. [0] 2. An online B.sc. (e.g. Oregon state etc) 3. DIY curriculum for working on your own. Where you look at the MIT and Stanford B.Sc. curriculum and match the course topics with highly recommend MOOCs and textbooks [1][2]. The advantage of this is that you can do this while advancing your german and drop it if you start a local degree. Going back to your goal: >If I could get to a point where I could help solve problems in AI R&D, then that's what I would probably do. If you want to do this at a company with an R&D program (e.g. [3]) that has no age bias you would probably need: 1. CS Fundamentals: to pass the CS fundamental whiteboarding/interview questions. 2. AI/ML related domain knowledge : to pass those types of questions 3. Experience in AI/ML software development: to get interview Going down the degree route would cover 1 and a little of 2. You would need the “working on your own” specialization/portfolio phase after you finish the degree, or do it in parallel in order to cover 3. Alternatively, if money will never be an issue, you can “help solve problems in AI R&D” by staying in academia or doing it as an independent researcher. > I mentioned that my philosophy undergrad focused on ethics and logic. If I could find a way to work on building systems that have ethics as a primary concern (ethical algorithms, ethical artificial intelligence, etc) then I would like that. Cool, that kind of made me think about the relationship between ethics and law. it would be interesting to have legal tech advising on the legality of issues and have ethical tech suggesting changes to laws to cover the gaps of unethical lawfulness. [0] https://www.coursera.org/degrees/mcit-penn https://www.coursera.org/degrees/mcit-penn [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16745042 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16745042 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18793849 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18793849 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18796552 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18796552

wikibob 8y ago

As an alternative view, I cannot strongly enough suggest to get an academic degree if you can afford the time and money. Self-directed learning is ok if that's the best you can do, but having the structure of an academic setting is absolutely invaluable. You'll immersed in an environment where those around you are doing the same thing, and the value from discussing difficult concepts with others is impossible to overstate. Self-directed learning will put you in a bubble of the overhyped web technologies. What is extremely hard to understand from the outside is that there's an ENORMOUS hidden level of much more interesting problems and work in fundamental engineering. But it doesn't get discussed online much, because it's more difficult to get into, and there's no point arguing with people online when they don't have the background to participate. Happy to discuss my thoughts further if you have questions

checkyoursudo 8y ago
My instinct is to get a degree, because that's what I know. I've gone to school for four of them in my life, after all. There are some interesting programs around. I don't think I will qualify for a masters program yet, so where do I look at bachelors degrees? In Germany, I think they are all in German, which means improving my German quite a bit (I don't think my level of proficiency is sufficient). I have looked at a few post-baccalaureate online degrees, where if you already have a BA/BS then you just complete the major coursework requirements and they grant you a degree. That is definitely interesting, but it's sometimes hard to judge the quality of the institutions or what their degree would actually get me.

notanMLawyer 8y ago

My original answer was targeted towards you re-entering the job market at some point in time and leveraging your legal domain knowledge as a weapon against ageism. If you don’t have to or don’t have the urge to enter the job market in the next 2-3 years, an on-campus degree might be ideal. For this to be really an option you should ask just someone who teaches advanced German how fast they think you can pick it up while living in germany in order enroll in an engineering program at a german university. If you live close to a decent school and the time required is not an issue, do that. While you do that you can also do the” working on your own” thing and drop/pause it when you start your degree. Otherwise, I have only come across master programs taught in english at german universities, not a bachelors, and those have a b.sc. as a prerequiste. If you were very close to the dutch border, maybe dutch universities could be an english option :) The online options: 1. A “masters” that doesn’t require a B.Sc. The only thing with a reputable name attached to it that I’ve come across is the one by Penn through Coursera. [0] 2. An online B.sc. (e.g. Oregon state etc) 3. DIY curriculum for working on your own. Where you look at the MIT and Stanford B.Sc. curriculum and match the course topics with highly recommend MOOCs and textbooks [1][2]. The advantage of this is that you can do this while advancing your german and drop it if you start a local degree. Going back to your goal: >If I could get to a point where I could help solve problems in AI R&D, then that's what I would probably do. If you want to do this at a company with an R&D program (e.g. [3]) that has no age bias you would probably need: 1. CS Fundamentals: to pass the CS fundamental whiteboarding/interview questions. 2. AI/ML related domain knowledge : to pass those types of questions 3. Experience in AI/ML software development: to get interview Going down the degree route would cover 1 and a little of 2. You would need the “working on your own” specialization/portfolio phase after you finish the degree, or do it in parallel in order to cover 3. Alternatively, if money will never be an issue, you can “help solve problems in AI R&D” by staying in academia or doing it as an independent researcher. > I mentioned that my philosophy undergrad focused on ethics and logic. If I could find a way to work on building systems that have ethics as a primary concern (ethical algorithms, ethical artificial intelligence, etc) then I would like that. Cool, that kind of made me think about the relationship between ethics and law. it would be interesting to have legal tech advising on the legality of issues and have ethical tech suggesting changes to laws to cover the gaps of unethical lawfulness. [0] https://www.coursera.org/degrees/mcit-penn https://www.coursera.org/degrees/mcit-penn [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16745042 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16745042 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18793849 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18793849 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18796552 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18796552