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15 year-old needs your advice
TL;DR
I'm a 15 year-old geek and developer from Belarus (think of it as of Russia). I care about perfect code and perfectness at all.
Let me tell something about me. I started coding when I was, I remember, 9. My first language was PHP (now I hate it though).
Some time later I started learning Python, in the hope to know more, and be more educated. That time I already knew I gonna be a developer. No other way. I kept myself being educated by new and new things about python, and actually about the web and computers. I learned many things, like linux system administration, the power of command line, etc. Most of all, I think I started seeing the life a brand new way.
Then, when I was in a search for something even better than Python (which, honestly speaking, amazed me a lot), I met Ruby. Well, I abandoned python and digger deeper in Ruby. I explored some part of big ruby world. I realized that Ruby is exactly what I want and what my perfect-aware nature need.
I learned Rails, then I learned MongoDB, and so. Pretty neat. Everything seemed cool, but I realize now I think I know many thing, I feel unwillingness to learn something new. I became too lazy and procrastinated, that's true.
But from time to time I feel new energy to learn something new, to make the world better. I do some research on what to build or what open source project to join but I end up with absolutely nothing.
As I told before, I gonna work at some IT company when I reach 18. Well can I ask you to give me some tips?
I doubt what open source project to join. HN suggested me before to help one of my favorite project to become better. I have many favorite projects. Some of them are complex and some of them are easy. While going to projects' pages at github I looked up Issues in a hope to see some feature requests. But most of issues was bug reports or pull requests. I didn't want to work on bugs, I wanted more to add new features. And again I ended up with nothing. Can you give me links to some interesting Ruby open source projects? Or suggest me ideas on what to build?
Another question is how can I minimize distraction and procrastination, get rid of laziness, become more productive and keep myself interested in learning new things and in self-improvement? Because I feel I have much power, but I do nothing with it. I waste it and my time.
Also I have some thoughts on my future. I have several options. First of them is to reach 18, move to San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver, Melbourne, <any other city name> and work for an IT company. I have several companies in my mind, but most of all I feel desire to work at Github. Another option is to start studying at the university, Berkeley, Stanford, <any other university name> first, and then work for a company. Personally I think education now means nothing for a developer. But I'm wondering if studying is really worthy and can give me some excellent knowledge in Higher Math, AI, etc. So which option should I choose, what's your opinion?
Maybe I also should get rid of my perfectionism?
Thanks in advance.
- leeHS 15y agoForgive my ignorance, but is there an IT community in Belarus? IMHO, I would go for the Computer Science degree. I didn't, and as a result had to really work to get a foundation in CS theory. I'm still working. Good luck to you. At least you know what direction you want to go. At 15 I was still trying to decide between computer science, biology, and art! :)
- goshakkk 15y agoAnd now I need some way to keep myself stimulated & interested. Learning something new, contributing to open source. And again, my laziness.
- leeHS 15y agoYou seem like a smart kid. I would stick to what you're doing. Seek out other geeks and program with them. Contact companies that interest you and offer your services for free. Show them what you've already done. Keep working on your projects...remember, this is your portfolio. So when ever you get lazy, or lose interest in a project, just remember that at the very least you should finish for the sake of this portfolio. I'm sorry, I don't have any links to interesting open-source projects. Keep at it. Sounds like you're on your way to great things.
- goshakkk 15y agoBut I don't want to waste my time anymore. Honestly, I have no public projects at all, nor current personal projects. I know I need a good portfolio, but ... I have no idea on what to build, neither for personal/public purposes nor for portfolio. And I'm sad due to that. I remember several years before I was building some new stuff for myself, I explored things, formed my toolbox (which, BTW, changes very often). I felt more self-satisfaction that time, now I feel almost no self-satisfaction. :( And a though about portfolio doesn't give me a new portion of energy. And doesn't gimme a portion of creativity to generate an idea on what to build.
- goshakkk 15y ago