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In my early 20s. Dropped out of college to get "real world experience." In retrospect, the thought of having blocks of free time to pursue whatever I want is v

In my early 20s. Dropped out of college to get "real world experience." In retrospect, the thought of having blocks of free time to pursue whatever I want is very appealing. For now I am stuck doing 40+ hour workweeks and trying to cram side projects in on nights and weekends. I wish I were back in college.

csomar 14y ago
Could you elaborate more how college would have benefited you more now? Many people with college degrees are wearing your shoes.
- TheMakeA 14y ago
  I think in particular, I would/could have benefited more from the increased number of opportunities for free time and flexibility: * No longer have seasonal breaks outside of the odd vacation time. * Can't cram work into only a couple days a week as I am expected to show up every day. * In college, you can skip classes that you already know the material for and only show up for tests (i.e. do the minimum possible to maintain a good grade). With work, you are expected to be 100% productive every single day. There is no chance to get ahead: If you run out of work to do, you are given more, or more will be created for you. This mostly assumes that you're already very smart and while in college you are financially supported via loans or scholarships, but if you're attending Stanford, MIT, or Harvard, you probably meet both criteria. It's not that I want a college degree. I want to be financially supported while having (more) time to work on the cool things I want to work on, which is actually the same reason I want to run my own company. College is one such example that provides that opportunity.
  - randomdata 14y ago
    Why not try freelancing? Take on only enough work to support your living costs, which should be far less than a full time job if you are a developer (I'm betting you could get by on 5-10 hours per week if you are careful with your money), and leave the rest of your time free to do whatever you want. You are not going to get rich doing it that way, but wealth doesn't seem to be a concern of yours anyway.
    - TheMakeA 14y ago
      That's definitely something I have considered and may well end up doing. I just haven't started moving in that direction yet.

csomar 14y ago

Could you elaborate more how college would have benefited you more now? Many people with college degrees are wearing your shoes.

TheMakeA 14y ago
I think in particular, I would/could have benefited more from the increased number of opportunities for free time and flexibility: * No longer have seasonal breaks outside of the odd vacation time. * Can't cram work into only a couple days a week as I am expected to show up every day. * In college, you can skip classes that you already know the material for and only show up for tests (i.e. do the minimum possible to maintain a good grade). With work, you are expected to be 100% productive every single day. There is no chance to get ahead: If you run out of work to do, you are given more, or more will be created for you. This mostly assumes that you're already very smart and while in college you are financially supported via loans or scholarships, but if you're attending Stanford, MIT, or Harvard, you probably meet both criteria. It's not that I want a college degree. I want to be financially supported while having (more) time to work on the cool things I want to work on, which is actually the same reason I want to run my own company. College is one such example that provides that opportunity.
- randomdata 14y ago
  Why not try freelancing? Take on only enough work to support your living costs, which should be far less than a full time job if you are a developer (I'm betting you could get by on 5-10 hours per week if you are careful with your money), and leave the rest of your time free to do whatever you want. You are not going to get rich doing it that way, but wealth doesn't seem to be a concern of yours anyway.
  - TheMakeA 14y ago
    That's definitely something I have considered and may well end up doing. I just haven't started moving in that direction yet.