Great speech. I'd be interested to hear other people's opinions on the consequences of his conclusion, the "do what you want" bit. I know he meant it in a broad

Great speech. I'd be interested to hear other people's opinions on the consequences of his conclusion, the "do what you want" bit. I know he meant it in a broader sense, but I see a lot of people (especially high school students and younger) wrongly interpreting that as "don't go into CS; just go straight to a startup," especially with the specific mention of that plan of action. I know that's a popular piece of advice given around here (though HN has an interesting mix of "stuffy" academia and "Wild West" hacker culture), and I felt the same way when I was younger. I thought I knew all the CS I needed to know to develop the stuff I'd want to develop. But I want to say that I am so overwhelmingly happy I have done CS at the college level. I knew so little back then (and still). It scares me that I almost neglected the path of inquiry that is /the/ single most interesting intellectual topic in my life. So, young hackers out there, keep an open mind and a long-term view when you are following his advice to "do whatever you want." That's exactly what he meant by that, I think.