4 ms·

Being somewhere in person helps a lot. I think it is worth moving just for the better network. Networking is exactly how you can maintain a steady stream of pro

Being somewhere in person helps a lot. I think it is worth moving just for the better network. Networking is exactly how you can maintain a steady stream of projects.

swombat 18y ago
Sure, but this guy is 18... I'd say, go to university and enjoy life first. You can also build an excellent network of both friends and professional acquaintances there, and it's a lot of fun, and you learn a lot of cool things that you'd never learn as an entrepreneur. And it'll probably make you a more interesting person too ("I left school at 18 and have been working in start-ups ever since" is pretty one-dimensional). If he was out of uni, then fair enough, go startupping or freelancing and avoid getting a regular job if you can... but at 18, seriously, just go enjoy university life, have sex, take drugs, take philosophy classes, and all that... I don't really see the point of sacrificing your university life to go freelancing. If your start-up is taking off big time, AND it requires you to stay on it full time, then fine... but to give up uni to "make some contacts"... that's silly. The contacts can still be made 4 years later, there's really no need to go there right this minute.
- ivankirigin 18y ago
  There is nothing exclusive with working on a startup and sex / drugs / reading philosophy, etc. It is wrong to say "go to uni to do X" if there is nothing stopping you from doing X outside of university. Also, avoiding the infantilizing effects of university would do lots of people good. It certainly requires dedicated to learn as an autodidact, but I'd bet many people could get a better applied computer science education in 4 years by trying to become an active developer. The exception is stuff like math (and math needed for CS like machine learning and graphics). For personal context, I want to undergrad & grad school, and learned a lot of math required for the CS areas I specialized in.
  - swombat 18y ago
    There is nothing exclusive with working on a startup and sex / drugs / reading philosophy, etc. Well, there is, because you won't have all the free time that you have as a student (which, btw, can also be used to start your start-up and acquire all that experience). It is wrong to say "go to uni to do X" if there is nothing stopping you from doing X outside of university. Also, avoiding the infantilizing effects of university would do lots of people good. There is also nothing to stop you from doing Y while you're also doing X at uni... So why not do both? It certainly requires dedicated to learn as an autodidact, but I'd bet many people could get a better applied computer science education in 4 years by trying to become an active developer. I'll agree with you on CS - I did physics, however, and I certainly wouldn't have learned all that outside of uni. I personally don't advise studying a computing-related subject if you want that to be your career - as you say, you'll self-teach all the useful computing stuff when you need it.
  - wheels 18y ago
    I'd bet many people could get a better applied computer science education in 4 years by trying to become an active developer. I'd say perhaps a better applied programming education. Programming != CS. The things which I learned in my CS education and the things that I learned in real-world hacking have a relatively small overlap, however, having that CS background did open up some possibilities for working on interesting problems. That's not to say that you have to go through formal education to get a good grounding in the theoretical elements of CS, but it does facilitate it.
    - ivankirigin 18y ago
      This entirely depends on the kinds of problems you try to solve.

Being somewhere in person helps a lot. I think it is worth moving just for the better network. Networking is exactly how you can maintain a steady stream of projects.

swombat 18y ago

Sure, but this guy is 18... I'd say, go to university and enjoy life first. You can also build an excellent network of both friends and professional acquaintances there, and it's a lot of fun, and you learn a lot of cool things that you'd never learn as an entrepreneur. And it'll probably make you a more interesting person too ("I left school at 18 and have been working in start-ups ever since" is pretty one-dimensional). If he was out of uni, then fair enough, go startupping or freelancing and avoid getting a regular job if you can... but at 18, seriously, just go enjoy university life, have sex, take drugs, take philosophy classes, and all that... I don't really see the point of sacrificing your university life to go freelancing. If your start-up is taking off big time, AND it requires you to stay on it full time, then fine... but to give up uni to "make some contacts"... that's silly. The contacts can still be made 4 years later, there's really no need to go there right this minute.

ivankirigin 18y ago
There is nothing exclusive with working on a startup and sex / drugs / reading philosophy, etc. It is wrong to say "go to uni to do X" if there is nothing stopping you from doing X outside of university. Also, avoiding the infantilizing effects of university would do lots of people good. It certainly requires dedicated to learn as an autodidact, but I'd bet many people could get a better applied computer science education in 4 years by trying to become an active developer. The exception is stuff like math (and math needed for CS like machine learning and graphics). For personal context, I want to undergrad & grad school, and learned a lot of math required for the CS areas I specialized in.
- swombat 18y ago
  There is nothing exclusive with working on a startup and sex / drugs / reading philosophy, etc. Well, there is, because you won't have all the free time that you have as a student (which, btw, can also be used to start your start-up and acquire all that experience). It is wrong to say "go to uni to do X" if there is nothing stopping you from doing X outside of university. Also, avoiding the infantilizing effects of university would do lots of people good. There is also nothing to stop you from doing Y while you're also doing X at uni... So why not do both? It certainly requires dedicated to learn as an autodidact, but I'd bet many people could get a better applied computer science education in 4 years by trying to become an active developer. I'll agree with you on CS - I did physics, however, and I certainly wouldn't have learned all that outside of uni. I personally don't advise studying a computing-related subject if you want that to be your career - as you say, you'll self-teach all the useful computing stuff when you need it.
- wheels 18y ago
  I'd bet many people could get a better applied computer science education in 4 years by trying to become an active developer. I'd say perhaps a better applied programming education. Programming != CS. The things which I learned in my CS education and the things that I learned in real-world hacking have a relatively small overlap, however, having that CS background did open up some possibilities for working on interesting problems. That's not to say that you have to go through formal education to get a good grounding in the theoretical elements of CS, but it does facilitate it.
  - ivankirigin 18y ago
    This entirely depends on the kinds of problems you try to solve.