5 ms·

Every time I read something like this I just think, "My highschool experience sucked."

by hobs 13y ago

tfgg 13y ago
Back in my day if you were at highschool and wanted attention from Valve you created a mod played by thousands of people! Joking, of course, this is cool. I wonder how they'll recruit, whether it'll be from pre-existing modding community (does that still exist, given how relatively creaky their games are now?) or completely fresh. I imagine that these days, due to mobile apps and independent engines like Unity, there are more good young devs outside gaming/modding than before.
laumars 13y ago
Depends on your age. When I was at highschool, IBM PCs were just hitting the market. So games developers were still very much a couple of nerds in their garage. This meant that the industry was relatively level pegged (ie I could leave highschool and write a relatively professional game). However these days kids don't have that opportunity (generally speaking of course. There's still your Minecrafts and other indie games that have gone on to be hugely successful for their developer(s)). These days the entry bar is so much higher that I think that's part of the reason so many students are drawn towards web development; where it costs next to nothing to set up a web dev workstation and anyone can throw together a professional looking site. And because of that, the more lower level programming industries are missing out on talented developers. I appreciate that the Raspberry Pi foundation was set up in an attempt to readdress this issue, but I for one consider myself very luck -perhaps more so than this generation of kids- to have grown up in an era where school kids had the same (dis)advantages as the games studios. And I think it was that which cemented my desire to work in IT at such an early age - as I felt part of the industry even though I was just throwing together silly BBC / Amstrad BASIC, and later DOS games in Pascal, for my own amusement.
- churchNumber 13y ago
  >I think that's part of the reason so many students are drawn towards web development; where it costs next to nothing to set up a web dev workstation and anyone can throw together a professional looking site. You are absolutely right. I am currently in high school, and I enjoy doing lower-level stuff like game engines, compilers, OSes and hardware. I am currently thinking of dropping out of school, but it will probably force me to do freelancing and web dev. It's almost impossible to get a job in any of the areas I am interested without a University degree. Back in the early days of PCs, I could easily make a hardware startup and earn a decent living, or maybe even get rich. But now it's virtually impossible to do so. It costs billions of dollars to setup a semiconductor fab and the field is encumbered in patents and politics. Majority of games studios also have budgets with about the same number of digits.
  - fzzzy 13y ago
    It's totally possible to get a job in those areas without a degree.
    - redorb 13y ago
      Highschool can help grow you up a bit.. And it's expected you finish in today's society.. Please let's not encourage people to drop out and yes, let's encourage them to stay in.
    - hobs 13y ago
      Correct, but its harder and you need work experience typically. Which can be hard to get with no GED equivalent.
  - emddudley 13y ago
    Drop out of high school? Don't be stupid. You don't know nearly as much as you think you do.
  - snoman 13y ago
    Dropping out of high school, especially if you are interested in and want to work in computing, will be the worst mistake you ever make. Whatever is making school unbearable for you, fix that problem instead (or ask for help to fix it) of trying to get away from it.
  - CoryG89 13y ago
    In general, I think dropping out of high school is a bad idea. I did so, however, now I am about to graduate with a 3.5 GPA in software engineering at Auburn University. I do feel that some high schools aren't worth going to. If that is the case you would have ended up learning more at a community college and then later a University. I'm sure I did at least.
  - casual_slacker 13y ago
    "Droping out of highschool" usually means getting your GED. Once you have your GED you'll be perfectly fine. If you don't get it though, you will be severely crippling yourself in society. If you have two years left of HS and you're struggling, then maybe a GED is the right option. If you're doing well, or you only have a year, just stick with it.
6d0debc071 13y ago
Well, cool things are pretty much inherently outliers ^^;
codemonkeymike 13y ago
Yep my Highschool had 1 class on programming an the teacher told us strait up not to become a programmer. I just wanted to GTFO of there.

Every time I read something like this I just think, "My highschool experience sucked."

by hobs 13y ago

Every time I read something like this I just think, "My highschool experience sucked."

tfgg 13y ago

Back in my day if you were at highschool and wanted attention from Valve you created a mod played by thousands of people! Joking, of course, this is cool. I wonder how they'll recruit, whether it'll be from pre-existing modding community (does that still exist, given how relatively creaky their games are now?) or completely fresh. I imagine that these days, due to mobile apps and independent engines like Unity, there are more good young devs outside gaming/modding than before.

laumars 13y ago

Depends on your age. When I was at highschool, IBM PCs were just hitting the market. So games developers were still very much a couple of nerds in their garage. This meant that the industry was relatively level pegged (ie I could leave highschool and write a relatively professional game). However these days kids don't have that opportunity (generally speaking of course. There's still your Minecrafts and other indie games that have gone on to be hugely successful for their developer(s)). These days the entry bar is so much higher that I think that's part of the reason so many students are drawn towards web development; where it costs next to nothing to set up a web dev workstation and anyone can throw together a professional looking site. And because of that, the more lower level programming industries are missing out on talented developers. I appreciate that the Raspberry Pi foundation was set up in an attempt to readdress this issue, but I for one consider myself very luck -perhaps more so than this generation of kids- to have grown up in an era where school kids had the same (dis)advantages as the games studios. And I think it was that which cemented my desire to work in IT at such an early age - as I felt part of the industry even though I was just throwing together silly BBC / Amstrad BASIC, and later DOS games in Pascal, for my own amusement.

churchNumber 13y ago
>I think that's part of the reason so many students are drawn towards web development; where it costs next to nothing to set up a web dev workstation and anyone can throw together a professional looking site. You are absolutely right. I am currently in high school, and I enjoy doing lower-level stuff like game engines, compilers, OSes and hardware. I am currently thinking of dropping out of school, but it will probably force me to do freelancing and web dev. It's almost impossible to get a job in any of the areas I am interested without a University degree. Back in the early days of PCs, I could easily make a hardware startup and earn a decent living, or maybe even get rich. But now it's virtually impossible to do so. It costs billions of dollars to setup a semiconductor fab and the field is encumbered in patents and politics. Majority of games studios also have budgets with about the same number of digits.
- fzzzy 13y ago
  It's totally possible to get a job in those areas without a degree.
  - redorb 13y ago
    Highschool can help grow you up a bit.. And it's expected you finish in today's society.. Please let's not encourage people to drop out and yes, let's encourage them to stay in.
  - hobs 13y ago
    Correct, but its harder and you need work experience typically. Which can be hard to get with no GED equivalent.
- emddudley 13y ago
  Drop out of high school? Don't be stupid. You don't know nearly as much as you think you do.
- snoman 13y ago
  Dropping out of high school, especially if you are interested in and want to work in computing, will be the worst mistake you ever make. Whatever is making school unbearable for you, fix that problem instead (or ask for help to fix it) of trying to get away from it.
- CoryG89 13y ago
  In general, I think dropping out of high school is a bad idea. I did so, however, now I am about to graduate with a 3.5 GPA in software engineering at Auburn University. I do feel that some high schools aren't worth going to. If that is the case you would have ended up learning more at a community college and then later a University. I'm sure I did at least.
- casual_slacker 13y ago
  "Droping out of highschool" usually means getting your GED. Once you have your GED you'll be perfectly fine. If you don't get it though, you will be severely crippling yourself in society. If you have two years left of HS and you're struggling, then maybe a GED is the right option. If you're doing well, or you only have a year, just stick with it.

6d0debc071 13y ago

Well, cool things are pretty much inherently outliers ^^;

codemonkeymike 13y ago

Yep my Highschool had 1 class on programming an the teacher told us strait up not to become a programmer. I just wanted to GTFO of there.