It resonates for me. I started university in computer science. I even got relatively good grades for that first year, but I decided I had to change, and ended

It resonates for me. I started university in computer science. I even got relatively good grades for that first year, but I decided I had to change, and ended up doing economics and philosophy (both of which have their own problems worthy of another thread). Now I should state that swapping out of CS does not mean I no longer work with computers/programming. On the contrary, now I can use it to whip up solutions in every other field that most of those practitioners can't, and if there's one thing working with economists/mathematicians/statisticians/scientists teaches you, its that they can't program something efficiently to save themselves. In my darker moments I wonder whether all the supercomputer hardware at CERN/Universities/Government/Corporates is just bad algorithms/code that runs 5000 times slower on hardware 500 times faster...anyway... I got out of CS at uni because it was very clear that the university was there for an industry. I loved the systems/art of programming, so I imagine it was a bit like going along and enrolling in a painting course with hopes of doing the Sistine chapel, only to find that most of "painting" was actually about how to cover the side of a skyscraper or a house. Same words, even very similar mediums...different realities. Not why I started working with computers. Two other aspects come to mind. The first: the hyper-capitalism/money-making/app-writing/insecure ego/self-help-you-can-too!/superficial/start-up culture. I realise that hacker news is part of y-combinator, which is also part of american culture (yes, i went there), so you're going to get a lot of suck up children who really just want to be rich/popular/important, but my god I can't think of a more brain-dead boring topic filled with so many repugnant people. Is there anywhere that's like hacker news with the whole start-up/get rich quick element removed? Cause that would be lovely :P And the second is that anyone who thinks that university or work is going to magically lead to or remove you from some sort of otherwise compelling or fulfilling life is smoking some powerful crack. Work is work, and its going to pretty much suck, and a lot of the labour-as-meaning-of-life-protestant-work-ethic-consume-be-rich-go-into-debt is basically social indoctrination to provide a nice supplicant workforce. Life's big and complicated. Stress over the fact that you've got a lot of control over what you want from life, which means you can do a lot of things that other people say you shouldn't. But don't stress over notions that studying X at university/working at company X is going to lead you to ruin or fill you with regrets. Its really not that important in the grand scheme of things...