Ask HN: What would you recommend a 16 year old to pursue career wise?

You can educate yourself, you don't need anyone else or any institution to do that. Save your money and focus on yourself. And no, knowledge is not meaningless

Knowledge is never meaningless, knowledge always has been and always will be power.

If you seek to understand the massive changes our world is going through then the answer is the same as it's been for ~20 years now, learn to write software and keep on top of what is cutting edge.

Generally speaking if you want to know why the world moves in such ways then you should seek to understand finance as the answer to almost every why (rather than how) can be summarised crudely as "because money".

These two branches of knowledge will be enough to survive and if you are any good at either of them thrive in a changing world.

The serious stuff aside at 16 there is plenty of time to invest in things that will make you happy regardless of how the world changes. Get out and see the world, travel, be amongst nature, meet new and interesting people, persue hobbies, make things with your hands, etc. Experiences contain knowledge but they are more than that, they are the intangible that make life worth living.

Even if AI takes over everything those things will still be rewarding.

Veterinarian specialized in orthopedics. You will never have a shortage of clients in a busy city. You get to help fur babies all day. You get to extend lives and improve quality of life. You would make yourself and the pet hospital a lot of money, earning prestige.

Two things that still really matter in the (dire sounding) scenario you are painting: PEOPLE and RISK. SO here are my two recommendations -- they somewhat conflict, but depending on what kind of person you are (and are becoming!) one will resonate so just follow it:

1) PEOPLE: The relationships you make early in your career can end up being the most valuable thing you take away from your first couple of jobs. Go places where a) you like the people, b) they challenge you and you learn from them, and c) they share your values. People that were throwing up in the back of my car in college became lifelong friends -- now they are industry leaders, and we'll never lose that bond...

2) RISK: Take as much risk as you can stomach. You literally have nothing to lose right now, and you can try and fail at a bunch of things before other priorities (mortgage, wife, kids, whatever) make you risk averse. If you go to a startup right now, and it totally bombs, so what?! You just dust yourself off and do it again. It would be a shame to take a "safe" job early in your career, there will be lots of time for that.

Here's an example of how they conflict: if you go to a big company, there will be lots of opportunities to meet people, but no risk. If you go do a startup, there are only a few people, but lots of risk/opportunity.

For the next 10 years, expose yourself to as many experiences as you can, at some point something will click and you can run down that rabbit hole.

All of that stuff about it being your desicion and about what inspires you is true.

But please don't forget that university only lasts 4 or 5 years, then for the rest of your life you're in the workforce.

When my son went through highschool all the guidance was about following your dreams, etc. While it's important to like what you do for a job, it's also important (for most people) to be able to support themselves financially.

So unless you're from an independently wealthy family, make sure you do something with a lifetime earning potential.

In spite of recent changes in tech, it's still going to be a major field of economic advancement for many years to come. Someone will have to hurd it. If you like tech, consider an Embedded S/W Electrical Engineering focus.