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

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

#71

Post by mnky9800n »

I'm like twice your age and so far the world has always seemed rather unsure and life has always been a bit meaningless.

The purpose in life is to find your purpose. You need to try lots of different activities to find out what you like and dislike. Then you need to spend time doing the things you like so you become better at them. Things are more fun the better you are at doing them.

All your questions are grounded in this latent statement that the world around you is evolving and this is happening to you. But you are in charge of your life. You can choose to do whatever it is you want to do.

I suppose maybe you look at hacker news a lot and have been influenced by the AI hype. Stop looking at hacker news. The AI hype is nice and all but it's never going to replace the joy you feel when you open your sketch notebook and look at the pictures you drew. Nor will it replace your desire to learn about some topic that interests you.

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

#72

Post by mnky9800n »

badpun wrote: post #68
jonahbenton wrote: post #5

Yes. It is your life. It isn't about what is out there. It's about what's in you. My kids are 19, 17, 12. I tell them- you're not going to college to get an education that is about knowledge out in the world. You are going to get an education about you. To learn about your person- your body, your brain, your own mental model of your self and other selves and the world. Your person is still in physical growth mode unt…

> I tell them- you're not going to college to get an education that is about knowledge out in the world. You are going to get an education about you. To learn about your person- your body, your brain, your own mental model of your self and other selves and the world. You can do the same thing while on the job. Presumably, you could even learn faster, as you will be in a real-life environment, with real responsiblitie…

I feel like this is not the right message to send to a 16 year old asking what the meaning of life is. Sure college is a scam and no 20 year old needs to go to a learning resort with a lazy river. But also, plenty of jobs are quite useful to go to college (although most of those are stem jobs). Like you probably aren't going to get into biotech, geo-engineering, physics, without at least one degree. Well I suppose you can do biotech without a degree if you are Elizabeth Holmes but she went to jail so maybe it's a bad idea.

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

#73

Post by mnky9800n »

vlunkr wrote: post #34

I think you need to cheer up first :) When I was getting into programming, everyone was warning me that the jobs would all be outsourced soon. That didn't happen, or not in any kind of apocalyptic way. I'm not certain what you're concerned about, so I'll address a couple of things. The job market is in a rough place. This happens. It's a pendulum that never stops swinging. Make yourself useful somewhere and hope for…

I feel like the job market has been in a rough place for the last twenty years at least.

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

#74

Post by Myrmornis »

jonahbenton wrote: post #5

Yes. It is your life. It isn't about what is out there. It's about what's in you. My kids are 19, 17, 12. I tell them- you're not going to college to get an education that is about knowledge out in the world. You are going to get an education about you. To learn about your person- your body, your brain, your own mental model of your self and other selves and the world. Your person is still in physical growth mode unt…

I've seen many people struggle and regret their decision to study subjects at university that didn't point more directly to rewarding careers with reasonable market demand, and I worry that the way you describe university education risks falling into the same trap.

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

#76

Post by BerislavLopac »

badpun wrote: post #68
jonahbenton wrote: post #5

Yes. It is your life. It isn't about what is out there. It's about what's in you. My kids are 19, 17, 12. I tell them- you're not going to college to get an education that is about knowledge out in the world. You are going to get an education about you. To learn about your person- your body, your brain, your own mental model of your self and other selves and the world. Your person is still in physical growth mode unt…

> I tell them- you're not going to college to get an education that is about knowledge out in the world. You are going to get an education about you. To learn about your person- your body, your brain, your own mental model of your self and other selves and the world. You can do the same thing while on the job. Presumably, you could even learn faster, as you will be in a real-life environment, with real responsiblitie…

> We don't allow 19 year old people to drink beer because they're too young to handle it

Oddly enough, most countries think that a person who is legally responsible for their own decisions is also mature enough to handle alcohol [0]...

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_drinking_age

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

#78

Post by thorin »

BunnyOSteele wrote: post #61

I tell my kids (18(f) and 15(m)) to find out what they are really passionate about. Then we will try to find a career for that passion. Once we have that we will see what kind/level of formal education is needed to pursue that career. If you need a degree for that, well, work for that degree. Here in Germany most jobs are based on apprenticeship, so that is a very viable option. And part of that apprenticeship will b…

What if you aren't "really passionate" about anything. I know very few people who are particularly focused on one thing. For instance, I love outdoor activities, have considered working in that area, but the pay is bad and the work doesn't make me happy. I like playing the guitar and music, but not all the time. I liked programming and technology and there were jobs available, so I drifted into that. I'm happy enough, and feel lucky I made that choice.

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

#79

Post by ineedausername »

Vanit wrote: post #47

Career wise? Software engineering, 100%. That's not going away, and this is an industry that mostly does still care about university degrees (though I'm sure you could self-study, build a small portfolio and go that route and have success).

wait I thought AI is taking over, that's what the internet says
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