Ask HN: Should I get my degree or not?

Hello hackers!

This is almost like a follow-up to this thread http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1438489, but my questions are not quite the same, neither are my goals.

I'm 21 years old and live in Norway. For all my life I've loved computers, and everything else with ICs in it. I learned BASIC programming at the age of 10 by editing games and finding out what happened if I did this or that.

The last years I've had two years off from school, working a crappy job and getting drunk, while reading tons of computer/programming/security/electronics/math-books.

Last fall I went back to school to get a bachelor in informatics. I get straight "A"s, as I already know ten times more about python, C, linked lists, self balancing trees and overflows than the rest of my class. The only thing I need to work with is maths. All while working 50%-110% to be able to afford all my projects, my appartment and steaks on weekends.

Five or six years ago I got a new dream; I want to move to Silicon Valley and work on startups, where my skill and creativity can be put to good use.

Had I not had a girlfriend, (two cats) and my loving parents I'd have been enjoying California's hot sun right now.

Lately I've become tired of working on boring (read: easy) assignments, that takes me a fifth of the time the rest of my class uses, and I still get the highest grades. Because I don't really need to work on things I sometimes forget that I have assignments to do, and that resulted in me only having one of the three exams I was supposed to this spring, because I missed two hand-ins.

There is not (at all) many IT-companies in my area, and for me to get a decent job, I'd have to move somewhere else. And that's what I want to do right now.

But then I'd have to quit my education. So I was wondering what you guys think about that? Money is not an issue, as long as I can get money for programming I don't care how much. Is it possible to later land a better job, without a degree? Will I be as attractive as the rest of my class in five years, if I work my ass off in crappy jobs, only to build a CV?

Really it's HN's fault that I got this idea, all the talk about how useless a degree in CS is didn't help my motivation to work on crap assignments.

And to get back to my dream, would moving to Silicon Valley make things easier? Plane-tickets are cheap, I'm ready, I can start looking for work right now.

But then again, will I be better off in five (or ten) years from now if I drop out of university and run off chasing the American Dream than if I stay in cold and snowy Norway?

(Did I mention that I live in the north of Norway?:/ )

All answers are greatly appreciated!

I know that, but I don't want to start a company, just get a job, any IT-related job.

If your degree in CS is too easy and feels useless study something difficult.

If money up front is not an issue you want a university degree. Even if considered as nothing more than a meaningless credential, university degrees pay off over time. More now than ever.

But it needn't be a mere piece of paper. If your classes are teaching you things you already know take different classes.

When you've studied physics up to field theory, biology through physiology and genetics, know how to build an amplifier from a tableful of chips, understand enough statistics to meaningfully criticize a published article in sociology or epidemiology, know how to use Photoshop to duplicate your favorite fancy website from scratch, understand music theory, have a grasp of linguistics and know some basic accounting come back and ask us what to do next. :)

If you're taking classes that you already have mastered, you're doing yourself a disservice. You're not getting educated, you're getting a degree. Perhaps you should be taking different classes. Math classes. CS classes that focus more on theory.

I'd have to move to get another option.

I haven't done any real research into the whole visa-business, but I really should do that soon;) Is it not true that it's easier to get a visa if you already have a company that has agreed to let you work with them?