My story as a self-taught AI researcher

Do you have any idea where the majority of massive breakthroughs in technology come from? They come from university.

AI started in university before it was even a thing. Autonomous vehicles were a university funded DARPA project. Nearly everything, even this guys research, is an important derivative of this.

Why do you think this guy chose to publish his paper in a academic journal? It's because it's peer reviewed. The Internet is not peer reviewed, it's public reviewed, as in anyone with an opinion can say whatever they want and get a million other opinions accepting or rejecting that opinion with little evidence. That's essentially what the entirety of Hacker News is. Very rarely do I see a post, including my own, that's properly sourced.

Let me ask you, do you think it's stupid that I paid money, like most people, to build a solar power management system? Do you think it's stupid that I built a memory management system, and text message system from bare bones hardware? Do you think it's stupid that I built my own shell? I did all that in school with equipment that I could only dream of owning with people that spent more time helping me than writing blog posts trying to get famous.

It's funny, I was actually glad this guy got where he wanted. It must be nice to be a genius. And to be honest, I'm probably not as smart as this guy. It's great that he had a lot of drive and achieved greatness. But he doesn't need to imply that I'm some liar because I chose to go to university. I worked incredibly hard to get my degree, spending hours and hours in the lab doing assignments. Hours thinking I was dumb and that I'd never make it. Months trying to find a job.

And all I see is people that did it a non-standard way and then have these warped views of the traditional way despite the decades of people lifted out of poverty because of it. And despite having never even attending a university! I see all these smart people and how they're the only ones that matter. College did a lot for me. And I try and do my best every single day because of it.

Sure, I may not be able to write an ML paper in a year like this guy, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to defend myself when he essentially implies I cheated my way in because I got a degree.

However, the university I went to, could be classified as "No-Name" and I use what I learned in school almost everyday. In fact, I used K-maps to help a senior engineer struggling with a complex logic problem by simplifying it. The CS fundamentals I learn prevent me from writing ugly code and at least give me a sense for what's slow.

I also went to a university with a built in co-op education program where you got credit and paid for being an intern. And let me tell you, most companies treat interns like shit. They sometimes don't even bother having them do anything besides mediocre grunt work. My intern experience was not the greatest and arguably worse than my college experience. Most the time I was left on my own having no idea what to do and spent most of it reading programming books. Whatever "real-world" skills I picked up, like doing actual projects, was moot.

But again, it's mostly relative. So making categorical statements like "universities are useless" and "credentials are for cheaters" doesn't really help and certainly doesn't speak the truth.

He was hardly a qualified teacher. Lots of young people up here go on voluntourism trips to countries in Africa or Asia to teach a couple of months. If you want to try teaching, you can do so locally; There are lots of options.

Musician, sure, it's fun (I've toured in 4 different countries myself playing in band, though 15 years ago now), but it's hard to do full-time.

DL expert would be to push it, there's a long way between being productive and being an expert.

But I'm gonna be frank with you, doing all those kinds of things is possible here because we have a great welfare system. You can work, save aggressively, and do whatever you want.

The unfortunate fact of life here though, is that a lot of entrepreneurs and indie developers (just to pick a few) are funded by welfare checks.

I submit to you that you don't sound jealous, because it really doesn't fit the rest of what you express; I suggest that you are maybe "envious¹" in the sense that jealousy means envy + depriving the other of what they have ("it should be me and not them", it's a matter of exclusivity, like being jealous of #1 if you finished second, or jealous of the one dating someone you love, or whoever took your job/offer). You don't sound hostile to them, merely wishing more for yourself (which in itself is a positive feeling?)

I really don't know what the word you meant to use in your own language actually meant (I'm French personally, so English is just our medium translation layer). But I'm curious, culturally you know, about these nuances².

I'd love it if you could just introspect that feeling a bit and share what it really feels like, the complex emotion and what it "touches" in you (does it bring despair, or motivation, or resolve, etc). [if it's too personal, I got email, just ask]

Personally, I can feel "aspiring to" or "inspiration from" people who achieved more than me — I don't want to deprive them of anything, I don't wish they failed, nor do I wish to belittle their accomplishments; however I'd love to eat everything they know, steal like the greatest of artists (the good ones merely copy!), that is at best become friends with these people and let them influence me (the true deeper meaning of that book³, if you ask me). And I know, somehow deep down, that the more I'd be rooting for these friends, helping them go further, the more I'd be moving forward/up as well, taken in by the positive storm.

[1]: envy is “a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else's possessions, qualities, or luck.”

[2]: Part of my (personal) research on human nature, motivations, "what makes us do what we do".

[3]: How to win friends and influence people, by Dale Carnegie