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Ask HN: What to do with my life?

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Re: Ask HN: What to do with my life?

#11

Post by nicholas73 »

I'm an EE, had a defense job, went to grad school, tried some project ideas. Basically, the same situation as you, lived out.

If I were graduating again in the same circumstances, I would stay at my defense job. I had all the time in the world to dabble in projects, with great pay and job security. I didn't appreciate the gift of time and youth, and neither will you.

It will be an immensely restless and boring path as you figure out what to do, but resist to temptation to jump without knowing what you are getting into. My future jobs did not improve the situation, nor did I complete anything substantial when I quit.

The crux of the problem is that you haven't developed skill, work-ethic, and business knowledge. All the kids you hear with successful startups either have been dabbling from a young age or have certain advantages like family connections and wealth.

My advice would be to take a defense job, build side projects, and if nothing works out go to grad school once you've narrowed your interests. I went to grad school early and now it's not helping me go where I want to.

Try to enjoy your life by allowing yourself to go out, meet some girls, and otherwise take advantage of your youth and free time. This will be a long haul, so might as well enjoy the ride. When you get to my age you will be more focused but also have little free time.

Re: Ask HN: What to do with my life?

#12

Post by sarabmann »

theblueadept wrote: post #8

Reasons not to do a startup: - you don't have a product idea or technical mastery of any area - you're an introvert and don't have a social network - you don't have money So I would recommend that you get a job anywhere you can and gain some experience and contacts that way. Or switch your area of study to something you're passionate about. BTW it's normal to try out a lot of technologies at a shallow level, most peo…

Excellent comments but I feel #2 is only more relevant than other 2. Professor Sarasvathy explains the “Bird-in-hand principle, which is

Start with Who you are, What you know and Whom you know.

Number 1( Product Ideas) can be found after brainstorming. StumbleUpon was started by Garrett M. Camp( Co-founder of UBER) and they simply filtered this idea out of 6 ideas.

Number #3 is related to how resourceful you are. Mark Mark Zuckerberg did not have any money when he started Facebook. Nowadays technology is almost free so why you need money. If you need to know programming then learn it from free SaaS based resources.

Man is born entrepreneur( "The Startup of You", Reid Hoffman beautifully described it), in ancient times there was no employee-employer system developed so individuals have to be resourceful to survive.

I suggest you to "Just do it!" and build something in which you have passion and create value. Don't worry to much about capturing value( getting rich). If your passion is true then whole universe conspires to help you-Paulo Coelo( The Alchimist)

Re: Ask HN: What to do with my life?

#13

Post by shatu29 »

brserc wrote: post #3

Hi there, I'm 22 years old and I believe I will make a few important decisions in upcoming year, so I wanted to ask you hackers about it. I'm from Turkey and currently studying Electrical Engineering in a major university in my country. I will graduate this year most probably with a GPA around 2.8/4. Since the beginning of the college, I've seen it as waste of resources(money-time). But my family insisted on it also…

I'm 24 years old, from Bangladesh and I'm facing exactly the same problem as you.I've been roaming around the world of technology for the past three and a half years I tried almost everything that intersted me (web front end/back end /android) but I'v never dug deep. looking forward to all the replies of this thread

Re: Ask HN: What to do with my life?

#14

Post by brserc »

seekingcharlie wrote: post #7
relaunched wrote: post #5

The honest truth...There is really no market for someone that is kinda smart, but lacks the follow-through / ability to execute. Personally, I rather have more of the latter and less of the former, honestly. So, what do you do? Start small. If you want to be an entrepreneur, great! Build small projects. Even the best of us will get overwhelmed if we willy nilly start something unplanned, once the scope starts getting…

"There is really no market for someone that is kinda smart, but lacks the follow-through / ability to execute" This.

The real sad thing is I'm kinda aware of this. Trying to change.

Re: Ask HN: What to do with my life?

#15

Post by brserc »

shatu29 wrote: post #13
brserc wrote: post #3

Hi there, I'm 22 years old and I believe I will make a few important decisions in upcoming year, so I wanted to ask you hackers about it. I'm from Turkey and currently studying Electrical Engineering in a major university in my country. I will graduate this year most probably with a GPA around 2.8/4. Since the beginning of the college, I've seen it as waste of resources(money-time). But my family insisted on it also…

I'm 24 years old, from Bangladesh and I'm facing exactly the same problem as you.I've been roaming around the world of technology for the past three and a half years I tried almost everything that intersted me (web front end/back end /android) but I'v never dug deep. looking forward to all the replies of this thread

Reach me out via mail sometime, maybe we can do some opensource together?

Re: Ask HN: What to do with my life?

#16

Post by brserc »

gamechangr wrote: post #4
brserc wrote: post #3

Hi there, I'm 22 years old and I believe I will make a few important decisions in upcoming year, so I wanted to ask you hackers about it. I'm from Turkey and currently studying Electrical Engineering in a major university in my country. I will graduate this year most probably with a GPA around 2.8/4. Since the beginning of the college, I've seen it as waste of resources(money-time). But my family insisted on it also…

You should consider joining #1 and #2 (#1 and #3). Take the Self Defense job and help your family. Work really hard after 17:00 everyday and become a great coder. Set a goal like two years to have saved a little money and taught yourself a good programming language. The Valley will not value the Master or Phd, but if you need it for a work permit that would make sense.

Thanks for the comment. Actually I think this is the most logical thing to do.

Re: Ask HN: What to do with my life?

#17

Post by brserc »

hakanderyal wrote: post #6
brserc wrote: post #3

Hi there, I'm 22 years old and I believe I will make a few important decisions in upcoming year, so I wanted to ask you hackers about it. I'm from Turkey and currently studying Electrical Engineering in a major university in my country. I will graduate this year most probably with a GPA around 2.8/4. Since the beginning of the college, I've seen it as waste of resources(money-time). But my family insisted on it also…

Hey, I'm from Ankara, Turkey also, and went through same stuff more or less. For me, improving myself constantly and building things from start to fininh, even the smallest ones, helped me immensely to overcome the difficulties that you mentioned. There are only a few things in the world that can compare with the excitement and fulfilment of building products, and watching people use it to improve their themselves, t…

Tamamdır abi, yakın zamanda ulaşacağım sana.

Re: Ask HN: What to do with my life?

#18

Post by seekingcharlie »

brandog wrote: post #10
seekingcharlie wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, you seem like you would be better of getting a job in tech right now. Start your company in a few years when you have more experience within the industry. Try & get a junior dev job. Learn HTML, CSS & JS if you don't know these already. Put together a portfolio of your projects (doesn't have to be actual client work, you can just build small things). Make sure you have a Github profile you can share. Have y…

He's talking about making mobile ecg devices, and you're going to recommend he get into web design? Might as well suggest he become a plumber.

Fair, but I meant it as a gateway to getting a job in tech. At least he could get experience in working in a company / building a real website/product (which OP admits he has no idea about) and most likely with people that are much more experienced than him that can guide him in his learning.
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