It's sorta an unfortunate fact of life that you can't have it all. You have to make some tradeoffs. (And I don't understand all the people saying "You can have both." I've tried, and I couldn't - at least not while doing anything innovative. You can have both if you're doing niche projects to serve a particular community, but I'd imagine many of the folks here are more change-the-world-or-die-trying types.)
Anyway, I think that in the long run it's about the people. But I faced pretty much the same choice as you as a college senior. I thought about it a lot and decided that when I was old and gray, I wouldn't be happy unless I'd at least tried and saw what I could do if I concentrated fully on hacking. If it didn't amount to anything, then fine, at least I gave it an honest go and had a sense of my own limits. But I'd much rather do that then always wonder what I could've done, maybe.
So I figure I'll keep this up until I'm 30. If I succeed, great. If I don't, I can have a normal, fulfilled life, surrounded by interesting people, and I'll have full knowledge of what I'm passing up. The twenties are kinda a professional wasteland anyway, when nobody really knows who they are or what they want to do with their life.
Hey, thanks for your comment. I could understand where you are coming from - it's reassuring to have someone tell me that "the twenties are kinda a professional wasteland anyway," when I am on the cusp of graduating.
Can I quote you at my hedge fund interview this week? ;-)
Heh, sure, though I'm not sure you'd want to say that the twenties are a professional wasteland at a hedge fund interview, even if everybody there knows it's true. ;-)
(BTW, most of my hedge fund friends are quite happy with their lives. They work fairly normal 9-5 hours, take awesome vacations, and make insane amounts of money.)
Comments
It's sorta an unfortunate fact of life that you can't have it all. You have to make some tradeoffs. (And I don't understand all the people saying "You can have both." I've tried, and I couldn't - at least not while doing anything innovative. You can have both if you're doing niche projects to serve a particular community, but I'd imagine many of the folks here are more change-the-world-or-die-trying types.)
Anyway, I think that in the long run it's about the people. But I faced pretty much the same choice as you as a college senior. I thought about it a lot and decided that when I was old and gray, I wouldn't be happy unless I'd at least tried and saw what I could do if I concentrated fully on hacking. If it didn't amount to anything, then fine, at least I gave it an honest go and had a sense of my own limits. But I'd much rather do that then always wonder what I could've done, maybe.
So I figure I'll keep this up until I'm 30. If I succeed, great. If I don't, I can have a normal, fulfilled life, surrounded by interesting people, and I'll have full knowledge of what I'm passing up. The twenties are kinda a professional wasteland anyway, when nobody really knows who they are or what they want to do with their life.
Hey, thanks for your comment. I could understand where you are coming from - it's reassuring to have someone tell me that "the twenties are kinda a professional wasteland anyway," when I am on the cusp of graduating.
Can I quote you at my hedge fund interview this week? ;-)
Heh, sure, though I'm not sure you'd want to say that the twenties are a professional wasteland at a hedge fund interview, even if everybody there knows it's true. ;-)
(BTW, most of my hedge fund friends are quite happy with their lives. They work fairly normal 9-5 hours, take awesome vacations, and make insane amounts of money.)