Our dreams are so related though they’re often underestimated
March 27th, 2005 | Published in whatever...
Note: The following has been sitting as a draft for several days now. Since it’s unlikely I’ll bother to go back and finish what I was thinking, I’ve decided to just post it as is.
I’ve been joking with people for several years now that in ten years I’ll be no where near the field of computer science, but rather in the last field I would ever expect to be in. The field that always popped into my mind was writing, because I typically don’t enjoy it when boundaries are imposed on me (hence the reason I hate writing papers for classes). I definitely don’t enjoy computer science as much as I used to. For the most part the rate of learning CS material has slowed considerably from when I first got interested in it. Most of the classes I’ve taken here at Clarkson have been a waste of my time. Rather than waste away in class for fifteen weeks I could have obtained the same knowledge simply by picking up the appropriate book and saved myself a lot of time and money.
Occasionally I wonder if I’m not really joking. I certainly don’t enjoy straight computer programming. There needs to be more freedom in it for me to get interested, the ability to do what I want. That’s probably why I’ve always enjoyed the first month or two of any IBM project I’ve worked on, because that’s typically the point where I need to get up to speed on a new topic quickly and then design the solution. But how many jobs are really like that? How many employers let you wander off for 3 months as long as you promise to throw a nicely bundled solution into their laps upon returning?
The other joke I usually tell to people is that it would be nice to just open my own business. Unfortunately, I have so many ideas it’s difficult to narrow it down — a cozy bookstore / coffee shop, a tavern or pub (not a bar), or a homey movie theater (with an old-style marquee). Perhaps I could start with one and gradually add the others. None of those sound like cash cows, so making a living would always be difficult, but perhaps I’m actually okay with that.
