Thanks for the response! Your points addressed in order:
First, if college is all about social interaction, then it's hardly worth the money. I can go to conferences, take non-university classes, pay for coworking spaces, and intern at places all for much cheaper than college. I found it very difficult to interact socially at UT — the campus is enormous, making it rare for me to randomly run into people, and also, I grew up in Austin, so I already had a pretty solid base of friends and there was little pressure to find new ones (though I did meet many people, mostly through friends I already had).
I think your views on the CS degree are pretty much why I didn't get that degree. I don't want to be comfortably employed; I have no intention of making my life a linear path from college -> work -> family -> retirement. I don't ever plan to retire, because there is nothing I love more than challenging my creativity. If I had a CS degree, I would probably have a pretty high paying job in a nice place right now, but I certainly wouldn't be traveling 5 months out of the year (and in 2014, 11 months if things go according to plan). I like programming, and especially designing, for the web, but I also like working for myself. I have a pretty decent portfolio, and although I haven't gotten any huge jobs yet (biggest so far are a dating social network and a minisite for NASA), I make enough to support myself and my travels.
I also think getting a degree in CS would have minimized my passion for it. Getting a degree in linguistics certainly stamped out any ambitions I had on becoming a professional linguist. Although, I did get an enormous amount of value out of all of the electives I was able to take because linguistics is only a 24-hour major. I would have, no doubt, learned more computer science, but I know enough right now to get paid to do it, which gives me the freedom to learn it on my own time. And, I'm trying to transition to becoming a designer right now, which is its own set of challenges; something I would have completely ignored had I been taking a CS degree.
Lastly, traveling is definitely not cheaper when you're going through the university. When I travel, I stay on couches (CouchSurfing) or work on farms and homesteads (WWOOF), giving me guaranteed access to social interaction and informal education (I am staying on a farm in the mountains of North Carolina for two months while I work on a full-length album at their music studio, this will cost me $150/mo. in rent — and they are eager to teach me everything they know about foraging, which is very popular in this region, given all of the naturally occurring edible plants and fungi; I have also budgeted around $900-1200 for a two-month trip to Peru).
In sum:
- Social interaction can be found elsewhere, for free. College is about learning, at least for me.
- The CS degree probably would have been a good idea for someone who wanted a comfortable, stable livelihood after college. This is not me.
- Using the university to travel would have cost a lot more than my current travel plans. I would have certainly learned a lot studying abroad, but since I plan to be "studying" and traveling "abroad" for most of my life, I
Thanks for the advice, but it is really geared towards someone who is headed for a different path, something more stable, something with a larger salary. Living my life through challenges and adventures is exactly how I want to do it. It pushes my mind and creativity to new places, and I have no plans to become stagnant.
Also, if I had the money, you bet I would go back to school. I would get a Bachelors in history, computer science, music, design, biology, and physics and anything else I could. I love classes, and I love going to lectures. This is why I'm so excited about MOOCs.
OK, so it seems like you've found a good set of friends, which is good, but I'm still not sure that you experienced the full extent of the socialization that college offers. But, it's OK if you didn't, it is a high price to pay just to learn how to live with people. You'll be learning that anyway (or probably already have given the way you're travelling).
So my view on the CS degree was that you should have gotten it, not to get a stable job, but to make it easier to get ANY job that you're trying to get. I didn't say to accept the linear path, I just said that if you had a CS degree, it would be much easier to get hired, no matter where you go. And if you state what you're trying to do, there are some companies that will respect that. I interned for 3 months at a company before going to japan (a large one, at that), and they kept me on for the entire year while I was in japan, I worked from home for essentially an entire year. If they can do that for an intern, they can do way more for you, who has a good portfolio.
Also, how is your knowledge of CS theory? You're probably not going to run into automata theory working on simple websites, but it's kind something people expect you to at least have seen/know about.
Your staying plan does sound way cheaper, so that's awesome, sounds like you're gonna have a lot of great experiences under your belt.
At this point, I think you're pretty much set in what you're going to do though, and it seems like a great plan, with some luck
Hipsters are SO into Facebook. And even _more_ into Instagram. They define pop culture by positioning themselves against a "phantom" pop culture that is even more pop.
I don't think it is a counterculture yet. I think it will happen in 10-20 years, maybe more. Just a humble prediction. So no, it's not a counterculture right now. It's a bunch of vague ideas and random people who don't feel totally comfortable using Facebook or putting on Google Glasses. I think once tech begins to infiltrate further into our social lives (even further than it already has), _then_ the counterculture will coalesce.
That seems a little prejudiced. I know Americans who would do this. That doesn't make them less American. I know Germans who wouldn't. That doesn't make them not German. No generalizations, thank you.
Might be mis-reading, but I took his comment to mean just that it would be harder for an international company to resolve this through the court system here in the US (and thus other approaches become more attractive).
It's not a generalization. He's saying that since he's American, he's "local" and can challenge it in American courts, while the firm who built this site is European and cannot (as easily). It's much more difficult for a European to sue an American company for failed payments.
I agree with that. Read the end of the article and you'll see I define the culture as not anti-tech but critically judgemental and cautious towards it. And while that is not be a totally new idea, I'm bringing it to attention because I think it is growing rapidly and will explode soon. Countercultures impact the mainstream heavily by definition, and I think this one has yet to make a big splash.
