N.B.: This discussion isn't up for mainstream article status, as far as I'm concerned (unless someone else wants to take it and run with it). I just didn't know how else to direct an important question to the LW community in general.
I'm currently a first-year university student in Vancouver, Canada, attending UBC. I have a trust fund and otherwise I will not need to worry about paying for my undergraduate degree. I am open to the idea of going to grad school. So, I have the luxury to take my time in my studies and there are lots of options I can choose from. Majors I'm considering are Cognitive Systems, Economics (and philosophy or math or stats), English, Philosophy and History of Science, Mathematical Sciences/CompSci, or Psychology. I'm open to other options. So, have at it with your suggestions.
Specific Questions:
Should I care more about making money or doing something that I have a "passion" for?
How will this allow me to maximize my production of utilons?
What else should I keep in mind?
After perusing advice from the comments and checking the details of the majors I listed above, the ones that seem to promise the most utility would be CompSci, Math/Mathematical Sciences, or "Economics and Mathematics/Statistics" (a single joined major, not a double major). I'm not particularly drawn to software design, so CS is an option I'd put on the backburner at this point. MathSci is a combination of CS, stats, and math; either that, or econ/stats or econ/math I think could open doors to good salaried employment (i.e., actuary, accountant, finance, various businesses(?), etc.). It would be easy to double major in one of those with HPS, or a minor in philosophy, which are flexible, and I can take cool courses like this. Studying neuroeconomics would be interesting grad work; this is motivating me to consider taking more psych/neuroscience.
On VC entrepeunership: to quote christina,
Not to begrudge those of you aiming for VC success, but I don't personally see myself as the ambitious kind who takes risks with my brilliant idea and succeeds in such a field. At least, not without some collaborators, which would hardly make it my business anyways. I consider questions posed on 80000 hours about career choice and utility too, but those are separate questions I'm not prepared to answer quite yet.
Thanks for the links from Study Hacks and other sites. I'm confident enough in my skills to have a life outside of a career so that my career won't define my life, unless I happen to fall into a really fun career anyways.