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pianoforte611 comments on Open thread, 11-17 March 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion
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Request for some career advice:
I am planning on pursuing computer science as a double major (along with art). I'm doing this mainly for practical reasons - right now I feel like I don't really care about money and would rather enjoy my life than be upper-class, but I want to have an option available in case these preferences change. I enjoyed CS classes in high school, but since coming to college, I have found CS classes, while not profoundly unpleasant, to basically be a chore. In addition to this, my university is making it needlessly difficult for me to choose CS as a second major. This has lead me to rethink - is CS really worth it? After researching it a bit, it seems like CS genuinely is worth it. From what I hear, programming jobs pay very well, are easy to find, have good working conditions, and seem to relatively easily facilitate a 4-hour-workweek lifestyle, should one choose to pursue it. No other career path seems to be able to boast this.
Am I correct in thinking this? Is a computer science degree worth it even if it means a lot of drudgery during college? Conventional wisdom seems to be no - "don't try to major in something you don't enjoy" is something I've heard a few times. But that seems kind of idealistic.
The alternatives would be econ or math, both of which I am fairly unfamiliar with and find sort of interesting but don't exactly have a passion for.
For reference, my current preferred careers are, in order:
Given that I am also pretty young, I'm not exactly qualified to give career advice. That said my sort of Gladwellian position on the matter is that you don't get to be someone like Hideo Kojima or Steve Jobs, or a more local example Yudkowsky by working your way up and taking what people give you. You need to
1) Have some level of natural ability. 2) Choose the right thing to focus on that has a good chance of success. 3) Be willing to fight for your dream. This is the hardest part, because anyone who enjoys self-made success has had to overcome numerous failures, false starts, and periods of time where it just seemed too difficult or hopeless. You have to be persistent, have endurance and never be willing to settle for "just good enough".
More specifically to you, you don't seem to want to be a programmer - the guy who contributes to the behind the scenes work of a video game and perhaps creates the AI. You want to be someone whose creative vision for the game turns it into something that lots of people will enjoy. And it doesn't even have to be video games specifically. Is that about right?
In that case, start now. Don't focus on making a super fun video game. Just figure out how to make anything. Maybe start with a pong variant. Get in lots of practice. Start getting publicity for your work through maybe newgrounds. Aggressively publicize your work once you feel confident in your abilities. Develop connections with other people in the industry if you can. All of this generalizes to art in general not just video games.
Truth be told though, there are many people who share your dream. It's not easy, you can do everything right and still not succeed. Having a job as a programmer or graphics designer is a reasonable "safe" fallback. But if you are serious about desiring greatness it will take a lot of effort and initiative.