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HappySqurriel on 19 October 2012
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Immortal said:
HappySqurriel said:
Immortal said:
I'm currently a high school student.
In the long term, my current intentions are to try something with philosophy or pure mathematics and consequently live in a garbage can, probably surviving off of unemployment benefits and the fact that I'm in a rich country.


If you can handle pure mathematics you will have no problem doing pure-mathematics and computer science at the same time; and will (potentially) end up with a job with decent pay that you probably will enjoy.


Key word: "try". I love math and think I'm pretty good at it, but at 15 years old, what the hell do I know? I may actually suck, which rather kills that hypothesis.

Besides, even if I were that good, I think I'm too idealistic to do something like computer science, which I don't care for, just for the sake of getting a decent job that I can live with. Doing something I consider worthwhile is immensely more important to me than living under a roof. Of course, I say this rather as a spoilt brat with no experience living in anything close to poverty, but reality is not likely to come crashing in my face until after I've graduated from college and made all the wrong decisions.

I guess I could still end up in a decent situation while sticking to what I like since not all of my interests are as impractical as math or philosophy, but that seems unlikely, so I'm keeping the garbage can option open.

Enjoying mathematics actually makes choosing a career much easier ...

If you enjoy puzzles and abstract problem solving software developer is a good path, if you enjoy more number-crunching types of problems you may prefer to be an actuary or accountant, and if you enjoy real-world problem solving being an engineer is a good choice.

Most things people enjoy doing have careers which require those skills, and I would just suggest that most people think about ways to merge what they enjoy doing with what is actually a career when they go to college.