AnarchoCarpetalist

Alright guys, after thinking it over for a while and considering the risks and different opinions I've decided I'm not going back to college. I have backup plans in case things don't work out, and I'm going to continue to work full time on my business. Thanks for the advice!

I've been working on it like a full time job ~8-10 hours a day. Still taking a while to work out though because I need to learn a lot of engineering and business concepts as I'm going.

Yeah, I'm working on my business right now, although it's still in the early stages (developing the minimum viable product)

Along with Stef's recent video on the topic of the Ferguson Shooting, what is your take on this? This campaign seems like a great way to guilt white people into paying money for t-shirts and wristbands so they can appear not-racist.

Hey Dan! I've already made a semi-functioning prototype for an automated water tester and doser that I'm planning on turning into a real product. How much would it cost for you to critique/help me on my design? Do you have any experience with getting things in to production also? Feel free to PM me if you want to get into specifics

Read Water Wars by Diane Raines Ward. It goes into a lot of information on the ethics of engineering certain water systems and their effects on the long term health of the environment and the people. It also has a couple parts about some engineers being prosecuted for engineering a certain water structure wrong or something. Sorry, it's been quite a while since I read it, but I remember it had a lot of examples of engineering ethics in it.

I actually am into animation as well! I've been considering doing freelance work for that for a while, but I've been focusing on other things mostly. My product is an automated water tester and doser for aquariums. It would basically measure all of the important parameters that most automatic water testers don't and it would give the user data on their water over time as well as the option for email alerts and the like if the water gets out of whack. It's going to be an open-source project/product. I already have a prototype in the making that works mechanically, I just need to learn a bit more about electronics to get them fully integrated into the prototype.

Yeah, I absolutely couldn't stand school when I went to it last year. Maybe it's because I was trying to focus 100% on academics instead of drinking and girls (the academics were absolutely terrible). Maybe if I go to college for its true intended purpose (getting a piece of paper after 4 years of non-stop partying) then I might have fun. But then again that's completely ridiculous and a waste of money. I am super close to having a working product that I can sell, so I just want to launch and see what happens. That's true that I can always finish school later if need be. Also I checked to the Praxis thing. It's pretty cool, thanks for the link, although I'm not sure whether that curriculum would be right for me, but I'll look into more. Haha, yeah I guess it does sound pretty silly in that light. I should at least go for my most desirable plan first.

From firsthand experience (my brother is severely mentally retarded) I know how unbelievably hard it can be to raise and live with a severely mentally handicapped person. We're not talking about people who are a bit slow, but people like my brother who no matter what will never learn to add 2 + 2, will never learn to read and will never be able to find even part time employment. Of course I love my brother a huge amount, but one of the great hypotheticals of my life is "would I, my parents, and society be better off if he was born 'normal'? Or perhaps not born at all?" Most people with downs syndrome can find some sort of employment or independence, but when you have someone that literally will have to be babysat and talked to like a 3 year old for their entire life, I don't know, it just seems different to me. It's not like raising a child where they gradually change and grow up and become independent. My brother is in his 20s and will always have the mentality of a 3-4 year old. I guess I don't really have anything to add to the argument, just that I think the fetus/baby's happiness isn't the only one to be considered in some situations. I really don't like arguing from consequences instead of first principles, but just feeling empathy for my parents it makes me... maybe not sad but I guess uncomfortable about bringing more eternally dependent people into this world.

Here's one I just thought of. In a world where cannibalism is the main form of taxation (centralized stealing of your physical body instead of just the labor from that body) the equivalent argument would be Cannibalism feeds hundreds of thousands of people! Yes, it is true that cannibalism feeds hundreds of thousands of people, but besides the obvious moral fact that killing and eating people without their consent is WRONG, it's a completely inefficient system that doesn't benefit most people. In order for the cannibals (people who depend on the state) to get food they have to steal someone else's life and body (their labor and assets). It's an inherently unfair and non-universal system because someone always has to lose (get eaten/be taxed) in order for someone else to benefit (eat/have a government job). Forced cannibalism inherently always steals from the productivity of the cannibalized. You will almost never get the equivalent calories from cannibalism as you will with having the people-to-be-cannibalized use their calories directly. What we're advocating is that we stop the collectivized cannibalism. There's plenty of foods that you can get that aren't human meat and still meet all of the nutritional standards. We don't need centralized cannibalism to get our daily protein intake just like we don't need the government for healthcare!

That's a really interesting dilemma. It could be argued (although it's a tough issue and I'm not taking a firm stand either way) that the invention of nuclear weapons actually prevented and is preventing a lot of large scale conflicts because of Mutually Assured Destruction. One could argue that a nuke could be in a sense ethically used if it's just the intimidation of the weapon and not the actual detonating of it. Of course I would never advocate for actually using a nuclear weapon under any circumstance, but just carrying one to show that you will not tolerate being aggressed against MAY in some cases be justified.

If I knew I couldn't fail I absolutely wouldn't go to college. A 'success' to me would be to create and build up my business to the point that it can sustain itself and I can either sell it or continue expanding it. I want to feel like I'm actually making a difference in the world by making a useful product that no one has ever thought of before. Not just that, but I want to empower the causes that I'm passionate about through my new technology. In my utopia world I would be a full-time serial entrepreneur who starts business after business, and doesn't have 100% success, but the failures aren't so drastic I need to take up other jobs or go into huge amounts of debt. I absolutely don't need college for that utopian vision of mine, but I'm still not sure how much college would help me in case it doesn't work out. That's a good point. I actually have been learning to code and get good with computers because I could potentially land a decent job with a good portfolio and a few years of experience. I'm 100% sure of what I want to do, I'm just trying to figure out if college would be a worthy investment as a backup. I LIKE engineering, but without having the autonomy to invent the things I'm passionate about in a way I'd enjoy, engineering would probably feel like a high-paying starbucks job to me. My end goal IS sort of to be an engineer, but it goes further than that. I want to be an engineer and inventor of revolutionary products as well as someone who gets those products out into the world in the best way. You're also right about the fact that college is a scam and only worth it if your degree can make you more money than the equivalent experience. You're starting to make me think I should build up other skillsets (like computer science) as a backup for a job instead of a college degree. And also, thanks for the thorough response, this is helping me see some different perspectives.

Thanks for the advice. You're right. There's probably not going to be any easy answers for what I should do. It's hard to say what I'm willing to risk. Going to college might help me with my business goals if I can use some of their resources to help my business, but it might be a huge time drain on my true goals in life... My experience of college in this last year has been that it has been a complete and utter waste of time and money. That might change if I switch to a new college, and it's possible that I just got unlucky with a bunch of awful teachers. Yeah, it's true, it's just about risk mitigation. Maybe the least risky option in terms of finances is to go to college and get the degree. Since it's my first business I'm not expecting it to work out perfectly. I'm hoping to learn a lot from the experience of starting this business, but ultimately I want to gain the skills to start a series of successful ventures in the future. I guess it's not the end of the world if school gets in the way of this business because there's always going to be other entrepreneurial opportunities after I get done with school. So I think I'm leaning more toward the option of starting up school again. It seems like the most risk-mitigating option.

I may not have any advice to help you, but I want to say that I had sort of a similar experience in this last year of college. The education was completely mediocre which made me extremely resentful of being there. I generally am fairly extroverted, but I really hate parties and drinking and doing dumb reckless things just because everyone else is doing them. I talked to hundreds of people and made a lot of acquaintances, but not really any friends. Everyone I talked to told me "yeah the classes in the first two years usually suck, but it gets better after junior year" and "just go to more clubs you'll find some good friends". Part of me really wants to believe those things, but honestly almost everything I've seen has made me pretty cynical of college. I'm also trying to start my own business. I'm sort of in your same boat. I don't really like college but should I get this degree just as a backup?

First off, hi! It's my first time posting, looking forward to talking to y'all. I really would appreciate your feedback on this sort of thing, especially if you’ve been in a similar position.Second off, some background.Last year was my freshman year at Colorado State University studying environmental engineering. I hated it (and the school in general) for a variety of reasons. Right now I'm taking the semester off (we're allowed to take a single semester off at my university with no penalty/paperwork) and I've been living at home with my parents. Next semester I have to make the decision to either1.) Go back to CSU2.) Apply to and transfer to a different collegeor 3.) Drop outMy mom really wants me to go to college. She feels like I might go down an undesirable life path if I don’t go to college. I would try to convince her that I’ll be able to be successful without college, but I’m not 100% sure myself if I would like to go to college or not. The main reason I would want to go to college is just to get a degree as a backup in case my entrepreneurial endeavors don’t work out. I probably would get a degree in some sort of engineering, either electrical or mechanical.I know with fair certainty that I want to be an entrepreneur as my profession. The option that I’ve been considering most is transferring to a university that’s closer to home and working on my business as I get my degree.Would doing full time university with entrepreneurship on the side be a waste of time and money or a helpful backup in case things don’t work out?More relevant information: I’m fortunate enough to have a college fund from my grandparents and so student debt will likely not be a problem. Also I’ve already invented and made a semi-functioning prototype of a product that I think has a lot of potential to make moneyThanks for the help