gistfile1.md

I've been in this boat, so maybe I can help a bit.

I went to a university for about three months before ultimately deciding to leave to pursue a job offer at a company I had applied to. I didn't actually end up going to that company because it was in San Francisco and I wanted to stay in my home state, but I did get a matching offer from the employer I had been with prior to leaving for school. It has been a year since then and it has been incredible and exciting but there certainly are downsides to choosing this lifestyle.

1. It is exhausting. I went through high school without exerting very much effort and the most challenging experiences I had were my job outside of school or related a girl or some other social drama. However, at the time it was very clear between me and my employer that I was still in high school and that it came first so I always had an excuse if I needed a break or just some time relax or cool off. Once I had signed my full-time employment contract that understanding was thrown off a very tall building and then shattered under the pressure of an immense amount of work. I was in no way prepared for as much stress or exhaustion as I endured at that job, and it was one of the biggest factors that led to me quitting. I'm sure freelancing has been stressful, but it's worth considering that you will not be prepared for the amount of stress that you will have to deal with if you choose this path either. Since leaving that job and taking another position at a startup, I have been incredibly happier. But guess what? That stress does not go away. I am able to manage it much better these days, but it took a long time for me to get to where I am now.

2. It is lonely. To be fair, I am not the most social or outgoing person, and maybe you're better at meeting new people, but this can be a numbingly difficult problem to manage. I've lived alone for almost a year, and I've grown to love it. Making and enforcing my own rules makes maintaining my lifestyle (ex. long hours, late nights, a lot of sleeping on the weekends) much easier. But outside of work, I don't spend a whole lot of time with other people. On weekdays, I generally get home late enough that I am too tired to do anything else, let alone make an active effort at maintaining multiple personal relationships. That being said, I still find time to see my (established) friends on the weekends and holidays (many of which go to school locally so I am immensely lucky in that regard); however, it isn't really enough to combat the loneliness, not to mention it can be quite the tiring endeavor. The nicest thing about college for me was just being around people, specially people who are my age. You will be the minority in the working world and that can be really terrifying and intimidating when you don't have others in similar positions surrounding you. In school, you can be afraid or worried or intimated but it doesn't matter because most of the people there probably are, too. And this quickly fades as it is far easier to get comfortable in an environment where you are part of the majority. College makes it easy to be social, whether you accept it or not. In the real world, where most people aren't going to be your age, you have to work several times harder to experience an even remotely similar level or intensity of social interaction. There are more details to this that I don't necessarily won't to speak about publicly, but I'd be happy to talk to you about it over email :)

3. Related to [2], it is a huge strain on your personal relationships, romantic or otherwise. That amount of time that I am able to devote to things other than work has gradually become a small fraction of what it once was. It has both effected my relationships with friends and family and has made maintaining a romantic relationship immensely difficult. I live fairly close to my parents, but I see them about once or twice a month. That is a significant source of support that has waned and I really wish I managed to resolve this, but the reality is that between my schedule and theirs, it becomes very hard. Most of my friends are still in school, which basically means to them having way more free time than I do. I am regularly asked to do things that I do not have the time for and that puts stress on friendships because it changes the dynamic that developed and existed during the duration of the friendship up until now. Romantic relationships are even more difficult because they require much more active engagement and effort that just does not exist in the startup world (in my experience, anyway; there is a minority that disagrees). I've recently, in the last four months, been dating a girl I've known for a while and it has not been easy. That's not to say it has not been worth it; it has and it's been fairly rewarding. But there have been many times were I was just too busy to maintain a sense of normalcy in the relationship and that leads to neglect, which is a recipe for disaster. This isn't the age to be dealing with things like this and is another source of stress you certainly do want or need.

All right, for the sake of a fair debate it should be known that I really love what I do and there are many positive factors that go into this decision.

1. You will learn SO MUCH. The amount of experience you get from working is incredible. Hands down. Yes, you will learn things in school. No, they won't always be directly applicable to what will be required of you once you leave. When you're working, you are forced by shear necessity to learn direct solutions to real world problems instead of problem sets. Working is like a hands on course in pragmatism and practicality. Additionally, you will likely be exposed to things that are beyond your domain and learn things that a university would have never taught you just through association with a colleague that sits near you. This is awesome. I am an Objective-C programmer with a background primarily in the C language of families, but in the last six months alone I've learned an amazing amount of information about web development that has really opened my mind to new ways of accomplishing things; it's mind-blowing what you can learn whilst working. However, you will learn a ton of things in school, too. And a lot of it is fundamental to your career. Can it be learned outside of school? Sure. Is it easier to just be told what the important, basic things are that you need to know. Absolutely. School is good at that; it takes out the work of coming up with a curriculum. Additionally, you will learn a lot of things in school that aren't necessarily even related to your education, such as social skills. This is important because the social game starts to take a twist after high school and there are things about interacting with people that you need to relearn and adjust to outside of the high school bubble.

2. You could feel potentially more motivated. I say potentially because this is one of the most subjective points and you might not feel the same. However, I'd wager that, like me, you might feel more enticed by your work and motivated to complete tasks by real users than by a grade on an exam. In school, I was entirely uninterested in my classes; I was only ever compelled to listen to one of my professors who taught an introduction to programming class with a functional language (Racket/Scheme) which I had never seen before so it had piqued my interest. However, these days I am excited to go to work every day and work out our product and be apart of it as it develops into something awesome. The immense amount of positive feedback we get from our users is one of the most motivating factors in my day to day work. And it makes me really care, to the point where even monotonous or difficult bug tracking doesn't phase me. It's a challenge to make the best product we can and I love it.

3. It can be really novel and fun. I don't know very many people who do what I do and that makes me feel interesting and different, and I really enjoy that. I have my own apartment and am not typically restricted by things that a typical teenager would be be tied to, such as a non-existent cash flow or parents. I can do things that many of my friends can't just because I have the freedom to do so and I can afford it. This can be really cool, especially at such a young age, and is probably one of my favorite parts of having this sort of lifestyle. That being said, keep in mind that life is REALLY FUCKING EXPENSIVE. I cannot stress this enough: your personal finances are always worse than you think they are, even when they're not. Live below your means, don't spend money recklessly, etc, etc. Maybe where you're from it is different, but for me I was never taught how to responsibly handle money. And I don't mean knowing how write a check or open a savings account. That's easy. With this lifestyle, you're thrown into the real world real quick. And the real world is not forgiving; you will have bills to pay and losing track of your finances is much, much easier than you think. Spending money is much easier than responsibly saving it and this can prove problematic when you sign your first employment contract. $80k might sound like a lot of money, but it quickly becomes nothing when you act like you're rich. My biggest piece of advice in this regard is to keep a 'buffer,' a sum of money as significant as you can afford that you never touch as a safety net when something happens or goes wrong. Because it will. And then it will happen again. Be prepared; you don't want to end up in a helpless situation, trust me. The next biggest piece of advice is to NEVER, EVER TELL ANYONE HOW MUCH MONEY YOU MAKE. Especially do not tell any of your friends; they will not treat you the same way anymore.

So, basically there are a lot of pros and cons to either direction. This is not a decision that comes down to answering a few yes or no questions. You need to put serious thought into it because it's a bigger decision than our industry seems to believe. Especially considering that it is not necessarily as easy to stop working and go back to school as it is vice versa.

If I had to give a generic piece of advice that sort of sums my overall feelings about such a decision, I would say to go to school; you'll have time to be an adult later in life. But obviously that doesn't apply to everyone and you should be considering all of the various factors before making a definitive decision.

Best of luck to you, and feel free to email me if you have any questions or want any more advice :)