My future Tuesday, March 02 2010 - Personal

For those who haven't heard, I dropped out of college last month. I was failing classes again, and decided DeVry wasn't going to work out. I need to think of my future now more than ever. I can't give up on my education but instead keep trying to make something of myself. I believe this break from school will give me a chance to think, get my priorities straight, rest, and figure out what to do.

I'm also trying to figure out what I am going to do in regards to school. I might start ASU's Computing and Software Engineering degree. ASU is where I've wanted to go since the beginning, not Collins or DeVry. It will be much harder, but well worth it. I should be learning in the core classes instead of simply testing out of them. Hopefully, ASU will challenge me in the IT classes and not just general education. That by itself, will make me want to go to school. I did find it hard to make friends at DeVry, so hopefully I'll have better luck at ASU.
However, I'll have to save up enough money to pay for tuition before I can even enroll anywhere...

Comments

omochan on 3.02.2010 at 11:53 AM

i think it is a good idea. i'd give yourself a year to get things together and think a bit. you need the time. we're too quick to rush into college thinking that we need the education more than needing to understand who we are at that time. i think you need that time to understand who you are and what you want instead of going to college and making a major out of a hobby. i've seen so many people do that.... smh


fishbone on 3.02.2010 at 1:11 PM

Hey, on the bright side you are coming after Bill Gates ;-)

Anyway, I wish you the best and hope you'll find a fulfilling purpose. Education is very important to get ahead professionally. Obviously you have a passion for IT. Don't spend too much time contemplating. Or if you do then make the best of it and travel - experience things you won't be able to do with a FT job.


Dave on 3.02.2010 at 8:07 PM

I like what you have done with WHS Mobile.

The one thing I am having trouble with is the user permissions. I set up a new iphone access account with just read permissions but I am still able to delete files.


HunerX3 on 3.03.2010 at 1:30 PM

Brent,

Sometimes I think education is overrated. I agree its hard to get a good job without a 4yr degree, but I only have a 2yr degree and I am doing fine. Maybe if you expanded the WHSMobile to have a web interface or more features, you could gain some more customers and possibly grow your company into a profitable venture.


hANNES wURST on 3.03.2010 at 2:07 PM

I have been struggling with my degree for 20 years. I was going back and forth between jobs and university. When I made my master's degree, I was almost 40 years old. I don't think there is a general rule if it is worth spending that much time to get a degree. It depends on what you feel is right for you. I felt like it was almost impossible to get a degree because of all the formal overhead, all those regulations and all the courses one has to attend. I thought it would be like heaven to actually graduate. On the other hand I knew it would not help my carrier too much. Six months after graduation I got used to the feeling and in one way it felt like the effort really was not worth it. On the other hand, when I think about university and qualification now, I don't have this nagging feeling anymore. If you think that you will be one of those having this nagging feeling and that it will hold you back from any other things - then go for a degree and get it a.s.a.p, because your are only wasting time with the nagging feeling otherwise.

Does it have to be computer science, by the way? Looking at your skills I think you may not learn that much new there. If you are like me and you like the craft of engineering software, then you may not want to end up as an academic buzz word producer. Maybe think about getting a degree in a different discipline, like philosophy for example. You will find that people really don't mind if you graduated in engineering, they mostly mind (if they mind) if you graduated at all. If you happen to be good not only with software, but also with language, you may find it easy to get a degree there and maybe even get your PHD.

Happy trails!

hANNES


Martin on 3.07.2010 at 10:31 AM

Dude, having goals and sticking to them is a good thing! Just getting a degree anywhere when your dream is somewhere else isnt good enough, and you will thank yourself when you're old and look back on your life.

About the tuition: just made a couple of friends buy your app (they have no clue what it is, but they love how they can play music from "the internet" ;))


Ed on 3.19.2010 at 12:47 PM

I don't think you need to get a degree. If you're making iphone apps and WHS plugins you need a job. You can get one; hustle and find a small design firm or somewhere that needs an app developer. Show them what you've done. They'll hire you without a degree.

Too much emphasis is put on a degree. Several of my programmer friends have degrees, several don't. I have one, but it hasn't helped me nearly as much as having a passion for programming and being able to show potential employers what I've worked on. That, and I came very close to failing out of college. Had to spend my summers taking make-up calculus and algorithms.

Good luck, you've obviously talented, plus I bought WHS mobile and use it.


Steve on 3.31.2010 at 6:17 AM

Please release the source to WinFox so that we can finish your work on it...


Konrad Walsh on 4.20.2010 at 2:46 AM

Any chance of you doing this for android


Brent Friedman on 4.20.2010 at 11:31 PM

@Steve,

No need for WinFox anymore. Firefox 3.7 will have all those features nativity. In fact, you can use them already with the Firefox nightly builds. Please comment in the right blog post next time.

@Konrad Walsh,

If you mean porting WHS Mobile to Android, yes and no. No, I will not be making a native client for it. However, eventually there will be a client you can access via the phone's web browser. I had started that client but haven't finished it just yet.


Michel de Geofroy on 5.02.2010 at 11:06 AM

Brent,

You seem a bit out of focus, the reasons may be multiple, but my advice is to concentrate on what you are good at. It seems that you have alot of people that care about you and think you are talented, believe in your good star...if you have a good business plan than maybe I can find backers for your projects. Have a Great Day :)


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