Doing more study? Why and what?

Journal alien_blueprint's Journal: Doing more study? Why and what? 2

Journal by alien_blueprint on Sunday October 17, 2004 @09:20AM

So this idea of doing more formal study has entered into my head for one reason or another.

Could be because of the looming threat of "outsourcing" - although honestly the only time I've noticed its supposed vast negative effect has been here on /., so maybe it's just hype or maybe I'm insulated somehow. Could be because I've always felt that pure programming can't possibly last long as a profession. Actually it never really has existed - outside of academia you're building systems for some actual purpose. It's just that being a domain expert (or even vaguely clueful) was never really taken seriously, you were/are allowed to change at the drop of hat, and I tend to think maybe we should consider this more carefully. That is, pick some field that has an actual use for computing and get into that. There's also the problem that as I get older the body of "stuff I don't know" seems to be getting larger and larger. And as an all-round smart-alec since the first year of school that just bugs the shit out of me. Of course, I'll just have to learn to live with it - our lives are far too finite, sadly, and I'm never going to cover everything :(

Anyway, I pick at various topics that interest me (number theory a bit lately for some convuluted reasons) but without any kind of structure I put a book down, leave it for weeks, read something else, come back, etc. So I think I need the external discipline. I also can't get any pointers when stuck - and after literally weeks of research I discover what some tutor could have told me in 0.5 seconds. Usually I've gone off on a tangent without realizing, and that's a bit frustrating.

So the question becomes - what? My instinct is some really hard-core maths and/or science stuff, because I'm just interested in how things work and that lies at the bottom of it. But from the "protection against outsourcing" point of view that's useless - there's no reason a Malaysian can't do, say, Computational Chemistry or whatever (waves at gnuLNX). But then again, what is "safe"? Are we stuck forever on the treadmill of re-training? Doing this part-time will take at least 6 years, I'd say. I won't be able to do it again in all likelihood. I should choose wisely - but on the other hand there's not really anything that isn't theoretically in danger in time.

So I look at stuff like law, but being the science bigot I don't consider that to be intrinsically "hard" enough. Intellectually, that is. I'm sure there's lots of work involved. But like I said I'm a bigot, so what do I know? :) Like most of my kind, I just dismiss things with "no hard maths" with extreme prejudice. Maybe I should grow out of that? Maybe such things are interesting, somehow, in reality. But that's hardly out-sourcing proof either. Sure, someone has to turn up in court, but I get the impression that represents about 1% of the jobs available to law graduates. The rest are ripe for out-sourcing.

That's far too many times that I've mentioned out-sourcing. Like I said, it's barely impinged on me in real life - however I can't help but feel with this outstandingly paranoid early warning system that is the internet I should at least take it into account.

There's also the various humanities to consider, but although I can obviously see that being a well-known (or even vaguely recognisable in certain circles) journalist or author or historian (*) or whatever is clearly out-sourcing proof, I just can't get past the whole "I want to do something really brain-bendingly hard" thing. I know, as is stated in Pulp Fiction, "That's just pride, fucking with you", but I can't get past it. It's hard-wired I think.

I've looked at bizarre combinations, but it doesn't look like anyone can cater for that.

So that's my plight. What to do, what to do? I have managed to move myself closer to a field I might be able to take a long-term interest in, by changing jobs (out of finance and into defence), so that's a start, definitely, but it's not enough really. I don't want to leave it for another year, that smacks of one of those "something I intend to do but never will" deals - on the other hand the deadline for applying for next year is fast approaching.

(*) Historians are an interesting one. With the popularity of things like "The History Channel", people who know this stuff and can communicate it effectively are suddenly hot property. I saw an article about this on the web recently somewhere, and it turns out that all of a sudden history faculties can't find staff because all the potential employees have been lured away with (for a historian) ludicrous amounts of money. It's a funny old world, I guess.

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.