Ask HN: If you could go back to study any CS-related field, what would it be?
As a former-dropout myself [1]: You might some of the courses utterly stupid now, and you might have many doubts about the usefulness of a degree, but I think ultimately a degree is very very much worth it, both intellectually and for logistics reasons. A degree will open doors to you, for example, most jobs will throw your resume right away if you don&#x27;t have a degree. Some countries won&#x27;t allow you to immigrate if you don&#x27;t have a degree. There are many dreams that require a degree.<p>The only reason that you can justify dropping out is that either (1) you think you can&#x27;t possibly learn anything useful from the professors that are teaching you and you&#x27;ll rebuild&#x2F;repay what you didn&#x27;t learn one day (and you better have to have a good answer when you&#x27;ll do that right now), or (2) when you have a grand startup like Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg. But I don&#x27;t think that&#x27;s why you&#x27;re wanting to drop out now. So don&#x27;t drop out. Keep pushing.<p>For me, I wish I learned assembly, kernel development, stats and machine learning. First two because I love to, the latter two because they are useful.<p>I am now almost finished with grad school, and I feel like I know nil. But in a very Lao-tzu way, I think the biggest enemy of mine is myself (the willing to sit my ass down and learn), not that these can&#x27;t be learned by myself. Lately, I think I somehow I overcame that problem and was able to read, learn and make a lot of stuff on my own. I think the same thing can be said about anyone who had the patience to get a degree as well: It means they are willing to deal with things they don&#x27;t totally enjoy to get what they want. As Lao-tzu said, patience is a good virtue by itself...<p>1: If you need to verify, read the entry called crankshaft #2 on my blog on my profile.