Ask HN: I'm an incoming freshman to college for a CS major, what should I know?

Re:Ask HN: I'm an incoming freshman to college for a CS majo... by sosodev on Sunday May 31, 2020 @07:46PM (#23374124)

HN is probably the worst group to ask for advice. Most people here take their careers way too seriously.

You’ll notice that most people here are telling you to do some specific set of actions but few of them overlap significantly. That’s because there aren’t “right” things for you to do. They’re just pushing their biases on you.

I’d argue that you just take it easy and do whatever makes you happy. You can definitely still be successful that way.

I just finished my CS degree from a no-name state school with a below 3.0 gpa. But I still found a job making six figures (really good pay for my area) before I graduated. I attribute most of my success to the various pieces of software I wrote for fun. Just little things on my GitHub that helped me land a couple of internships.

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Re:Ask HN: I'm an incoming freshman to college for a CS majo... by MaxBarraclough on Sunday May 31, 2020 @08:12PM (#23374313)

'Take it easy' seems like terrible advice. A computer science degree is the foundation of a tech career.

The opportunity to build a solid foundation shouldn't be squandered, even if you aren't planning on being a workaholic careerist. A strong degree opens doors.

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Re:Ask HN: I'm an incoming freshman to college for a CS majo... by sosodev on Sunday May 31, 2020 @08:39PM (#23374472)

You’re totally entitled to feel that way but I personally think the social pressure to work yourself harder than necessary is just plain wrong. I know that’s not a popular opinion here and that was my point.

I met so many people while earning my degree that were stricken with anxiety about making the “wrong” choices. Often times these people ended up suffering by spreading themselves thin and ultimately accomplishing less than they would have otherwise.

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Re:Ask HN: I'm an incoming freshman to college for a CS majo... by random32840 on Monday June 01, 2020 @03:30AM (#23376114)

> take it easy and do whatever makes you happy

Great advice if what makes you happy also happens to be lucrative. I did this, and it was a huge mistake I'm still paying for 7+ years later.

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Re:Ask HN: I'm an incoming freshman to college for a CS majo... by sosodev on Monday June 01, 2020 @03:17PM (#23382508)

I was pretty sure we're still in the context of CS, which tends to be pretty lucrative.

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Re:Ask HN: I'm an incoming freshman to college for a CS majo... by reillyse on Monday June 01, 2020 @05:37AM (#23376723)

100% agree. Just have fun and be happy. You'll have your entire life to work after you finish college. Meet people, make friends, do stupid shit and party. Your college friends will be the last big influx of friends in your life so make lots of them. Also, you get to completely reinvent yourself aka grow, so don't worry about who you were in high school, you get to be an adult now. Enjoy!

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