[random32840]

1. A large (and growing) chunk of the industry considers object oriented programming to be absolutely terrible, but that's what they'll teach you in college. Learn functional programming and data-oriented programming in your spare time before your mind has completely set into OO. Make each of the three approaches intuitive. It will be way better for you down the road, and it will help you actually evaluate which approach is best. There's a lot of dogma on each side.

2. In my opinion it's cliche to say "social skills are more important than just the ability to program". Totally depends on what you're actually doing. If your job is to optimise server farms, they're going to pay you based on how many CPU cycles you save, not your ability to present to management. If you measurably reduce power consumption, you could be completely mute and it would be fine. You'll earn crazy money.

Play to your strengths. If you have poor social skills, find a niche where that doesn't matter. A good heuristic is whether performance is measurable. If it is, it matters less that you have trouble communicating it.

3. "Minor in Something Fun" is common advice & fine if your degree was cheap. It's terrible advice if you're going into $150k of debt. If something goes wrong in that situation, you're screwed. Minor in something that you can fall back on.

What if you develop RSI and lose the ability to type large volumes of text? That's the point of a minor, it's a backup plan. Life is unpredictable, when you have $150k of non-dischargeable debt it's much better to have a minor in "engineering" than "ultimate frisbee".

[Gibbon1]

> What if you develop RSI and lose the ability to type large volumes of text?

4. Never ever let an employer work you to the point that you get RSI. Let them fire you first.

5. Ditto your mental health.

6. Learn to say no.

[aliceryhl]

Man I wish preventing RSI was this simple. I have had growing RSI issues for nearly two years now and I just don't know what I can even do to stop it..

It isn't just using computers; so many things require using my hands. Reading a book causes it unless I use a stand, writing on paper causes it, using a phone causes it, cooking can cause it, sometimes I even get it from using knife/fork when eating.

When RSI is causing me trouble, I just can't do anything at all besides taking a walk or watching a movie, and sometimes I just need to _make_ something.

I've started to learn voice control software for my computer, but it is going to take a lot of practice and configuration until I can be productive this way.