[zapman449]

I guess it depends on what else you're doing. If you're in High School still, suck it up and finish with high marks and be done.

As for college, there are two theories on that: on one hand, a college degree from a good school still caries a lot of weight with people, and it's a great networking tool. You'll meet some great people as well, and you might even learn something (though at your presumed skill level, you probably won't learn much of value until your junior/senior level CompSci classes. More valuable might be hitting CompEngineering or Electrical Engineering instead.

There's another theory which says 'skip college, do a startup', and there's lots of good reasons to take that route as well. It'll be less fun, more work, but possibly more lucrative, and you'll have much more 'working world' experience when you're done than your college friends.

As for 'what should you learn?' My MO for that is 'when in doubt, go deeper in the stack'. Those who truly understand the entire architecture of computers, and know how to drive the maximum performance out of it will always be in demand.

Also, work on the people skills. Learning to be a better communicator and how to connect with people will never be wasted. Negotiation is a skill to work on as well.

[aviraldg]

I'm still in High School. It's extremely boring.

As for the "deeper in the stack bit", I've gone all the way down to assembler (don't ask, I wanted to program for the Game Boy; wouldn't do it again even if someone paid me a lot of $$$)

Never been too good with people though, but I'm working on it. :)

[zapman449]

Trust me. I get it. But if you don't have the HS diploma, it'll be something you have to explain for YEARS. People have certain expectations for others, even in high tech. The HS Diploma is one of those things. The college diploma still has a lot of the same stigma, though it's weakening. This stigma is a risk you'll have to weigh in your college or startup decision as well.

As for 'deeper in the stack', well, learning assembly in various guises is a good first step. Understanding how the pieces fit together, and how to make things faster is the next. I'm not sure if you're ready to start absorbing Knuth and the Art of Computer Programming (for reference, I'm not sure I am either), but that might be a good start too.

Oh, and another thing: understand the math. Learn the math behind this computer stuff. Understand how to measure the complexity and cost of a given algorithm. Something that might help there is Project Euler. It's something I enjoy hacking on when I have free time.

<-- hopes my children learn to code like you have.

[aviraldg]

I gave up on TAOCP after the proof of the first algorithm (which is around 2-3 pages long!) It's still on my TO-DO list :P

[jeremyarussell]

Yeah high school was super boring to me to. Looking back I would have tried harder to conquer my ADD/ADHD and focus on any of the ideas I had at the time. If I was you I'd throw all your passion into the one most passionate project you have. And run with it. Use kickstarter after a prototype is done and get some funding that way, etc.

[bhousel]

>Never been too good with people though, but I'm working on it. :)

Working on it how? It's really the most important thing there is...

[aviraldg]

Open source projects, camps, etc. I wouldn't exactly say that I'm bad with people, but rather that I lack ... leadership skills.