High schooler needs some life advice

[throw_away101]

Greetings. I am currently in my senior year of high school and quite ambivalent about starting a new chapter in life: college. I have been a studious person throughout my schooling and have had a keen interest in technology from a very early age. Now, coming to the main point. I feel this unresistible urge to put in hard work towards becoming someone in life. I've observed that the older people become, the drive or ambition to get out there is slowly eroded. Sometimes a hoard of responsibilities gets in the way, or simply the elixir of youth has given up. I do need to be clear that I am not being ageist in the slightest degree. I extremely value age and experience, and this high regard is what led me to write this post. These statements reflect internal fears, which, quite literally, keep me up at night. I want to work on some project, some initiative. But, the requisites for doing so are just too much. Especially with how technology is evolving. I had an idea about 2 years ago about building a chatbot that answers questions and marks papers from my high school curriculm. However, neither do I have the skills to build such a project, and even if I wanted to learn to do so, I have no clue where to start .Furthermore, there is also a lingering question: Do I even need to do it all by myself. I mean, things certainly don’t work that way in the real world. But not having a single professional work experience causes me to feel overwhelmed by the logistics of working in a team to build something. ‘Vibe coding’ is a term that made me chuckle when I first read it here on HN. I’ve been doing it for over two years now. To state the obvious, it’s an okay aid, but I was only confident in doing so because of my basic background in web development—something I lack when it comes to more advanced topics. With vibe coding, I can build something fairly basic, but when it comes to the technical aspects of a project, there’s no easy way around it. To sum it all up. I feel that time is running out, and I need to do something impactful in life. Something impactful, to me, means doing a big project or an initiative. I have good ideas, and I know I can execute them. However, I lack the technicalities to build something all by myself. I apologize in advance if something I said sounds too trivial One more question: if u could do it all over again, what would you be doing at my age? Thank you and have a great day!

[taylodl]

Assuming you're an American, here's something I told my kids when they were your age (and they're not much older than you): Think about broadening your horizons.

The truth is, the United States has been going through some pretty rough times for a while now. And when systems start to break down, the process can be slow at first—like a ship that’s been leaning for hours, making people feel like there's all the time in the world to react. But then, sometimes without much warning, things fall apart quickly.

Why does this matter to you? Because if you're just starting out in life, you want to be building your future somewhere with real opportunities and stability. That doesn't necessarily mean you have to leave, but it does mean keeping your eyes open and considering all your options.

If you decide to go to college, just be careful about piling up debt. Financial freedom will give you the flexibility to move, change plans, or adapt to whatever comes your way. And if you get a chance to travel or even live abroad, it can be one of the most eye-opening experiences you can have.

I'm not saying this to scare you, but to help you think strategically about your future. Keep your options open and stay adaptable. That's the best advice I can give.

[throw_away101]

Thank you for your response.

I'm not American, but I will likely be starting college there in the coming fall. What you've said has made me reconsider my options.

I have received an offer from a T5 College in the UK and am awaiting decisions from big US colleges. As of now, the only places I've been accepted in America are CWRU, some LACS, and FSU. Not too tempting options.

The only reason in my mind to take the leap for US is that their might be a smoother roadmap to grad school, if I did my undergrad there.

I might have to think this through.

[taylodl]

Unfortunately, with Trump's attack on higher education and defunding research in the US, grad school may look entirely different than it does now. The sad thing is with Trump at the helm, the crystal ball gets hazy 4 weeks into the future, let alone 4 years. That's the definition of chaos, you can't plan.

[rvz]

The first step (which you are correctly doing) is to ignore the fads and distractions such as "vibe coding".

It gives the illusion to newcomers that they think they understand how the program works internally provided by the LLM, but when it makes a mistake, both of you have no clue how to maintain the software. So it is good that you see it as an aid and not as a substitute.

But knowing where and when to dive into the details is what gives the advantage over others who get stuck when "vibe-coding".

> if u could do it all over again, what would you be doing at my age?

You want to be ambitious and work on hard problems? I would sign up here [0].

[0] https://www.livetheresidency.com

[pavel_lishin]

> I've observed that the older people become, the drive or ambition to get out there is slowly eroded.

I'm in my early 40s. At this point, my ambition is to earn money that I can spend on my family and on my hobbies. From the outside, it probably very much looks like I'm un-ambitious and un-driven. From the inside, I'm having a good time.

> I feel that time is running out

You're 18. It is not running out. It's amazing how much time you have ahead of you.

[rawgabbit]

At 18 I was broke but got a full scholarship and worked my butt off the next four years. If I had money I would travel. The most rewarding travel I have had was to Japan. Very safe, friendly (at least it was 30 years ago), and it opened my eyes to a completely different way of life.

I also enjoyed visiting Rome and Paris very much. The literally touched the historical places I read about my entire life. The Coliseum, St Peter’s, the Eiffel Tower, seeing the famous artwork and statues was also awe expiring.

In short, travel gave me self confidence in that I could adapt to any city and it helped reinforce my faith that life is worth living.

[RGamma]

To add to the other advice: Organize, curate and archive your info, documents and media. Make backups. Having physical books doesn't hurt either. It's a bit more effort each time but it's gonna pay dividends and is useful on any path you take.

When I was your age, we used to say that the internet doesn't forget and I even used to think it would become a great public library. Well...

[prosaic-hacker]

TL;DR Don't sweat the future, it will mess up eventually. Just Do something now that is productive for a while and don't be afraid to change you mind or your job.

Doing the same thing I have been doing since I was your age. Learning some that interest me now that could be useful.

Started out as a math and science geek: Organic Chemistry was the target. Two chance encounters: one with two real working chemists that warned me to get a PHD to get a real job. I was to impatient to do that much school so the second chance encounter was with a obsolete computer that was plotting graphs and space games on paper. Three years os CS later I was working on Flight Simulation. The 1st PC era happened and 5 years later I switched to install 1st gen PC networks. Then Unix got big and I did Sysdmin on that for a while. Then Perl programing which morph into webdev for handful of years.

Then I was "old" at least to the HR 15 guy, years my junior, who would not hire me, so I became a manager. Then there were to many managers I went back to school and got an accounting degree. Did that for a bunch of years and started teaching System Administration. Now looking for my next obsession.

[p_ing]

> what would you be doing at my age

Go to college and become an astrophysicist instead of someone who's work is EOL in two years or less.

[getwiththeprog]

Life begins at 40 ;)

One step at a time and you'll get there.