[marktangotango]

I did this too, and I agree. IMO anything worth doing is non trivial. The project I took on had some really hard parts. Example: something akin to defining a relational schema for maintaining a model of c/c++ source code, before and after preprocessing (not exactly, but same idea minus the difficulty of parsing c++). This was one of about 5 'hard' problems. I got bogged down, and with no one to bounce ideas off, I became trapped in 'analysis paralysis'.

I gave up after 8 months and got a job. Now all I have to show for it is some source code, and a gap on my resume to explain.

[rifung]

I'll have to respectfully disagree with the idea that "anything worth doing is nontrivial." This might certainly be the case for you, but I would love to just spend some time learning Haskell, writing an OS for fun, reading papers on Theoretical Computer Science, or trying to find security exploits.

I don't think these things are hard, at least they certainly aren't things I would doubt myself to be able to do. These are just things I'm sure I could do today if only I had more time, and at least to me these are definitely worth thing for one reason: they make me happy

[smikhanov]

    > I would love to just spend some time learning Haskell,
    > writing an OS for fun, reading papers on Theoretical
    > Computer Science, or trying to find security exploits.

What you describe sounds like what students do in a university. Maybe you should consider another degree in CS?

[rifung]

Indeed I didn't finish my degree and would love to go back and even get a PhD! But.. it doesn't make much financial sense right now, especially when you consider that the earlier you save and invest the better the outcome, so I'm waiting till the time is right.

[dasmoth]

If you'd enjoy the structure of university life, that's certainly worth considering.

But if you're happy doing it independently, why pay $lots (and add at least some extra bureaucracy) to "make it official"?

[marktangotango]

But is learning haskell worth the risk of quitting full time employment and living off of savings for x number of months or years? That is the context of this thread, and my statement.

[dasmoth]

How much trouble does the resume gap cause you?

The idea that everyone should want to have a job all the time seems like a strange distortion in the labour market.

[Kaizyn]

I bet you now know a lot about parsing and the relational schemas and managing models now. You'll hit a problem again where this turns out to be valuable knowledge. Even a failed experiment if the problem is interesting enough is fruitful for improving your thinking about hard problems. Once you get past being disappointed over the experience, you'll probably find that a second attenpt at cracking the problem gets you further.