Not sure if anyone actually cares about this, but, here we go...
I changed majors at school this semester. In doing so, I'd also changed my life goals to an extent. Why? Well, my needs, wants and tastes in life have changed. Also, it turns out that Computer Science isn't going to be what I thought.
I switched majors to Business Administration so that I'll know how to run the small business I really want to create. The ideas have been in my head (and a few drafts of a business plan document) for years now. It's time to bring that wonderful idea to fruition. I'm tired of pushing things off and chasing a dollar just to keep bills paid. If I do that, I'll never be anything but a corporate wage slave until the day that I die. That is obviously unacceptable.
I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned any of my business ideas here in this blog before or not. However, I can promise that they will make money. They don't have to make me a millionaire. They just have to keep me happy and reasonably comfortable in life. No need to chase some Cadillac dream. I prefer a Buick or a good Chevrolet.
I can't say that I expected life to take this kind of turn at this moment in time, but I'm not upset about it, either. Here are the reasons why...
1.) Too much course work for me to handle while also dealing with adult responsibilities.
In addition to my schoolwork, I'm also taking care of a house, a car and an aging parent. Mom isn't crippled, but I am the one that mows her yard and takes care of her dog when she's working late/out of town/etc. I'm also the only one of her children that still live here in New Orleans. It's also unreasonable to expect that my siblings living in New York or Texas can do anything for her if she has an immediate need. I refuse to provide any examples here since that would violate another person's privacy. However, I am sure that people in my audience can use their imagination on this one.
2.) It creates a very poor work/life balance, both in school and beyond.
I've already dealt with that Bravo Sierra when I was in the Army
and when working as an insurance adjuster. All it did was adversely affect my mental, physical and spiritual health. Working so much is also something that probably contributed to my father dying from a heart attack last year.
Never again.
Never will I allow myself to become a slave to a paycheck at any time in the future. It just doesn't end well. Especially not since I now have a lot more financial flexibility in life. And that leads us to...
3.) I refuse to (literally or figuratively) chase a Dollar. Especially if it leads me out of town...
I've heard talk about how this major has a 100% placement rate for employment, grads being hired by Google, Netflix, et al. and Dollar amounts that are upward of $90,000/year or more. However, they don't say if that's going to be here in New Orleans. I am not going to move away again, especially if they're asking me to move to some Christ-forsaken place like Commiefornia. I lived in that state for 3 months when I was an insurance adjuster. That state is filled to the brim with the most arrogant
assholes that I have ever encountered. No thanks.
New Orleans is my home. New Orleans is where I own a home.
New Orleans is where I belong. I'm not sure how to explain that, but it is true. Besides, what's the point of making $90,000/year or more if you have no free time and hate your job? Large bank roll or not, you'll just be a miserable piece of shit. Poor Dad also had that problem with virtually
every job that he ever had. The only job that he ever spoke well of was his time working for his uncle Charlie at a junkyard in New Orleans East. The work was hard and the pay was probably low, but he seemed to be fond of that job. Or, at least proud of his accomplishments there. Go figure... Either way, the lesson I take from that story is that job satisfaction is far more important than money.
Furthermore, I don't really need a lot of money. My disability check from the VA covers my mortgage and utility bills. How much more would I really need? Based on my estimates using my current costs of living, just getting about $20,000/year after taxes would cover everything that the disability check doesn't. Looks like I managed to get myself into a life position that is considerably better than I might have otherwise guessed. Hope that inflation doesn't screw me over like the 'Great Depression that we're just going to call a Recession' of 2008 did...
I'll probably need a lot more when/if I ever get married and have children, but that would have to happen first. I'll just cross that bridge when I come to it further down the road. If the Lord really wants me to be a husband and father, he'll find a way to make it possible for me. I hope that I don't have to wait much longer, either. I'm 36 now. If I wait too much longer, I'll probably reach retirement age when my kids are graduating High School. That just seems wrong to me.
Either way, I'm not making myself miserable just to collect more fiat currency that only has value because Uncle Sam says it does.
4.) My tastes in life have changed over the years...
For my permanent career, I'm leaning more towards wanting to run a business rather than something strictly technical. (And isn't it sad that I still don't have a permanent career at the age of 36? Something has gone terribly wrong in our society...)
Technology will be involved in my career and I will have the skills to use that technology quite well. However, I'm not interested in being the stereotypical
Sperg, working in some tech job and fixing
PEBKAC issues for the rest of my working life. If my experiences with Java are any indication, I'm clearly not cut out to be a programmer, either. Guess I don't have any business pursuing Computer Science. Oh, well.
Also, being an Aspie, I really don't do well with office politics anyway. That's another good reason why it's best that I just run my own business rather than working for someone else. That way, I will be immune from the office politics since I'm the one signing off on the payroll. In fact, I can ban office politics outright and fire anyone that engages in that nonsense. And office workers who engage in office politics
should be fired. All that practice does is create an emotionally toxic work environment and cause workers to quit.
5.) The 3 different branches of the Computer Science major all go into fields that I don't want. How unfortunate...
There's Bio-Informatics, which seems to be just genetic mapping/sequencing and/or Bio-Tech by another name. I have no interest in that field, nor am I interested in helping Normies to figure out the genetic markers that make me what I am. Knowing them, they'll want to use that info to 'cure' me and make me one of them. Not a chance in Hell.
There's also Information Assurance, which is just Network Security by another name. That bored me when I tried it in the Army and it will bore me now. No thanks.
And finally, there's game design. Yeah... Right... [/Dr. Evil voice]
I've already made that mistake when I got my first degree from ITT years ago and I'm not going to let History repeat itself. All that would have to happen is for the economy to have another downturn and then all of my career ambitions would go up in smoke. It hurt bad enough when it happened in 2008. I won't let it happen again when I graduate the second time in 2022. Game Design is just another part of the entertainment industry. It's the tech equivalent of moving out to Hollywood thinking you're going to become a movie star. No matter how good you are at the job, there's still
very little chance of any real success. Strange as it may seem, becoming an entrepreneur is actually
less risky. (More on that later...)
6.) Computer Science will only make me even more socially isolated...
And being an Aspie, I have enough problems with that already. No thanks. It would also virtually eliminate the mere idea of free time. I would not be able to pursue any hobbies like gaming,
game collecting, internet shitposting or my
various mad science projects. Again, no thanks.
7.) I do have various options in the business field...
Remember when I said earlier that becoming an entrepreneur is actually
less risky. There's two good reasons for that claim.
First, is the previously aforementioned VA disability check that covers my mortgage and utilities. I'll have to find ways of covering everything else, but at least I won't ever have to worry about becoming homeless. The last thing we need is yet another Veteran ending up on the streets.
Second, is that I may have a few potential investors already. The Federal Government gives out small business loans to Vets all the time, especially if that Vet is disabled. At least one friend of mine has expressed interest in being an investor in one business I'd love to start someday. By the time I'm ready to start that business after my graduation, he should have the cash to make it happen. There are also other potential investors lined up for that project. I could probably talk all of them into investing in other business ideas that I have as well. This makes self-employment all the more attractive. And that leads us to...
8.) I almost always hated working for other people...
There's only two jobs that I've ever had that I actually enjoyed. Neither of them were high-paying or meant to last long. Every 'serious' long-term job that I had (the Army, Insurance Adjusting, Construction, etc.) all turned out to be miserable experiences with truly miserable people. And rare was it that I had any kind of supervisor who truly understood what good leadership was, let alone put it into practice.
That has understandably put a really bad taste in my mouth about working for other people. And since most big tech companies are run by Leftists who would treat an Independent like me as if I were the Anti-Christ... Well,
fuck'em. I'm not working for those shitheads. I just don't need the grief. All the more reason to ditch Computer Science now while it will be easy to make a switch, heh?
Besides, just about
ALL of them are looking like a target for Uncle Sam's next big Anti-Trust case/corporate break-up, like what happened to AT&T in 1984. Do I really want to work for someone like Google, Facebook or Apple when I know that company may not exist for long?
There's also no guarantee that I'd be picked up by one of the new firms that was split from the original parent company. Situations like that are usually where people get laid off and find themselves in a job market with lots of competition from other unemployed workers in their field. Who needs that shitshow? If I must take so many risks in life, I might as well bet on myself instead of some faceless, soulless corporation. If nothing else, at least I will know that the boss has my best interests at heart.
And finally, there's the notion of the 'secure profession' that everyone has kept talking about for the last 15 years of my life. If these last 15 years have taught me anything, it's that there is
no such thing as a secure profession. Thanks to constant changes in technology and economics, even unionized employees aren't safe in their occupation. So, again, why do I need to deal with that shitshow? I am better off working for myself. I'll be much happier.
- Lord Publius
