As somebody who banged around in the "I'm not going to college! I'm going to take on the world on my own terms!" mindset for quite a few years after high school, there are certainly people (such as yourself) that can make a great go of it. But for every tptacek in the world, there are a thousand guys putting in year 10 behind the counter at Geek Squad.
Going to school is only 4 years, but you'll immediately come out of it most decidedly not at risk of being a Geek Squad "geek". At the very least you'll be able to get setup in a decently paying, full-time, salaried job that pays the bills and leads to a decent standard of living.
My friend from High School, who also did the "screw you conformist career path!" thing didn't end up in school and struggles far far more with his day-to-day than I do. Not because I learned some special secrets at uni, but because it simply stamps you as "mother approved" to most employers.
Discussions about how it's the person and not the meaningless sheep skin and how employers are really dicking themself over for using diplomas as a signal of quality are wonderful and all, but unless the question above is "I'd like to stick it to the man by not going to school, how can I game the system and get lucky and end up where I would have had I actually had a degree in the first place?" then it doesn't really matter. Most people can't navigate the world in that way. More power to people like you, but it's simply not a realistic picture for most people.
I didn't do "screw you conformist career path"; in fact, I think that if your mindset is "screw you I won't conform", you especially don't want to skip school, because you don't know what you're talking about.
By the way, if you can code, and you're working at Geek Squad, you have problems school wasn't going to solve for you.
Sadly, people who can code out of high school are a dime a dozen. I can go to any local high school and find half a dozen kids at each that can hack some code together.
I admire that you were able to autodidact your way into a successful career, most people aren't capable of that. I think it's ultimately unhelpful to advise people to follow in your footsteps unless they really truly are capable of following in your footsteps.
I really really wish I had had better opportunity in my youth to have gone to school right after high school, instead of burning through 4 years at uni, I burned through 6 years banging around in various tech jobs and trying to get past the notion society has that you really should go to school for jobs in the skilled labor fields. I watched many people who were not as good as I was absolutely leave me in the dust. Then I burned through another 6 years putting myself through school part-time while supporting me and my family.
Hell, I'd give anything to get 8 of those 12 years back.
>in fact, I think that if your mindset is "screw you I won't conform", you especially don't want to skip school, because you don't know what you're talking about.
There are not 1000 guys putting in year 10 at the Geek Squad. There were only 50 guys working at the Geek Squad when they sold to Best Buy in 2002. Any 10 year veteran of the Geek Squad is now rich, so maybe not finishing college wasn't such a bad idea for them...
Going to school is only 4 years, but you'll immediately come out of it most decidedly not at risk of being a Geek Squad "geek". At the very least you'll be able to get setup in a decently paying, full-time, salaried job that pays the bills and leads to a decent standard of living.
My friend from High School, who also did the "screw you conformist career path!" thing didn't end up in school and struggles far far more with his day-to-day than I do. Not because I learned some special secrets at uni, but because it simply stamps you as "mother approved" to most employers.
Discussions about how it's the person and not the meaningless sheep skin and how employers are really dicking themself over for using diplomas as a signal of quality are wonderful and all, but unless the question above is "I'd like to stick it to the man by not going to school, how can I game the system and get lucky and end up where I would have had I actually had a degree in the first place?" then it doesn't really matter. Most people can't navigate the world in that way. More power to people like you, but it's simply not a realistic picture for most people.