N.B.: This discussion isn't up for mainstream article status, as far as I'm concerned (unless someone else wants to take it and run with it). I just didn't know how else to direct an important question to the LW community in general.
I'm currently a first-year university student in Vancouver, Canada, attending UBC. I have a trust fund and otherwise I will not need to worry about paying for my undergraduate degree. I am open to the idea of going to grad school. So, I have the luxury to take my time in my studies and there are lots of options I can choose from. Majors I'm considering are Cognitive Systems, Economics (and philosophy or math or stats), English, Philosophy and History of Science, Mathematical Sciences/CompSci, or Psychology. I'm open to other options. So, have at it with your suggestions.
Specific Questions:
Should I care more about making money or doing something that I have a "passion" for?
How will this allow me to maximize my production of utilons?
Don't try to predict the future. Read Taleb's "the Black Swan". Instead, try to prepare for an uncertain future by learning generally useful skills that will be helpful in many possible futures. Along these lines, I've decided that I'm going to get a double major in statistics and computer science (particularly something related data mining).
Advantages:
Generally useful. Statistics is used in a lot of fields.
Impact- So many studies are poorly designed and so the results are useless.
Comparative advantage to people with a LW mentality- I think that few people will know about Judea Pearl's "Causality" or Jaynes.
Cool Shit! Google's driverless car. Machines that write jokes. Siri. the movie "moneyball"
Make DINERO!!! See Moneyball. See wall street algorithms that make most of the trades these days. See the gambling industry.
Understand the world. Intellectual stimulation.
I'm also self-studying psychology. If you can understand statistics, psychology, and philosophy, you will have a very solid understanding of the world around you.
N.B.: This discussion isn't up for mainstream article status, as far as I'm concerned (unless someone else wants to take it and run with it). I just didn't know how else to direct an important question to the LW community in general.
I'm currently a first-year university student in Vancouver, Canada, attending UBC. I have a trust fund and otherwise I will not need to worry about paying for my undergraduate degree. I am open to the idea of going to grad school. So, I have the luxury to take my time in my studies and there are lots of options I can choose from. Majors I'm considering are Cognitive Systems, Economics (and philosophy or math or stats), English, Philosophy and History of Science, Mathematical Sciences/CompSci, or Psychology. I'm open to other options. So, have at it with your suggestions.
Specific Questions:
Should I care more about making money or doing something that I have a "passion" for?
How will this allow me to maximize my production of utilons?
What else should I keep in mind?