Need some serious life advice

AscensionExperiments · 2018-12-12T01:46:38+00:00

My mission in life is to have a modern-day Edison lab, ( tons of great minds in one workshop ) for the sole purpose of tinkering and discovery

Absolutely fantastic goals my man. Your only way to make this work would be if you control or at the least share in the profits made by the inventions and discoveries in your lab, which might be difficult to finesse, but let's burn that bridge when we come to cross it, shall we? haha

A) Financial Freedom

Several ways to accomplish this, but just going FI/RE won't be enough for a huge lab and a great community of scientific minds- you'll need to have a SOLID reputation AND be pulling almost Elon Musk style money to make the dream work. I would prioritize it as B coming before A- go to school for a double major in bioengineering and neuroscience or something crazy, be the one to crack the Neuralink thing Musk was working on, build some useful shit, and the financial independence goal will happen then- trying to achieve FI/RE on a regular wage FIRST is the safe way, but the much longer way, and runs a higher risk of failure IMO.

The dream you're planning will require deep, strong connections, so I'd recommend getting on it RIGHT AWAY and not working a regular job first- maybe take ONE gap year to get yourself a knowledge base in your field of study choice, but not much more than that.

I'll write more later, I gotta go.

Also, your dream isn't altogether THAT different from my dream, so we should keep in touch a bit

Johnnadawearsglasses · 2018-12-12T01:40:20+00:00

So I am going to suggest an alternative path to college although an engineering degree is a great choice. I think you can do what you want in the context of a trade career. It can be in electronics, or plumbing or hvac or anything like that. I know folks in the trades who got certified, worked hard as an apprentice, moved in their own gigs and made a lot of money with a lot of financial and work freedom. Independent contractors basically who name their own price because no one knows how to fix anything any more. Then within that field you can be very creative in developing new technologies without a need for PhD level education and a ton of outside funding.

Puddles503 · 2018-12-12T02:20:51+00:00

Apprenticeship in a licensed trade. You won't have any student loans, won't pay out of pocket, you'll have benefits immediately (if you're union) and there is a huge demand due to the boomers retiring.

See what a licensed electrician makes in a major metro, I make more than I did with a degree. I've done both and hands down my apprenticeship has paid out compared to college.

Title	Need some serious life advice
Author	ElementArrow
Upvotes	1
Comments	7
Date	December 12, 2018 1:25 AM UTC (5 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/askTRP
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/asktrp/comments/a5dbmr/need_some_serious_life_advice/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/askTRP/need-some-serious-life-advice.70404 https://theredarchive.com/post/70404