See: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessel_Run

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43634772

Points: 6

# Comments: 0

YES! There is always "hope" for nearly everything and everyone. The first step is to actually try to define what type of "hope" that you're looking for. Set goals, aspiration, and a clear vision of what you want so that you have an attainable mark. It's okay if this changes over time, but to light that fire you have to have something to strive for, even if it feels unobtainable at the moment.

> Is there a reasonable path to starting over?

Well, what do you define as "reasonable"? Everyone's path is different, and if you're comparing yourself to peers who have never veered off the straight and narrow path then you own path might seem unreasonable to you. Your path might make you the 30 year old intern or apprentice, and that's okay! Success and satisfaction doesn't always come from taking the "reasonable" path.

> Where do I even begin?

For lack of a better vocabulary, you need to find some way to "spark the fire." I was in a similar position to you. I spent years dragging out a degree that I wasn't passionate about, felt less than my peers who had moved onto successful and fulfilling careers, and felt down on my luck. After a series of poor decisions I finally found my spark while sitting in the dirt after a long day of landscaping. No car, no ride home, could barely pay the bills, I finally realizing exactly where my life was headed and I knew I needed to change direction. I spent weeks researching jobs that I wanted to aspire to but that I knew were unattainable at the moment. But I bit the bullet, applied to schools, completed a degree related to the roles I was passionate about, and have gone on to work in roles that I couldn't have even fathomed just a few years prior. So for me, it was the realization that life is short and what I contribute to it is up to my that really sparked my fire, but you have to find some way to get out of the mindset that's dragging you down. It's not easy, and you will face significant challenges on whatever path you take, but find that spark and commit to your goals.

> Will tech co’s ever consider hiring someone like me?

Someone like you now, lacking passion, down on your luck, self-loathing, and without a direction? No. But you won't be presenting who you are now to these employers. It's your life–you can be whoever you want to be! As someone who comes from a less than favorable background, the imposter syndrome is always knocking at the door in my head. At the end of the day, you are who you choose to be, so choose to be the person that those tech co's will hire if that's what you desire.

I'm currently working on a project that requires mixing Windows and Linux containers. The deployment and development process since the addition of the Windows containers into the mix has become so cumbersome that we're actually seriously considering using Wine in a Linux containers just to avoid the integration of the Windows containers altogether.

The "Intro to Programming" i.e. Java 101 was my first experience with programming in general, and nearly made me drop out of the CS program altogether. Something about the high-level learning and lack of understanding what was going on behind the scenes made it very difficult to grasp. It wasn't until I took a course in C the following semester that I finally began to grasp the actions behind the code I was writing. Although the code was much more difficult to write, I found the laborious process of writing C made it much easier to grasp the underlying functionality.

There's benefit in not having to understand the underlying intricacies of the code that you're writing, but there is something about that knowledge that makes it just so much more engaging.