Several years back when I was a wee lad an important decision presented itself to me which had to be resolved. Up to that point I had been an earnest student of the computer sciences, and the resolution of problems using programming. I had studied several low level computer languages, and even use my skills from time to time to resolve minor issues which occurred in daily life. I was the local computer geek that everyone knew to solve their problems and naturally, I migrated towards other nerds in an attempt to find common ground. I made many friends most of which I lost eventually, but I was, and still am, a member of an exclusive group of people who spent lots of time surfing the worlds of the BBS (pre-internet file sharing) and the beginnings of the popularization of the computer. I saw the internet come into private use almost a year before it actually took off. I even helped set it up at the school I studied at when I was living in the states.

And so naturally the nature of this big decision of which I was referring to, before digressing, was weather or not to pursue my hobby into the realm of the career. I new the science fairly well, enjoyed resolving problems, and was computer literate enough to score the odd job as a local computer geek, slacking off playing games, overwhelming the curious with enough jargon to cover my ass. But there were so many of us out there, and so many more entering the domain. I started believing that perhaps there would be too many of us eventually, and that the online advertising industry was way more hyped up than it really was. For these reasons, and the great frustration I felt whenever I came across a problem I couldn’t solve, I decided that a better future was in store for me if I kept my hobby a hobby. I proceeded more towards something different. I think I was the only one back then in my group of friend who diverged, and I chose to take French literature over computer science. I told them that by graduation time there would be too many computer guys out there, and that we would have to spend the rest of our lives being updated with the technology, constantly relearning, always pushing to stay ahead of the obsolete. Too much competition. Even then I thought like an economist.

I’d say a made the right decision after seeing how the world turned out. I am somewhat smug at the accuracy of my predictions. On the other hand life has slapped me in the face seeing as I’ve spent the last several weeks, and will be spending the next several more, working on some econometric regressions using programming languages. I’m staring at statistics, ones and zeroes mostly, and the irony of the situation is almost too funny for me to ignore. Some things never change.

Debugging still gives me headaches.