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I had a nontraditional background, and was labeled as a gifted kid. At your age, my dad and I were trying to get a software company off the ground, based around products I had created. That was a mixed experience - I learned a lot from it, but it was pretty stressful. At age 22 I decided to go to grad school (not having gotten my undergrad degree btw) and that turned out to be the right decision.

I'm not saying what to do, that's your decision. But I do very strongly recommend watching Bryan Cantrill's talk "Coming of Age"[1]. It goes into considerable detail about the different strengths and weaknesses people have at different ages, and how to make the best of that.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzdVSMRu16g

1 comments

Why was it the right decision?

Before going to grad school, I was socially quite isolated, partly as a function of being labeled as gifted, partly growing up in a pretty rural area. Going to grad school let me be among a cohort of true peers for the first time in my life. That was incredibly valuable, and the friendships I formed are still meaningful.

I also benefitted from a first-class (UC Berkeley) academic computer science environment. My masters work was on static memory management for ML-family languages, which turned out to be excellent preparation for Rust. The study of algorithm theory has helped me develop parallel GPU algorithms.

Now I work as a researcher and am doing what I love. If I had stayed on the business track, I might be richer in dollars, but not as happy.