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« on: July 18, 2012, 11:59:49 am »
Success is generally a combination of obtaining the right skills, making the right connections, and luck, with perhaps equal importance on each. However, I would generally prioritize obtaining skills. You can afford to spend a few years doing this. You don't want to bullshit in front of people, and hopefully there is a deeper reason you are doing what you are doing than success (e.g. reputation, recognition, money, etc.). anyways
You can obtain skills through a degree, or you can teach yourself those same skills. The benefit of being self taught is you can completely focus on what you think is important, and ignore the rest. If you are good at figuring out what is important for you and what isn't, then this will be MUCH more efficient than class-learning. The drawback is you have to be self motivated, and you won't get connections by sitting alone in a library reading books. Moreover, without some sort of well defined projects, it will be hard to know what is or isn't important to learn, and you will likely forget what you read without some sort of "hands on" experience. Furthermore, the degree and in particular, where you do your degree, will help with connections more than being self taught will -- you will be surrounded by people with similar interests.
The best of all worlds (esp if you like research) is a PhD at a reputable university, or in a reputable lab/research group, in my opinion. You are free to teach yourself things -- that's largely the point -- and simultaneously you will be in a great environment that will help you focus your self study and meet interesting people. However, keeping in mind that the attrition rate at some places is about 50% (or so I've been told), it's clearly not for everyone.
PS. In regards to your initial question about a masters helping you get jobs.... it completely depends on what types of jobs you want, even within the same industry (e.g. software engineering, computer science research, etc). My general sense is that it will affect the type of work that you do in the future more than it will affect your income. If I had to choose between a random guy with a master's degree, and a random guy who had 2 years of industry experience, I'd probably choose the guy with experience. On the other hand, if someone did exceptionally well in their master's (very creative research, etc.) then I would go for them.
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. It sounds like it's not the best environment for him though, with Cory being around. Try to find caring people to adopt him, it sounds like he'll need sensitive/unselfish owners.
