But even then, art is like computer programming – it is a technical field. It is all about directed practice and skill – not about getting A’s by parroting a professor’s philosophy or appealing to their aesthetic sense.

One of my favorite 3D artists is Monty Oum. In his interview with Screw Attack, Monty Oum admitted that he never went to college, and is in fact a high school dropout. He doesn’t endorse the path he took, however, it is impossible to argue with his talent.

After he created “Haloid”, he got enough publicity and attention that he was recruited by Midway. At Midway, in his spare time, he created the “Dead Fantasy” series and later landed a job at Konami. He is arguably one of the most talented 3D artists in the industry.

College Fund

Continuing my articles on college and computer programming:

In an article I uncovered from MSN Moneycentral, the author examines if a college degree is a smart investment, even though a college degree will earn you twice as much money in terms of revenue.  Interestingly enough, the article shows that at 2007 dollars, the person who starts off in highschool with no debt and invests his money will have saved nearly triple the amount that the person who has a degree.

This is because the college graduate, though earning twice as much as the highschool graduate, has a substantial debt to pay off before he starts investing in his own retirement.

This all falls back on simple principles of saving your money and living well below your means of earning.  In general, people live at a cost of living that is equal to their revenues.  It is a painful lesson to learn, especially in the age of credit cards and easy mortgages.  Something I wish I learned earlier in my life.

A question was raised on government-subsidized education in allaying the costs.  Personally, I would disagree with this.  Knowing myself (and lots of my contemporaries), I squandered my time in college.  I had to personally answer for it to my parents who helped foot the bill.  And even though thousands of college students have to personally answer to their parents for their time in college taking classes on Starcraft, how much easier it is to slack off when the money isn’t personal?  The best and most responsible students I met in college were the ones who had to pay 100% of the bill themselves.

And this isn’t even getting into the problem that if college education was no longer special and voluntary, but expected and mandatory, it lowers the standard of learning.  Every year we are churning out thousands of college graduates a year, and already we are seeing a growing phenomenon of post-graduates living at home saddled with debt and who are unable to really go somewhere lives – even with a college degree.

This is a powerful lesson to learn and really watch, especially for those of you who are in the computer field.

The computer is really freedom.  Many people take the freedom of the computer and bury themselves in countless hours of time playing games.  But for those of us who know how to program, the computer is financial freedom, especially in the midst of one of the worst economies in our lifetimes.

We don’t have to play by those rules.  We can educate ourselves.  We don’t have to accumulate massive debts before starting out careers.  All we need is a computer, a connection to the Internet, a lot of determination, hard work and the world is ours for the taking.

Forever in debt

One of the reasons I focus on college so much is that I’m contemplating how I can help my sons do well in the world.  The default option is to send my sons to college so that I can rely on professional teachers to teach them a marketable skill.

According to the U.S. Census bureau and other sources of information, having a college degree nearly doubles the person’s earning potential.  This is great news for a parent hoping to rocket boost their child’s ability to make a better life for themself.  However, what the article does not say is how much such an education would cost them.

For instance, a medical doctor may be earning over $100,000/year.  But what is left unstated is that the doctor had spent about 10 years of her life training and being educated in her field, with thousands of on-the-job hours of education, interning and residency before making a doctor’s wage.  But not only has the new M.D. spent that many years of their life training to earn such a salary, but they are saddled with a college debt that is bigger than most mortgages, payable within 15 years of the time they start working.

Taking this college inflation calculator on this site, I calculate that by the time my 4-year-old becomes 18 and is ready for college, going to my in-state alma mater would cost me and him a sum of nearly $200,000 for a basic 4-year bachelor’s degree.  The approximate rate of educational inflation is 7%.  If people are not saying that there is no “education bubble” isn’t looking at the numbers.

To send my sons off to college when they have no idea what they want to do and rely on “guidance counselors” to give them career advice is idiocy.  Worse still if I send them there to become even more generic and “well-rounded” to make them less distinguishable from the other hundreds of thousands of graduates the universities churn out each year.

As a parent, what can I do?

Unlike other technical fields like automobiles or electronics, computer programming doesn’t require expensive materials.  All it requires is a computer that you can program and the time and dedication to learn.  Today, you have so many options of what you can use for free to compile and run your programs, to practice and master your craft.  Everything from the Flex SDK, Microsoft Visual Studio Express, to JAVA blows open the doors for anyone who wants to put in the time to learn.

What computer programming represents is freedom – a way to beat everlasting slavery to your debtor.  But you have to be willing to fight for that freedom, and put in the hours to practice and learn.

Free Your Mind.

Vitruvian Man - Leonardo Da Vinci

I’ve raised a number of private objections about the college experience.  A couple people said that College is a great thing because it makes you a more “well rounded” person.

Personally, I would love to go back to college – if I had the time and the money to do so.  I would love to sharpen my language skills in Japanese.  I would love to take classes on Illustration, Photography and Graphic Design.  I would love to take classes on Philosophy and Religion.  I want to rejoin the Folk Dance Ensemble and learn how to Tango.  There is still so much I want to learn, contemplate and understand of the world.

There are so many things I want to learn but that is because of a life experiences that made me question and really think about what life is about.  When I was in college, I had no idea what I wanted to learn or to study.  To my mother’s credit, she urged me to study mathematics and computer science because I was “naturally” good at it, however to be more precise, I just had more experience programming computers than the typical teenager.  But while in college, I spent more time learning how to manage unnecessary drama and over-complicated relationships than studying.

Being a “well rounded person” or “Renaissance Man” comes from a desire and thirst for life.  But for a listless youth, being “well rounded” is only a veiled excuse for having no direction.  And this becomes very problematic especially when looking for a job.

Parents look at college so that their child learns marketable job skills and can launch a career.  Parents do not look at college as a way for their child to “have meaningful experiences”, “find themselves” or to become “well rounded.”  And this sentiment is widely echoed in the promises of our government as well:

“There are few things as fundamental to the American Dream or as essential for America’s success as a good education. This has never been more true than it is today. At a time when our children are competing with kids in China and India, the best job qualification you can have is a college degree or advanced training. If you do have that kind of education, then you’re well prepared for the future — because half of the fastest growing jobs in America require a Bachelor’s degree or more. And if you don’t have a college degree, you’re more than twice as likely to be unemployed as somebody who does.”
- President Obama, April 24th 2009

People are looking to college to gain marketable job skills and to compete in the global market.  Here are the top ten fastest growing jobs in America:

1. Network Systems and Data Communications Analyst
2. Physician Assistant
3. Computer Software Engineer, Applications
4. Computer Software Engineer, Systems Software
5. Network and Computer Systems Administrator
6. Database Administrator
7. Physical Therapist
8. Medical Scientist
9. Occupational Therapist
10. College Instructor

All of these jobs are highly specialized fields.  There is nothing “well rounded” about them.  More than half of these are technology related.  And I’ve already said my piece that computer skills are not academic, but vocational/technical.

TOGA TOGA TOGA

One of the things I’ve been questioning lately is the value of a college education, especially as I watch my sons grow.  My experiences in college had very little impact on my skills as a programmer.  In fact, I would say that 90% of what I have learned as a programmer has been “on the job” experience.

I remember one particular incident in college where a professor was describing to the students how the 4-digit IP (IPv4) addresses worked.  Being naive and believing that “there is no such thing as a stupid question”, I asked the professor what is going to happen once we hit the maximum number of possible IP addresses?  I got a good laugh from the professor and from my classmates because they said that there would be no way that there could ever be that many computers that need addresses in our lifetimes.

It’s only been ten years since I asked that question and we are already seeing the “end of the Internet” by 2011.

Recently, I ran into an article on the Escapist Magazine in defense of academia by Game Design veteran Brenda Brathwaite, who worked on the original Wizardry games.  In her article, I can see that the sentiment and disdain for academics is very prevalent in game programmer circles – that there is seemingly a huge difference between academic theory versus practical experience in the programming world.  On one side, the game designers frown upon academia and their ivory towers of learning.  And on the other side, univesity systems will not allow game industry veterans to teach game programming simply on account of not having a degree.

From my own experience, I believe Programming is more of a “technical skill” than it is an “academic” one, much more akin to going to vocational school to learn how to build and repair automobiles.  Programming is something you learn more by doing than by reading and memorizing textbooks, repeating the biases, and stroking the ego of your professor.  And I’ve said it before that the best programmers I have ever met had no bachelor’s degree or a degree in things other than programming – architecture and even pottery.

You don’t need a special school or training.  You just need the drive to learn, explore and expand your horizons every day.

Before I close, I did want to say something positive about pursuing a college degree.  I have found that quite a few potential employers look for a bachelor’s degree.  Salaries are sometimes indexed according to a person’s level of academic learning.  RFPs for government contract work often require senior developers or architects have at least a bachelor’s degree.  So there are practical reasons for pursuing a college degree.

But like the housing bubble, I wonder how long it will be before colleges will suffer a severe backlash from the continuing rising cost of education which is far and above the inflation rate?  How much is college merely “the thing to do” rather than a real opportunity for learning skills necessary for the workforce?

Programming – especially game programming – must be learned by doing.  And, at least in the game industry, you are hired by the strength of your portfolio.  And who says you need a professor’s approval or an academic degree to make one?