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Comment by cmos | Hacker News Reader

Ok. Your in college. In theory, you have more time now than later, when you might need a real job, to start a business.

Don't drop out until you have an income from your new business. If you are truly passionate about starting something, and it's obsessing you, you shouldn't need to 'drop out' to get it going.

And even then, when you have INCOME from this endeavor, you'd just be taking a break. It's insurance, really. A degree, however not worth it's weight in paper, will open doors for you.

But so would a hit startup. You could have the next facebook in you. So make it happen, but try, as long as you can, to hold on to the most unique time in your life, the experience of undergrad.

Cherish it and respect it. Leave it when your new venture makes it so clear it's no longer a question you would ask a group.

Leave it when it's obvious.

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The problem: this wonderful time of college is being dragged through the mud by my resistance to doing the work required (less for the CS, though). It's incredibly painful, not to mention cutting significantly into time to do anything at all. You can't let yourself go out and meet people - or hack - when you really need to do this assignment for tomorrow.

I do need to drop out to get the startup going, because trying to make myself do the work takes up all my time - and since I'm not willing to just do college work and nothing else, I'm in between a rock and a hard place.

And, the reason why I'm asking HN is to check that I haven't missed (even more) obvious pitfalls. And to see what everyone has to say, gather advice, etc. (Thank you all btw.)

Edit: why the downvote?

"The problem: this wonderful time of college is being dragged through the mud by my resistance to doing the work required (less for the CS, though). It's incredibly painful, not to mention cutting significantly into time to do anything at all. You can't let yourself go out and meet people - or hack - when you really need to do this assignment for tomorrow."

Sounds like you need to work on some self discipline. If you can get your social life, studies, hacking, and business efforts under control, THEN I would suggest you should go for the monumental jump and "drop out". If you think you'll have more time when your startup takes off, think again. If you are interested in VC funding at some point, then you might find it challenging when they step in and start calling shots and start telling you directly what you need to do in order to make things successful - some of it might be stuff you will resist in the same way you seem to be resisting your college work.

You sound like a young, intelligent, and energetic guy...see if you can get yourself organized such that every aspect of your college life is organized to the point of efficiency. If you can accomplish that, then you surely will have the management mettle to make a startup successful. Self discipline is an extremely important quality when undertaking something ambitious such as a startup. It seems to me that you should acquire self discipline and other important skills that are not directly related to the technical aspect of doing a startup before dropping out.

Could it just be that college doesn't really fit me?

I have learnt some self-discipline, actually. I'm sitting down, but I'm not working. Everything takes 10 times longer than it should, and every minute is very painful. I can count on two hands the number of times I've gone out and partied. I don't hack when I have stuff due.

I've had the 'perfect point of efficiency' vision in my head for a while, but I'm stumbling on the first block. I have a pretty good head for being organized, but the execution is lacking. I also have ADHD, apparently (I've learnt an awful lot about software engineering by failing to (be able to) follow through plans to do assignments, actually). So in some ways I'm trying to get around the executive functioning problem by doing something that I clearly want to do, instead of something I'm doing because it's what you do when you finish HS.

Of course, it might just because I'm dumb. Other people seem to think I'm smart, though (case in point above), and that's the only measure, aside from schoolwork, that I've witnessed.

I'm not dropping out to buy time, I'm dropping out to buy a task that I'm more willing to do.

My grandfather has a saying - "The mind is like a diamond in the rough and education is polish for the mind". It's very well possible that college doesn't fit you or that you don't fit college. At the same time please consider that if you hunker down and slog through it, you might have a large awareness for opportunities that make themselves apparent by the time you finish with college. If you drop out consider that your awareness to what's hot might be confined to what you are tuned into at the moment; I will not discount that you might possess the ability to spot what's hot in a few years from now, but I will say that having an education will definitely help with this skill.

Consider taking a quarter/semester off or perhaps even a year off, but don't commit to fully "dropping out". I would also recommend talking to a counselor (somebody with a PhD). This is going to sound funny, but try to get in touch with your feelings about your current situation.

One thing that should be a concern for you is that you have asked a fairly well known community for reasons why you shouldn't do something, yet you seem to have plenty of counter arguments/responses to people's postings. Sometimes people are going to tell you things you don't want to hear. Does this mean you should follow their advice? Not necessarily; however you should think about it and give it some more thought.

For real dude, I wish you the best. Just think about it before actually committing to it.

I'm taking the summer quarter off from Monday, so I'll see what happens. I definitely agree with your grandfather, though - I have been in college for two years, and I've witnessed the polishing on myself.

I've been talking to a lot (4+) of people with PhDs, both counselor and not, regularly for over a year now. I think I understand what you mean by getting in touch with my feelings. It's difficult to do it myself, and since I have so many theories, difficult to do with anyone else, as well.

I've been a little obsessive in the replying. I certainly don't mean to be rude! I think I'm too impulsive, and trying to have the wrong kind of conversation here.

Thanks, though, for your time.

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