I totally understand where you're coming from, and to an extent I agree.
I didn't adequately clarify the sentiment I was getting at.
There are a million things I want to do with technology: machine learning, advanced robotics, data science, UI/UX research, networking/homelab experimentation, music/drawing/animation, photography, programming.
Sometimes significant events happen in life that throw you very far away from the path that you'd logically gravitate towards. Sometimes those events make sense; sometimes they don't. One of those happened for me in 1998, when my family realized the only viable resolution to the concerns they'd raised regarding the public school I was attending, would be to home-school. (The school was quick to clarify that it was not legal to transfer between schools.)
In any world, if I did things over I would absolutely have ticked the "[x] sound education" box. I don't understand math. I don't understand electronics. I don't understand a lot of things. I feel very much undone. It took 15 years to finally learn I had high-functioning autism and ADHD, figure out why the public school I'd attended had been so oppressive and condemning, and make sense of why my poor mother's best efforts never seemed to make a dent in my understanding. I'm now trying my best to make up for lost time, albeit without adequate resources.
I've learned that under-resourcedness is generally counterbalanced by having connections, and that a social network - a real, functional, practical one, not the all-thumbs kind you see on interactive TV - is one of the critical components of success in life, especially when (multiple) circumstances beyond your control make you stick out like a sore thumb and make sustenance of equilibrium orders of magnitude harder than the statistical average. But when those very circumstances make socialization and communication difficult, things can become very depressing. I guess the GP was a bit of a rant.
TL;DR, I have a VERY long list of "hey that could be a thing I could be really good at". It's huge. I've carried it for 20 years. I have no idea what I'm concretely good at. And I currently have no way to find out. It's a bit of a catch-22.
(Yes, I really was using a machine with 320MB of RAM in 2014.)
I didn't adequately clarify the sentiment I was getting at.
There are a million things I want to do with technology: machine learning, advanced robotics, data science, UI/UX research, networking/homelab experimentation, music/drawing/animation, photography, programming.
Sometimes significant events happen in life that throw you very far away from the path that you'd logically gravitate towards. Sometimes those events make sense; sometimes they don't. One of those happened for me in 1998, when my family realized the only viable resolution to the concerns they'd raised regarding the public school I was attending, would be to home-school. (The school was quick to clarify that it was not legal to transfer between schools.)
In any world, if I did things over I would absolutely have ticked the "[x] sound education" box. I don't understand math. I don't understand electronics. I don't understand a lot of things. I feel very much undone. It took 15 years to finally learn I had high-functioning autism and ADHD, figure out why the public school I'd attended had been so oppressive and condemning, and make sense of why my poor mother's best efforts never seemed to make a dent in my understanding. I'm now trying my best to make up for lost time, albeit without adequate resources.
I've learned that under-resourcedness is generally counterbalanced by having connections, and that a social network - a real, functional, practical one, not the all-thumbs kind you see on interactive TV - is one of the critical components of success in life, especially when (multiple) circumstances beyond your control make you stick out like a sore thumb and make sustenance of equilibrium orders of magnitude harder than the statistical average. But when those very circumstances make socialization and communication difficult, things can become very depressing. I guess the GP was a bit of a rant.
TL;DR, I have a VERY long list of "hey that could be a thing I could be really good at". It's huge. I've carried it for 20 years. I have no idea what I'm concretely good at. And I currently have no way to find out. It's a bit of a catch-22.
(Yes, I really was using a machine with 320MB of RAM in 2014.)