Funny, I was just having this conversation today. With three daughters, of course I'm asking this question. Here are my thoughts:
I would go to College, but I would be picky about which one you attend. And I would spend half if not more of my time studying things like sociology, psychology, philosophy, marketing, finance, graphic design and history. I've been a programmer for over 20 years, a manager/programmer for over 10 and a CTO/VP/manager/programmer for over 5, and now I'm a Founder/CEO. If it wasn't for my time in college learning things other than computer science (luckily Notre Dame "required" a broad and rich program be completed to graduate) I would still be just a programmer. So the ROI for college, at least for me, was way positive.
I'm not saying you need to stay there four years, but suck everything out of it you can. It is one of the few times in your life where you will be surrounded by people who know tons of stuff about all sorts of crazy things and they really want to tell you about it. And who knows where insight will find you.
Today, to be a really great programmer and get to the point where enough people will follow you to start a company of your own, you have to be able to collaborate across every discipline, and you need to be able to channel your customer. Which means you need to be able to communicate, and the more you know the more likely you will find empathy with them. Innovation wins, and studies have shown it comes more frequently from a collaborative group than a single individual. So, go to school to learn about the world and what it contains, to learn how to learn, to meet chicks and to test your bounds. Go to college to become a renaissance man and change the world.
One of the biggest challenges with something like this is that not every app is treated equally in Apple's process. If you have the ear of the right person, you can get your app bumped up in the queue. I don't know how often this happens, but it may mess with your numbers...
Word on the street is that ESPN has a tendency to listen to an idea, not make the deal, and build it themselves instead. So even going the partnership route is risky...
I would go to College, but I would be picky about which one you attend. And I would spend half if not more of my time studying things like sociology, psychology, philosophy, marketing, finance, graphic design and history. I've been a programmer for over 20 years, a manager/programmer for over 10 and a CTO/VP/manager/programmer for over 5, and now I'm a Founder/CEO. If it wasn't for my time in college learning things other than computer science (luckily Notre Dame "required" a broad and rich program be completed to graduate) I would still be just a programmer. So the ROI for college, at least for me, was way positive.
I'm not saying you need to stay there four years, but suck everything out of it you can. It is one of the few times in your life where you will be surrounded by people who know tons of stuff about all sorts of crazy things and they really want to tell you about it. And who knows where insight will find you.
Today, to be a really great programmer and get to the point where enough people will follow you to start a company of your own, you have to be able to collaborate across every discipline, and you need to be able to channel your customer. Which means you need to be able to communicate, and the more you know the more likely you will find empathy with them. Innovation wins, and studies have shown it comes more frequently from a collaborative group than a single individual. So, go to school to learn about the world and what it contains, to learn how to learn, to meet chicks and to test your bounds. Go to college to become a renaissance man and change the world.