My first thought was, "Go to college and do both.", much like the parent post. However, being educated as a mechanical engineer and self-taught as a sysadmin/developer, I think what is missing here is the influence of teachers. This is a somewhat ironic thought since my engineering professors did little to really give me great insight into engineering or the practice of it. What I do know is this: Someone who wanted to learn administration or development could learn more in one week with me than they would in one year of college or learning by themselves. The information might not be as deeply embedded in their brain as it is in mine, due to all the pain and suffering of figuring things out for myself, but I often wish I'd had a great teacher or mentor. I'm sure my skills would have benefited greatly.

My first thought was that I was a complete loser!

But, looking at where I went, who I met, and what life's like on the outside, there's definitely an important part of college life. Everyone around you is the same age and going through the same thing you are. Everyone more experienced than you (e.g. the teachers) are mostly there for your benefit. A real incubator to grow up.

Oddly, what I was looking for in college (but never ended up finding) was a woman a few years older who could serve both as mentor and sex partner.

I ended up meeting some hot grad students and getting a bit of stimulation (intellectual and otherwise), but never quite found the right combination -- I wanted someone to whom I could utterly submit intellectually; someone who would teach me patiently and willingly everything she knew, and then, with our hearts and minds open, share a vigorous and uninhibited sexual romp.

Hmmm... You like the teachers, eh? Bow chikka wow wow.

But seriously I can relate to this in a way. Intellectual passion with a bit of animalistic release. We can't think /all the time/, right?

I dated a beautiful grad student in philosophy and I used to try and get her to help me with symbolic logic and talk about philosophy over a bottle of wine. She would entertain the idea for a little while, but when she wasn't studying she didn't want to talk shop. I can't say I blame her. The grass is always greener, as they say...

true, maybe she considered the relationship applied philosophy and didn't want to pollute it with too much theoretical baggage :)

A friend of mine met a wonderful older woman mentor/lover as an undergrad. She's now a professor at another New England school. (That is, both mentor and classmate were female.)

I like this one, and perhaps it's pertinent to the atmosphere of entrepreneurship and individualism here on HN:

"If you wind up with a boring, miserable life because you listened to your mom, your dad, your teacher, your priest or some guy on TV telling you how to do your shit, then YOU DESERVE IT."

Colleges usually have libraries. Mine had 4.

Pretty good libraries too! Hard to beat an engineering library or a CS library, even with the combination of the internet and a public library.

Of course, if you live near a good university, and you have the discipline to study on your own, and the food and shelter to stay alive while you do it . . .

At my school, the library stacks were continuous structures through all 10 or so floors of the building. I guess they carried their own weight, somehow saving on construction of the building addition in which they were housed. On the top floor, were the top of the stacks. It was a check-off on the "been there, done that" list to take a camping pad and sleeping bag up there with someone and spend the night and make love.

So there you go. Go to college, and go to the library, and get laid. (Trifecta?)

Heh our uni library sucks for CS resources.

College, libraries, girls, and anything else: all about what you are going to make out of it.

Next year I plan to spend much of my time in the libraries at Emory University. Hopefully I will do both. ;) heh

See my other post above.

College is not so much about knowledge, it's about developing intellectually.