Cheating on My Schoolwork Saved My Life
I spent entire semesters entirely depressed. I felt like I could never do what I wanted with my life. I saw friends of mine with seemingly bottomless pits of time, pursuing the things that they actually wanted to do. They would build robots, web servers, artificial intelligence networks. Whatever their mind compelled them to build, they could will it into existence. And then you contrast that with me. I had about 10 hours of course load every single day.
I was faced with two options: Fail school. Or be miserable. It was a lose-lose situation. But AI came as a sort of saving grace in this moment. It allows me to automate away the bullshit grunt work that I was tasked with. The work that was so clearly engineered to waste my time now no longer matters. Something that previously wasted 10 hours of my time now only wastes 2 hours of my time. I get to now choose what I do with the remaining 8 hours. I can use that time to rest, relax, and most importantly, to build. No longer am I constantly exhausted by things that simply do not matter to me. I think this is the way a lot of students feel right now.
But I was just the one that had to put it into words. I'm very happy the job market feels the same way that I do. Employers don't care that students sat through the same boring lectures and submitted the same tired assignments they've been submitting for the past 50 years. The results are in; employers care far more about real experience and impactful real-world projects than they ever will about an accreditation or certification from a university, regardless of prestige. This is the shift. This is the future. Go out and build. The whole world is watching.