Finance and investment banking

Finance and investment banking are actually very interesting, but only if you can be in the front office, especially at a hedge fund (more informal, lots of smart people, but if you might get laid off any time which there should only worry you if you need a work visa -- you'll get compensated enough and will be able to get a job somewhere else after getting laid off that it shouldn't worry you). There, you get to see how the world works -- what causes what (economics in action) -- and you get to come up with and test your own theories, but instead of risking your own money, you risk rich people's money. But yes, it's true: you will work long hours (although you might be able to retire by the time you're 30 or 35).

Music, dance, poetry, and other modes of self-expression

Music is my favorite. And musicians are the only profession that gets asked to talk about their work. Or rather play it. Imagine asking a philosopher: oh please, tell me again your argument why patterns are more just than processes; I love hearing it!

Free market economy

The U.S. market is regulated (e.g. the Fed controls rates), so not completely laissez faire. But still, a decentralized market economy is very strange and complex. For example, just because something costs more doesn't mean it's better. In fact, prices do not track quality. Instead, they can track brand naming or demand/supply (the greater this ratio, the higher the price). And, the laws of supply and demand also apply to labor! For example, if a profession is highly paid, it is probably because the supply of that kind of labor is higher than the supply. Yes, it's not fair that a CEO in the U.S. gets paid $10 million a year in total compensation while the average worker (who is not a supervisor) gets paid $27 thousand (as of 2004), which is a difference of 370x. And maybe part of this is corruption. But, economics alone, if there is high demand for CEOs, but very few people are qualified and even fewer want the responsibility, then you can get very high salaries. But it can be confusing.

For one thing, this often means that the government does not take on itself the responsibility for your retirement or your health coverage. These usually get offered by employers and to compete, different employers offer different terms. But the employer isn't really responsible either. Ultimately, it's up to you to invest and watch your money.

This can also mean absense of safeguards. The subprime mortgage crisis and credit card debt are an example of this. The system will easily let you do some really dumb things, like take out a student loan for 20k to get an MA in English lit. Heck, all you have to do is fill out your FAFSA and sign something. And with a credit card, it's even easier than that: just swipe and sign.

It also means that doctors and pharmaceutical companies sometimes intentionally or even unintentionally give you advice that benefits them and not necessarily you. For example, a doctor might be hesitant to recommend alternative non-traditional medicine because the doctor is worried s/he'll get sued. Instead the doctor will recommend only what the FDA has tested and approved. Or, surgeons might have little incentive to focus on things other than surgery. This can mean that they'll get good at surgery, but it also means that they won't know the effectiveness of potentially much more effective (e.g. less side effects and less damage to normal tissue) and less intrusive ways of dealing with the problem. It's not necessarily that surgeons don't want to help you and are trying to con you by talking you into surgery when you don't need it. More likely, they genuinely want to help you and so recommend the only way they know. And when something is as expensive as surgery or pharmaceuticals, there is no economic incentive to seek out or evalutae more effective treatments that also happen to be much cheaper. Well, if you have medical insurance, surgery or drugs might actually be much cheaper for you than alternative medicine, which is ironic because alternative medicine is actually much cheaper, and so would be cheaper for the insurance company. So why haven't insurance companies picked up on this? Some have. But this would mean less business for pharmas and surgeons.

As for education, colleges are also businesses. Just because there are lots of them, doesn't mean going to one is a good idea. As the consumer, you really have to figure if it makes sense for you and research the product. (Yes, a lot of work, especially when you don't know how to evaluate the product.)

Or, to take another exmaple, if a job pays a lot, it could be because no one wants the job (e.g. long hours) or it could because no one is qualified (e.g. it requires an electrician's license).

Moreover, this also means that sometimes things are demand-sensitive and sometimes they are not (when there is market failure). For example, if a lot of people want to study social work or art for some reason (they think there'll be jobs in it or they love it), universities will open programs to meet the demand from prospective students. But that doesn't mean there'll be jobs waiting at the other end. So in this case, the education market is demand-sensitive at the student end, but not at the industry end -- i.e. from employers. So just because 50 people apply for one spot and the program is highly competitive, it does not mean that there will be a job waiting for you at the other end. All it means is that a lot of people want to study there for some reason or other. Moreover, an education program can increase demand for its programs through marketing and advertising. On the other hand, there might be increased industry demand, but not enough workers or students, in which case a university might open or expand its current program in response to industry demand and try to recruit students to meet that demand. What sucks is that it becomes the job of the potential student to figure out which kind of demand an education provider is responding to. There are two things to consider when you have to do this, which you should do whenever picking a course of study for a career: the first and most important thing is the supply/demand ratio. Supply here is the supply of labor and demand is the demand for that labor. In other words, how many job seekers are there in that field compared to how many job openings there are? If this ratio (which can be hard to figure out) is more than 1, think twice. If this ratio is 2:1, forget it. In fact, if this ratio is 1.5 to 1, forget it, because that means 1 out of each 3 people will not get a good job after having invested time and money into going to college or grad school to study whatever it is. The next thing to look at is the program's placement record. The question to ask is, what's a good job in this field? (E.g. in philosophy, a 2/2 load TT job is considered good, although it could depend on class size; in other fields, it's also probably some combination of work hours, salary, retirement benefits, and job security.)

Then ask

Jobs

You get used to things and become less flexible over time. But bear in mind: division of labor is a good thing and being a jack of all trades can mean being a master of none. So instead, have a hobby and become good at one or two things. Being good will put you in demand. And you'll do a lot of things very fast by the time you're in your mid-twenties, which will be handy once you get older and become less flexible when it comes to acquiring new skills. E.g. I learned to play guitar when I was 25, which impresses people, but bear in mind that I spent 9 years of my young life (from 4 to 13) studying music full-time, focusing on the piano, playing every single day 2+ hours. So even though I had to learn from stratch, my fingers already moved independently of one another, I could remember and hear things, and I had some sense of rhythm; it was a transferred skill.

Colleges

State schools are dangerous. They are priced in the middle and might work out great (I hear good things about Wisconsin-Madison). But you might also encounter big classes, especially 100-level classes (and those are the classes that I think are the most important in many ways), teachers who don't really care about teaching, and instead of PhD-ed professors have overworked graduate students teaching or TA-ing your classes.

State vs. Private Colleges. A private college might have a huge sticker price, but if you apply below your grades, you might get a nice scholarship that would make it just as cheap as in-state tuition. So, don't shoot high (unless your parents make less than 50k and you can get into Penn; tuition might be free then). Instead, shoot low. You want to stand out from the applicant pool so that you'll get a nice offer. And you can still find a great fit culturally: do you want to be surrounded by tech nerds or art geeks?

Universities vs. Teaching Colleges. You will not have graduate students TA-ing or teaching classes at a teaching colleg (because there is no graduate school there). And more of your professors will be more into teaching. This is because at a university, a professor gets tenure (gets to keep his or her job) based on research. At a teaching college, on the other hand, a professor gets tenure based on the quality of teaching.

Why (not) go to college?

Don't go to college out of inertia. It's not high school, isn't mandatory, isn't necessary for financial and mental success, and it's costs money. If you want to have skills and a profession, consider a two-year associate's degree at a community college instead. You could become a forestry technician, do construction engineering, or do lots of other interesting and fun things, depending on the location and the college.

There are two good reasons to go to college. The first is to be more educated: not to have a profession, but to learn how to express yourself verbally better, take piano jazz lessons, read good book and find out why the Allegory of the Cave is an argument for why philosophers ought to be kings -- bad idea by the way, or learn math or economics. The second is social reasons: you get to meet lots of people very quickly, make friends, bond with them by doing stupid things or by studying together, and it also offers you the best odds of finding a life partner. In the real world, your social circle will shrink of necessity to your coworkers and people you know already. If these are your two reasons, plan for what you'll do afterwards before you go, and choose your college carefully. Four years is a long time to spend somewhere and also there is a lot of diversity among colleges in the United States. Your choice of college will affect who you will meet and what you will learn. Also, I recommend being within at most a day's driving distance of home. There are lots of good reasons for this, but I won't bother you with those here; just take my word for it. If your parents live in New York, a day's driving distance can put you in Virginia or Maine, if not farther, so it's not a small radius.

And please, don't spend all your time partying or studying in college. These are two extremes and are both bad. If you don't study, why bother paying for college? You can party after 5pm and work as a technician or a cop or an apprentice to a real estate developer or a public artist (or an apprentice to just about anyone -- it'll be cheaper than college). And studying and not socializing or hiking or enjoying life and not noticing the little things around you is also missing out; 13-26, let alone 18-22 is really your prime for that sort of thing -- your senses are sharp, your legs are strong, but the world is still new and you're full of curiosity to explore (and you're relatively free of responsibility too).

Working 10 to 15 hours a week in college is a good thing. It will help you be more focused in everything else and will help you structure your time. And if you can work doing something you'd like to do for a living upon graduation, then that's ideal. E.g. you don't have to work on campus. You can go apprentice somewhere else. Heck, why not learn to be an electrician while going to college. You could use college for education and socializing while saving yourself from the anguish of not knowing what to do with your skills or not knowing what you want to do, especially since theory and practice can be very different and school is all theory.

Family and life partners

There are two philosophies here. The first is that college dating is all fun practice and that you will meet the right person later when you are settled down and are making good money and know who you want to be when you grow up. Besides, there are so many potential mates out there. Settle for one now?! That cuts you off from future possibilities. This philosophy is wrong. If you meet someone you are in love with and who treats you really well, treat them well, have fun together, nurture the love, and think about life partnership. You can grow together, explore things together, support each other, and really build something together. This is an excellent way to go about it and is much more fulfilling if you surrender yourself to the right thing. You can plan to get married after college of course. And yes, it's true, your life partner should be your best friend. Bros before hoes, but your life partner ain't a hoe, if you catch my drift.

Surgery

Don't ask a surgeon whether you need surgery or whether there are any possible side effects. That's like asking a baker if you should buy bread. Although your odds are better with a very experienced surgeon who sees lots of cases. Seeking a top surgeon is worth it not only because s/he will do a better job, but, even if it's a simple surgery and anyone could do it, a top top surgeon might actually recommend against surgery because s/he doesn't need the money and, more importantly, because s/he seen a lot more cases, side-effects, and so on. But if you need a good doctor, hopefully you'll have family and friends who will do the research for you. It's hard to think clearly about these things when it concerns you or when you are sick. Heck, you just want the thing gone and it's easy to think that surgery or a pill will just make it go away, when in fact it can have long-lasting and chronic side-effects.

Timing and aging

Your best time physically is before 30. (Yes, it's not just psychological, although it's give or take two or four years.) Your joints will work well, your metabolism will be higher, your body will recover quickly from all kinds of self-abuse (hangover, sleep deprivation, irregular sleep). Use it wisely. Hike, mingle, be active, and be nice to your knees ;)

Building a body that looks good and works well

What: cardio, flexibility, coordination, muscle strength, ligament strength.
When: from childhood till 12 is a primer, 12 to 25 is fast-paced development, 25 and over is maintenance.

Weight: if you weight-train, before 20 or even 25, you can probably stay in the 6 to 10 rep range. Never go below that. But above that is fine and is actually really good for you (joints, ligaments, and heart rate). After 25 or 30, stick with at least 25 or 30 reps; it's a good habit. Don't be ashamed to lower the weight. But really, do consider rock climbing instead. It's worth it if you get into it.

I don't know about women, but if you are a guy and you want to have a good body, your best time is from the beginning of puberty (12 or 13) till about 25. Ideally, you would work out and exercise regularly throughout this entire period. Regularity is key. Don't overtrain. Instead, get in the habit. You don't have to improve, you just have to keep up, which will provide invisible improvement (e.g. your ligaments will be stronger). But do pick something you might enjoy; try different things to see. Some people like exercising outdoors, some prefer a weight room, some prefer dancing, some prefer rock climbing (which is a great great way to get ripped and have really strong ligaments -- don't just pay attention to muscle), and some prefer team sports like soccer. And some all of these. And make sure to get your cardio. If you weight-train, you can circuit-train to get it. Learn to stretch. And lots of weight doesn't matter. If you get yourself up to 20 pulls by doing pull ups every other day, you don't need to strap weight to your feet. Having a wirey built will prevent joint and ligament problems and will keep your heart-rate up.

Good eating habits (balanced meals at regular times) are good because they'll help your immune system, give your body what it needs, and be good habits for when your metabolism will start slowing down (although then you'll probably have to lower your portions too).