Ableton Forum

"At Atari we hired based on hobbies and not grades in school. We ended up with he best engineering group in the world." - Nolan K Bushnell

Go into a dark room, close your eyes and let your thoughts decide, not us. Write down a list of pros and cons for each choice. Post all choices on a sheet of paper and throw a dart at it. Make a deck of cards with each choice. Shuffle the deck and let the first card be your choice. Don't like that choice? Pick another. You will know the right card when it comes up.

What you select, in the end, doesn't matter. Life will always take you on an unexpected journey.

The important lesson is, when you are old and gray and finished with all this will you be at peace with yourself. Will you have contentment? Will you be accepting of all things? Can you die with a smile on your lips?

shadx312 wrote:"At Atari we hired based on hobbies and not grades in school. We ended up with he best engineering group in the world." - Nolan K Bushnell

When did Atari did go bankrupt, anyways?

Long after Jobs left to start his own company.

shadx312 wrote:"At Atari we hired based on hobbies and not grades in school. We ended up with he best engineering group in the world." - Nolan K Bushnell

One thing I learned when running my own company was that hiring enthusiastic creatives works fantastically well when things are going great and money is rolling in, because they can be given a free reign to exercise their specific talents.
However, if the going gets tough you need actual business skills, like - knowing how to do books properly, and an ability to do dull work on time, and other non-creative things. When the shit hits the fan is when you find out that passionate hobbyists are the wrong people to be trapped in a foxhole with.

This carries into the entertainment industries, most often the talent and the executives are all blinded to some degree by the romance of their industry, an industry which they often chose to join because they are essentially a fan of it. Theatre fans, dance enthusiasts, music fans, etc.
"Love is blind" as they say, and a blind captain steers a very weird and wayward course ... but he does it very passionately! (so he wont hear any criticism)

It's kind of like, "your best friends may not make the best roommates" kind of thing

My really really direct opinion.

You can call me skeptical! but unless you or your parents have enought money to have a good life without an regular job, go for an "regular" main job, take music as an hobby, without pressure to make a life from it, this way you have more chance of be successful and "switch" your main job to music later, just my opinion.

And of course, choose an regular job when you can read the live forum anytime

Angstrom wrote:If I were to give any advice on your parallel career, I'd say pick something that's non-technological. Technology demands constant skill updates, which is thrilling when you are 20, but becomes progressively less thrilling when you are learning the fifth new, cool and amazing way of doing something, just to tick a box.

I disagree with that, depending how you define "technological". If you get an electrical engineering degree say, with all the changes the future may hold there's still an inescapable set of scientific laws and engineering skills that are required. Transmissions lines and Kirchoff's laws aren't gonna stop being useful any time soon...

If you meant don't go and study a degree in "iPhone GUI components" or something similar based almost entirely on something "of the moment", then I agree entirely. Unless it's something that you have to have to get you into a great job and you'll then develop your role and knowledge of the successors to what you learnt as part of your evolving career.

Piplodocus wrote: If you meant don't go and study a degree in "iPhone GUI components" or something similar based almost entirely on something "of the moment", then I agree entirely. Unless it's something that you have to have to get you into a great job and you'll then develop your role and knowledge of the successors to what you learnt as part of your evolving career.

Yep, that's what I meant.
It's fine if it's your passion in life to learn a succession of new technologies. It's like owning a vintage motorcycle that requires constant maintenance, that's fun for a grease monkey, but less good for a person wanting to ride across the continent.

dude,, here's some advice. do what you think is right for you. Its probably not a good idea to take life advice from an internet music forum. these guys can help you with ableton, but not life decisions. I question how many on are even really into music. if you look a the link your music section, no one on here is really interested in listening to other members music (made with the software they act like they're experts on) but they sure are ready to chime in on questions like these.

FWIW, I used to work in academic advising at a major university. Also, you're 20 and can't mess up too badly right now.

First, you have to decide what works for you. Some people can walk away from school and come back years later as "mature" or "nontraditional" undergrads and finish the degree. And get a lot more out of it. Others struggle. There is something about finishing an undergrad degree in the early 20s that seems to work for most people but that's also what the system expects.

If you want to do film music, you should be in LA, not Asheville. Games are another story as that's happening in lots of places.

As to the job thing, you haven't said much about that either. It's not just about income but also benefits. Sure, people "make good money as DJs" or whatever, but it's not like a regular middle class job with healthcare and benefits or a consistent paycheck month to month. Do you care now? Will you care when you're 40? Who knows.

You can love more than one thing in life, and so I'd keep exploring in school, find something you love that's not music and do it for your degree. I would also recommend you continue doing music, and in the summers hit the road and gain experience in major shops in major cities if there are internship opportunities (though I imagine there's a game industry outpost in RDU). You're 20. You don't have to choose yet. And your ideal situation is a decent job doing something you love, whether that's directly related to music, or something else that complements the music, which you can also do for fun if it doesn't turn out to be lucrative.

--JES

technology is ultimately an unfulfilling career IMO. Most of what you achieve will just become obsolete junk after a few years. It's a constant challange to keep up and the rewards aren't that great - unless you're running the business.

If you want to earn big money the humanities will get you much further.

My advice is to follow you're heart. If you have apassion for music - enough to put in the effort neded to succeed - then I say go for it now when you are at your peek in terms of energy and creativity and have least distractions and responsibilities.

I really wish I had been given that advive when I was your age instead of being persuaded to take the "sensible" option of a career in electronics. Thirty years later I was made redundant when Siemens pulled out of tellecoms and have started to devote myself almost entirely music. I've no intention of going back to regular employment, even if I have to sell.all my assets and go.live on a boat. Really it's the most fulfilled I've ever felt - it's what I should have been doing all along.

crumhorn wrote:technology is ultimately an unfulfilling career IMO. Most of what you achieve will just become obsolete junk after a few years. It's a constant challange to keep up and the rewards aren't that great - unless you're running the business.

If you want to earn big money the humanities will get you much further.

Coming from humanities (political science) I find the opposite to be true in the job market.

login wrote:

crumhorn wrote:technology is ultimately an unfulfilling career IMO. Most of what you achieve will just become obsolete junk after a few years. It's a constant challange to keep up and the rewards aren't that great - unless you're running the business.

If you want to earn big money the humanities will get you much further.

Coming from humanities (political science) I find the opposite to be true in the job market.

yeah, I do tech, it's great. what do you do crumhorn? besides rant on what you're clueless about.

Angstrom wrote:One thing I learned when running my own company was that hiring enthusiastic creatives works fantastically well when things are going great and money is rolling in, because they can be given a free reign to exercise their specific talents.
However, if the going gets tough you need actual business skills, like - knowing how to do books properly, and an ability to do dull work on time, and other non-creative things. When the shit hits the fan is when you find out that passionate hobbyists are the wrong people to be trapped in a foxhole with.

spot on. dealing with this now at work. creative guy had a great idea, got the ball rolling and completely caved when it came time to do work. damn dude, I'm impressed but not surprised, you've been around. props.


edit - found this article the other day on why college isn't for everyone.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/20 ... ryone&wQZg

it also explains how a philosophy degree (as mentioned earlier) can be useful. (it's all about setting up a work ethic.)