I have finally decided that mathematics and STEM is not right for me

[Husseinisdoingfine]

So, the gist of what's going on in my life is that I am making the switch away from mathematics and STEM and into something that is more practical and suitable for me, something in which I am naturally talented and have a chance of succeeding. I have changed my major to a softer major, sociology. The problem is that sociology is not really a marketable degree that will necessarily land me a job.

This leads me to the "moving forward" section. In your video from, I believe, 5–6 years ago, "Should You Go to College?", Leo highlighted that one of the alternatives to college was a serious dedication to self-education.

I'm afraid to go down this path because of my family and the pressure they put on me. I come from an intellectual family where, in our mindset, the only way to succeed is with a degree. Most of the older people in my family have either master's degrees or Ph.D.s. I don't have the courage to tell them that I am going to pursue self-education while doing a B.A. in Sociology.

Another thing I fear is myself: my laziness, my ineffectiveness, etc. One of the reasons I switched from physics to sociology is that my procrastination and horrific lack of time-management skills caused me to fail Calculus II. The weird thing about calculus was that it was never that difficult. It really wasn't. But for some weird reason, I could not be bothered to simply open the damn textbook and read it every day.

Why? Why do I have such an issue with discipline and time management? Why wasn't I making an effort, at least every week, to open the damn textbook? I scored a 97% on my first Calculus II exam. But after that, I just... stopped.

Why? Why did I stop? Psychologically, I just did not have it in me, and I totally lacked the discipline to just look at the damn textbook, read it, and do the damn assignments. Even my physics professor told me, "Well, Hussein, I don't think the problem is your intelligence or intellectual capacity, not at all... The main thing I'm concerned about is your lack of discipline."

Why do I lack this discipline? I've read books on how to be more disciplined in college, and yet I cannot be bothered to do the mere basics required to succeed. Is this because, deep down, I don't like what I do?

This takes me back to why I am afraid. I'm worried that if I go down the self-education route, then I'm going to slack off again. I'm also worried that if I try to train myself in computer programming to build a passion project, my skills will be rendered worthless due to AI.

[Elliott]

Your family was probably in the "safety needs level", you're probably "love and belonging needs level". If you satisfy your social needs you may find yourself back in the "esteem" level and Gung ho to study hard. Are you under a scholarship you're taking advantage of, or could you layoff school for a bit and come back with no loss?

Edited August 26 by Elliott

[Lucasxp64]

I'm very engineered minded, but I wouldn't stick in a hardcore career in stem. I'd rather use those skills to work directly with clients that don't have problems that are too complex, or if I'm dealing with problems that are too complex they should be hella worth it for building a business around.

On 26/08/2026 at 2:34 PM, Husseinisdoingfine said:

I'm also worried that if I try to train myself in computer programming to build a passion project, my skills will be rendered worthless due to AI.

That's bullshit. AI can't think for shit, at least for now there wasn't been any breakthrough that would deduce that they will fundamentally change from how they currently operate.

What has been happening is that people that are already great system designers, great programmers, they use LLMs to get even more done. But the problem with that is that CODE IS A LIABILITY. The more code we have, the more maintenance work we have.

AS LONG AS THE LLMs CANNOT FIX THEIR OWN BUGS, THEY WILL NEVER REPLACE HUMANS.

As a human you're paid to get yourself out of a hole, the AI can't do that on its own.

LLMs can only fix problems that have well defined known solutions. A great engineer knows how to define iteratively what that looks like, an LLM can't do that on its own for anything sufficiently complex.

Think about basic websites: Nobody needs to know how to code HTML5 pages to be able to get their own webpages, at some point we didn't have frameworks like wordpress. Today even before LLMs anyone can make a basic website, that didn't keep people from behind hired to doing even basic websites for businesses.

Unless you are talking about low-level juniors/beginners that are monkeys that just mastered syntax and LEET code challenges.

It's like saying that book writers and journalists should stop their work because LLMs can spit out a sloppy book and articles.

Great books and journalists spend a whole decade doing research, they are not the human equivalent of what we had before LLMs which was low-quality internet articles written to optimize for Google's SEO algorithm.

The major problem about code WAS NEVER ABOUT THE CODE per say, it was about WHAT CODE TO WRITE and WHAT NOT TO CODE. What specifications, what problems are solvable by code, how to prioritize tasks, how to translate messy human business problems and specifications into reliable systems.

By the time LLMs or other future AI systems can replace humans at writing great code, that's the least of mankind's concerns, at that point they will likely overtake all of mankind since it would have to solve the problem of human-level general intelligence.

Edited Saturday at 09:23 PM by Lucasxp64

[Lucasxp64]

On 26/08/2026 at 2:34 PM, Husseinisdoingfine said:

Why do I lack this discipline? I've read books on how to be more disciplined in college, and yet I cannot be bothered to do the mere basics required to succeed. Is this because, deep down, I don't like what I do?

First of all, you probably just don't care about this path.

As much as I'm a super nerd, I don't wanna spend my whole life doing the mental equivalent of a janitor without getting paid a massive leverage premium on it. As much as that has its values.

Actually, like with anything. We know deep down that we probably don't wanna be doing things just for the sake of survival and getting paid.

We are probably better facing towards a escape route strategy where we are motivated to getting very high leverage, making businesses so that we can get paid so much we can live off from that money faster.

The problem with business by yourself when you are not somehow very driven at the delivery phase when you are starting out, it's that it will just amplify your inadequacies.

Just like you said there about studying stuff on your own. 

That's one strategy.

Other strategy that people have is doing the work that they love the most and finding ways of monetizing on it, maybe not being so hardcore about just "picking what will pay the most".

Actually oftentimes when it comes to very hard subjects like a degree in pure mathematics, they are give some of the most intellectually difficult problems to solve, and they are not getting paid proportionally for their effort. Meanwhile, there are other industries like finances, corporate business managers, etc. That they get disproportionally paid more.

But also there is a problem of The Architect/leader vs The one that executes.

The major issue that can happen in STEM is that it requires so much cognitive bandwidth to execute things that being a great architect from a big picture perspective becomes very mentally taxing.

Perhaps you wanna be more of the architect, not so much doing the nitty gritty low-level execution, which obviously connects with the issue of LLMs, which they are getting increasingly better at that final step.

Edited Saturday at 09:25 PM by Lucasxp64

[EdgeGod900]

Theres many issues here:

1)Backward family culture 

2)Over realiance on Leo

3)Procrastination

4)News and Internet

5)Attached to money, success, etc (Possible stage Orange shadow)

 

I can give possible solutions to 1,2, 4 and 5.

1) Cut off family. Find ways to be financially independent from em so you can be on your own.

2) Gotta start thinking for yourself now. I suggest you come up with your own conclusions about life.

4) Insane to say, but don't even pay attention to the news or internet. Maybe just use the internet once a week.

5) Meditation/Psychdelics can fix this (also other things -- do research). Also kinda hard because face/success/status/money is a main sticking point many Middle-Eastern, Indians, and Asians kids face. 

 

Hopefully fixing 4/5 of these issues, can help you think straight, so you can focus on fixing your procrastination.

 

Also, I suggest you get to the point were you start wincing at people who give off that materialistic, status, pretentious, superiority complex, etc type of energy.

Edited Saturday at 10:11 PM by EdgeGod900

[PsychedelicEagle]

It seems you're afraid of working hard. Whatever path you choose, change your mindset and realize that without deep commitment and effort you won't get anywhere. Reframe yourself as a hard worker and you will see your life transform.

Expect to give everything you can before any return comes back your way. Expect the path will be tough. This mindset will bulletproof you from excuses, fears, and procrastination.

 

Edited 21 hours ago by PsychedelicEagle

[Heaven]

Remember that you’re the one who needs to live your life and not your family. Become fully independent of anyone so you can make your own choices. For me, when I choose to do something my motivation skyrocketing.

@PsychedelicEagle smart advice.

Business life has a lot of ups and downs but you must keep going. What is the alternative?

[Majed]

@Husseinisdoingfine Yeah same here. Figuring out a career is really tough.