I would recommend picking up coding on your free time if you can. No matter what field you go into, it will be very useful. I didn’t mention it in my post, though I am thinking maybe I should have, but I’m a 37 year old software engineer. I have a bit of a priveleged vantage point. I try very hard to make sure that my thinking considers the very wide range of other jobs, however. Even jobs which do not create software or automated systems are still much more productive. Just imagine comparing a secretary or PR rep for a company that in 1979 could answer a couple dozen letters a day via postal mail to the same person in 2009 answering 300 emails before lunch. And they’re getting paid the same (adjusted for inflation and all that jazz). Absurd. Even more absurd is that they’re sitting in an expensive, inefficient office building while doing it while there is absolutely no advantage whatsoever to doing so. They could be doing it from home cheaper and would be more productive (research backs up that people working from home are more productive). You can get away with doing the inefficient thing for awhile, but probably not forever.

I should also maybe have mentioned that I am not all talk. Last March, I quit my job with no prospect of a new one. And I haven’t looked for a new one either. I started freelancing online, working from home. And, I should mention, working very little. I spend most of my time learning new skills, and do jobs here and there when I need money. I expect this to be the norm within 25 years. However, it should be considered that I was 12 years old in 1990 and had already started programming. I literally grew up online. And I did so during the 90s, when ideas of the Internet leading us into a Utopia were knee-deep. I try to temper my ideas with history and research, but I’m sure that exposure still leaves an impression on me.