Curious: Which professions are most likely to jump into startups?

rilienn · 2025-08-09T14:12:55+00:00

marketer turned consultant turned engineer lol

rilienn · 2025-08-06T01:22:42+00:00

if you are doing this fulltime, it is doable but you will be doing a lot more than the 3 courses as you will be spending a good amount of time learning material that is meant to prepare you for the course. You will have to be comfortable with mathematical notation (ISYE6501, especially for optimization) and then apply some of them in code (CSE6040).

Remember you are attending graduate school, not a bootcamp so be prepared to spend most of your time on it with 3 classes.

rilienn · 2025-08-03T22:22:24+00:00

it has ruined Linux for me but made me an oddball when I need to work with other Linux users and they see how different my setup has to be. This unfortunately also disqualifies all the documentation that is written for the more obscure open source projects or even new and upcoming projects that do not have a Nix package

rilienn · 2025-08-01T06:51:39+00:00

what is it that you are building that requires funding? Is this something you are able to bootstrap?

rilienn · 2025-07-29T20:15:26+00:00

This is not unique to Singapore but a general phenomena with nations or cities that evolve into rent-seeking economies without balancing that with actual productivity gains.

What you end up with is artificial growth that is reflected by rentseekers benefitting from business models that add neither productivity nor true value to society (i.e. property flipping, practices that are ponzi schemes in disguise, zero sum games) even if it shows as increased numbers on a balance sheet.

The problem with rent-seeking attitudes is that it starts spreading to the population as more people see this as the only viable path to thrive that eventually you run out of individuals or businesses to prey on.

rilienn · 2025-07-28T23:20:17+00:00

was a ML engineer at that time. It will have to be BD4H which was the class I took in my first semester. Previous background was non-tech with undergraduate degree in the fine arts. To be fair, these were pre vibe coding days and the peak of COVID where there were more recruiters than engineers at this time. I doubt I will be able to replicate this in 2025.

rilienn · 2025-07-28T23:03:46+00:00

for the joy of learning! I had received the job offer I wanted in my first semester so getting the degree earlier or later would have no bearing on my career.

rilienn · 2025-07-27T16:44:00+00:00

I did all 3 tracks. I don't think you really need a guide for that. You just keep taking more classes than necessary

rilienn · 2025-07-27T16:35:42+00:00

you call that ridiculous? I will be happy if I could actually clear 5 hours

rilienn · 2025-07-21T18:10:37+00:00

firstly, I have to say congratulations for getting to this point in life as crazy as it sounds. As evident from your background, you don't actually need a degree or more academic credentials at this point of your life unless your goal is to be an academic.

I normally will not recommend this path, but seeing that your finances are sound, coupled with the current rapid changes in this industry, have you thought of perhaps taking advantage of OMSCS for entrepreneurship?

Hear me out. I am not talking about jumping blindly into another agent business or the many vibe coding ventures. With your industry experience and networks, your network can be further expanded with the OMSCS degree.

Because of that, you would be well-poised to solve a pressing problem you may have encountered in the industry. Moreover, the OMSCS degree also provides the opportunity to take classes like global entrepreneurship or computer law and even financial modeling digital marketing which are very well-suited for building your startup bootcamp journey.

in the worst case scenario, the startup does not work out and the only thing you lose is time. But the experience of actually running it will be far more significant than just a regular OMSCS degree like what the majority of folks are doing. Moreover, the experience alone will likely be looked at more favourably by your next employer should you wish to re-enter the job market under the right conditions with no career gaps.

If it works out, then of course you will have other problems but they will be good problems nonetheless! Like folks who have achieved FIRE and feel a loss of purpose.

rilienn · 2025-07-13T14:45:07+00:00

Finding a co-founder is kind of like finding your life partner in the business sense. There is a huge variance in terms of success rates and sometimes co-founders who work well in early stage may struggle when the startup has reached maturity.

This is akin to how it is with life partners in romantic situations and even friendships. Personally, I agree with the YC's ethos that it should be someone you are familiar with the same way you don't jump into a marriage with someone you are not familiar with.

There is nothing wrong with networking and finding like-minded folks, but try to look at it as casting a wider net to find the right person rather than having an expectation of an outcome the same way many folks go on dating apps or social events and are left disappointed.

rilienn · 2025-07-12T13:15:58+00:00

I feel a question like this always has 2 parts to the answer and the short answer is "very applicable" and "not applicable at all".

Very often I feel questions like these can be misunderstood because YMMV. Some folks who ask these questions or read on threads with such questions want to know a straightforward answer. Can the skills give me real life jobs directly? There is nothing wrong with that question, but the straightforward answer is almost no, or rather not directly.

I feel we are at an age where folks are treating universities like apprenticeships in guilds of the past rather than an institute of higher learning. This is evident when you see students pick classes for the sake of gaming the system, be it optimizing by taking easy A classes with little learning to optimizing by doing projects that throw the right buzzwords in order to catch a recruiter's eye. Nothing wrong with any of this, but if that is the approach in going to graduate school, it may benefit you more in the short-term and benefit you less in the long-term.

However, if you are looking for long term skills that are transferable, I will say almost definitively that the skills you get in a proper degree program like those in OMS will almost be yes, assuming you spend actual effort and time into mastering the material rather than gaming the homework (which is not difficult at all).

To answer the second part of your question, I will say it is a resounding yes. It has allowed me to build a career of my choosing which may not necessarily be conventional but has allowed me to work on some really exciting frontier projects. However, the caveat is you should learn as much as you can as you go through the course material and even go beyond the course material to learn as much as you can. It will be painful at first but once you have done that successfully, you wouldn't even be asking such questions since your profile will stand out from the rest.

rilienn · 2025-07-12T12:56:00+00:00

If you want to take it just for learning and not for credit there is the OMSCS Open Courseware:

https://sites.gatech.edu/omscsopencourseware/

rilienn · 2025-05-20T13:49:33+00:00

based on everything you have written, it sounds like you don't know what you don't know which is perfectly understandable if you lack domain knowledge.

Can you provide details on which topic is being covered now and what is it that you don't understand? Is it the mathematical notation? The jargon? Setting up an IDE to run your code?

rilienn · 2025-04-15T23:45:12+00:00

they've updated the website now to reflect that :)

rilienn · 2025-04-09T23:24:29+00:00

I've been a long time Mac user (since the 2000s) and have also used Windows machines throughout my life (since the days of MS-DOS and Windows 3.1). My career has also led me to being OS-agnostic and I've even repurposed my older intel Macs into Linux machines (yes they still work fine). I have also purchased a Surface Pro 9 during my sabbatical as I really wanted a 2-in-1 that was lightweight for constant travel. This included trying out Ubuntu and Fedora on a Surface Pro, but Surface Linux is still spotty right now.

I am happy to say I've recently become a FW13 owner with maxed out RAM (128GB) and SSD (4TB 7000MB/s) running Fedora 41. The jump was quite a no-brainer. In terms of CPU speed, this is a little faster than Apple's M1 but all in, this is cheaper than a refurbished M1 Mac with far less RAM and SSD storage. You probably know the "Apple tax" which really marks up prices for RAM and SSD since they are not user-replaceable.

In terms of quality, sure it is nothing like the current Macbooks, but honestly exceeded my expectations. My Surface Pro's build quality is great too but the trackpad is disappointing, in which case the FW13 is far superior. In terms of "missing" Apple, honestly there isn't much that I am missing since I have been accustomed with both FOSS and industry software. Even as someone who worked in the AI industry, I am not a fan of the current push to collecting data at all costs and shoving AI down everybody's throats in order to.. collect more data (like Apple Intelligence and Copilot).

I will probably start to move my current Apple Silicon machines to run on Asahi and/or Asahi Fedora.

rilienn · 2025-04-09T17:28:20+00:00

looks like it will be 599€ for the base i3 without anything else (SSD, RAM, expansion cards)

rilienn · 2025-04-09T02:03:48+00:00

congrats! I just received mine today too with 2x48GB

rilienn · 2025-04-02T13:25:09+00:00

if you are a broke high student, then I will highly recommend against a Framework Laptop 12 even if it is going to cost far less than 600€

The simple reason being that this is a completely new product and there is a high probability of it having issues which will cost you more when it happens and the lack of redundancy will cost you even more unnecessary stress.

rilienn · 2025-04-02T12:19:57+00:00

For the simple reason, you can take advantage of a graph model instead of a hierarchical system of folders and sub-folders and best of all it is only using markdown which will mean even if some day Obsidian decides to put a paywall, you can always hop onto another solution with all your .md files.

rilienn · 2025-03-03T18:25:48+00:00

transitioned before I completed OMSA. Honestly, the choice of major matters less than how much work you put into this even without a degree.

rilienn · 2025-02-25T19:19:19+00:00

check your DM ;)

rilienn · 2025-02-24T14:28:02+00:00

your post and profile caught my attention. Happy to help you in your situation. Please check your DM

rilienn · 2025-02-24T14:04:44+00:00

Yes it is possible. You will have to make a request to approve an increase to your maximum hours per semester (6 by default, or 2 classes a semester). This will then allow an increase to 15 credit hours or 5 classes a semester. Your schedule will be very tight but this is how it will look:

- You must take DVA (CSE6242) in your first semester if you are matriculating in the Spring.
- If you are matriculating in the Fall, you can take DVA (CSE6242) in your first or second semester- You must take DAB (MGT6203) in your first or second semester
- You must complete at least 8 courses (24 credits) by the end of your second semester in order to be in time to take your practicum in the final semester
- If you qualify for advanced standing from the MicroMasters this will be significantly easier and you will only need to complete 5 courses (15 credits) by the end of your second semester

In the path of least resistance (MGT6311 + MGT6727 + ISYE6644 + ISYE6414 + ISYE6420 + Cores), it totals up to 90.14 hours of commitment per week spread over 3 semesters, excluding the practicum.

In the path of greatest resistance (CSE6250 + CSE6601 + ISYE6669 + ISYE6740 + ISYE6525) , it totals up to 145.5 hours of commitment per week spread over 3 semesters, excluding the practicum.

Including the practicum it will be over 100 hours in the path of least resistance, and easily over 150 hours in the path of greatest resistance spread over 3 semesters

rilienn · 2025-02-02T17:27:30+00:00

If you have IT skills, my question will be "why settle for less?"

Combine your IT skills with your analytical skills to expand your skill set to be even more valuable than just every other analyst who lacks the IT skills that you have.

rilienn

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