I hope this topic won't cause a lot of problems to you, but i think i'm really confused and fraustrated to the future.
(BTW, I'm not so good in English, but i really don't know a lot of people on web with my mother tongue.... so if i wrote any really bad writings....please forgive me...... )

I'll start with my childhood....
I started to play computer is at about 9 years ago when i was still the first grade of elementary school.
But at that time till the first year of junior high school(which is the 7th grade) I had been playing only computer games instead of knowing more about computer hardware or software.
I have focused on studying some computer knowledge since the 7th grade.
I think it's been 4 years since i started being serious about learning computer things.

Although i admit that i'm not very good in computer, but i've worked quite hard trying to improve my skills and knowledge.
Now, I'm in senior high, though i'm not so good in school subjects, I still want to go in to information engineering. (is it what it is called? )

We have some magazines in Taiwan too, and i found out that there are two of them have very interesting topic this month.
One of them is talking more about hardware stuff ,and the other has the lossless audio description this month.
But the more i looked in them, the more confused i felt.
Although i'm just a senior high student, i am not very familiar with those descriptions, testing, and diagnosis, and i feel very bad about it....
How do they know those things and have those software to do diagnosis?
If they're so good, what's the point that i be one of them?

And I haven't studied lossless compression much.....
All i do with FLAC is compress wav in to flac files, but i'm not familiar with how it works and what is its algorithm....
And to tags or DSP things......
it can almost say that i don't know any of them....


I don't know what jobs i can do in the future....
Although i like computers, information stuffs are changing so fast that i feel so fraustrated......
I begin to think about whether i should choose the information engineering or something else..
But i don't have another interest....

What can i do if i graduated from information engineering?
There are so many people who is so good in programming and developing information industry....What can i do instead of being a IT monitor of the company?
I want to be the developer, but i really don't know if my creation can help me think of a new project ot go on........

I hope you know what i'm saying....
(frankly....i don't evern know what i was saying.... )

If you don't have the energy and/or intellect to stay up-to-date with technical improvments, please consider studying a different field.

Look relax you don't have to be a guru in order to find a job.
A secretary does not have a clue how a fax machine works internally ( neither do I ) but she can still send and receive faxes organize them etch.

How to keep the energy......
I feel i'm old.....

Make sure you're skilled in math and logic if you'd like to be a developer.

You mean engineering mathematics?

No, just Math.

Senior high math?
discrette math?
or what kind??

how much and how deep the math is needed?

Have you considered a career in adult entertainment?

You seem to be worring about not being good at a job that you haven't started yet. No one can be knowlegable about all things about computers or anything else. You seem fairly young and so your interest still can change as you perhaps develop other interests. Life has a way leading people into different paths than the ones we would like or predict for ourselves. Maybe you should just try going into it, if you are not happy then it might be time to consider something else, maybe you will find some aspect of the course that you particularly like. You must try these out before you get worried about liking them or not

A good university education in CS will place you at the right starting point, with introductory courses in discrete math, algorithm analysis, computational complexity, linear algebra, multi-variate calculus, numerical analysis, probability and statistics, and others. I should note that most people will find a number of these infrequently used in their careers.

From there on, you would have to specialize. This really depends on what you plan on doing. But I think post-graduate study in math is confined mostly to R&D efforts.

Okay....
I'll get on to it......

thanks....

i think i'm going to work hard on school works and programming before i go into college..

and i think i'm going to choose electronical engineering...

so i think i'd better work extra hard....


i'd be please if anyone can give me any suggestions too.

thanks

Electronical engineering is a good decision, but, you have that to be sure.
Why??

Because this career is very hard, have a lots of physics and mathematics..

But, maybe mathematics and physics is not problem for you.

I am a electronic engineer. I am especialized in design of electronic equipment [only analog audio: audio amplifiers, preamplifiers (mic, riaa, musical instruments...), equalizers and others]. I like a lot my profesion, but; the excess of mathematics and physics was to me very very hard to understand and to learn..].

It's a nice profesion, but; you can investigate first; because this career have a lot of subdivisions: informatics, audio, comunications, power electricity... you have that to be sure of that subdivision is good for you.

Forgot clarify something in my post: design of electronic audio equipment is a very rare subdivision, and maybe in your country is not possible for to find; but maybe yes.. But if this area is not your interest area [maybe you prefer informatics or comunications, I don't know] you don't have problems for to choose.

Well, i feel i hardly have interests on other subjects than in electronics and information...
but i just don't like the life that programming all the time...
sometimes programming is really tiring...and i feel doing something more like electronical stuff is more interesting....
i like things related to audio and video....and some times some stuff related to libraries and museums...
but i just don't like always programming......
analysing audio waves to find traces for compressing seems more fun to me....

Hmmm... very interesting

I remember the case of a good friend:

This friend was studying (7 years ago) electrical engineering. My friend was (and is) a good musician (guitarrist). He obtained many frustration all the time with Electrical Engineering. One day I said to my friend: You are lost the time.. You career are not electrical engineering. You loves the music and video, as too, edition the music in computer . I believe the best for you is Audio Engineering... but it's my personal opinion... After of a few time my friend told me: maybe, you are right. My friend abandoned Electrical Eng. and after studied Audio Engineer and succesfully finished the career (Audio Eng.).

After of 7 years, my friend is a excellent Audio Eng. and he is very happy with the profesion. I believe that if you like music and video; as too edition of audio in computer, maybe; Audio Engineer probably will be a good choice for you.

but i think my biggest problem is i hape playing intruments....
i once played classical guitar, but to tell the truth... i hate playing it...

maybe you're right...
and i always feeling frustrated because i consider myself not very good in physics and mathematics...

but though i feel i'm not very good in physics and math, i still feel electronics things and computer hardware are very very interesting...

so..

... so just relax
Reading this post I suddenly felt into nostalgia for times I were in school and all my life was in ZX Spectrum 48k. I resolved that I'll be a programmer and will create such beautiful things as Chronos, Saboteur, Rolling Thunder, Exolon, etc... But times changes. I working in bank industry not having any programming skills but I feel quite happy with all my audio and PC experience so I pretty sure you can change your mind hundreds of times and finaly find your orientation. Wipe out all the bad thoughts from your head and be happy

Okay. The first thing to do is relax. I feel funny about writing this because I am going through a similar phase in life. Looks like I am talking to myself
Anyway, if you are still in school, concentrate on finishing school with good grades. By the time you finish school, you might have discovered what you want to do with your life. The important point is, if you finish your school with good grades, you can do whatever you want to do later. Otherwise, you will be stuck with a life you will hate for eternity.
The next thing to remember is, learning programming is not hard. Many people who are not computer engineers do programming (Like me-I am a Mechanidal Engineering student and write code in C). Almost everyone nowadays writes code. Once you go to a university, you will learn how to code. DOn't worry about that.
Just relax and take life as it comes. Sometimes you have to make really tough decisions. Think well before you make it. But once you make it, stick to it. You will be happy that way.

Do you have to be a math wiz to be a good programmer?

Because I plan on studying to become a C++ programmer but my math skills sux, mainly because I never payed attention at school not because I'm not smart enough (anything the doesn't require prior knowledge to learn I do well at) I'm just wondering the obstacles I will encounter along the way

I don't think so.

I think it depends. Two factors which I think are important to consider are both the type of programs you'll be creating (i.e., what is their purpose?) and the style in which you'll be programming.

If you're doing application programming, you can get by with not too much more than basic knowledge of arithmetic, assuming you can also understand what a function is. On the other hand, if you're doing any sort of programming for scientific or academic purposes, you'll have a very hard time if you're not good at math. In the latter case, if you're just creating the programs and you don't have to think up algorithms, it won't be as bad, though you'll still possibly have a hard time being able to translate them into code and figure out how to optimize them. If you do have to come up with your own algorithms, then you're pretty much screwed.

And then there's the whole programming style thing to consider. Imperative programming (C/Java/etc.) probably requires less familiarity with mathematics than functional programming (Haskell/LISP/ML - although the latter two are impure). The reason for this is that the mathematical nature of program flow and construction is somewhat hidden in imperative styles, particularly because of the less powerful notion of functions in these languages and the often times significantly reduced expressiveness that goes along with that.

So I think that overall you can probably be a "good" programmer for a limited domain without being good at math, but the problem is just that -- you'll be limited in the kinds of things you can do with programming in both purpose and technique.

Well, I guess it all depends on what you understand by being a "math wiz"...

Thanks for the post Dibrom, a had a talk with a teacher at school & he told me pretty much the same.

I can always go back & expand my mathematics knowledge later on if necessary anyway.

davince: relax!! maybe would be good for you only a technician career in electronics, computers or audio; not engineering.

thanks..