Leverage Notes #4: Choosing To Not Return To College

I’d rather stop my body than have my body stop me. That’s why part of my 11 mile long run yesterday was walking along the Brays Bayou. And walking along the bayou in the breezy morning reminded me of a passage I recently read from the book Walden by the naturalist Henry David Thoreau. In the start of the book, Thoreau rambles about his thoughts on economic value while recounting how he single handedly built a wooden cottage for himself. Thoreau was a pragmatist that valued learning through living experiments over accumulating unapplied theory. He would be the kind of person that spends 9 months and $2000 to build their own toaster from scratch.

During my sabbatical from software engineering, I considered going back to school. I invested weeks writing to seek clarity for my future direction and upcoming life decisions. I’ve chosen the mission of helping young men re-establish themselves by operating a ranch where they can grow and fail through hands-on projects. It will have a learn-by-experimenting philosophy. I weighed my options and visualized how different life trajectories would help me make Iron Temple Ranch a reality. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Northwestern. I would have applied to Computer Science programs and specialized in cryptography for decentralized, distributed systems. But I went to college to learn how to think like an engineer. I wanted to understand how systems worked, have the tools for gathering knowledge, and be able to effect change in the world. I had two long-term goals during my senior year of high school: to leverage my talents for as big of a positive impact as possible and continually not settle.

Going back to school would be intellectually fulfilling, but going back to college wouldn’t directly serve my pursuit of starting Iron Temple Ranch. The intangible meta skills that I gained from college are enough for me to make progress. I am confident that I learned how to learn. I am confident that I stretched myself enough as a person to be able to act on opportunities. I am confident that I learned how to identify like-minded people and can maintain social relationships. Even though taking a sabbatical without another job lined up introduced discomfort, it’s not worth going back to school over.

Like Thoreau who decided to take the off-beat path to live on the lakeside, I’m building my own cabin in a ranch where young men can build their own cabins as well.

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