> Also, I still do believe some people just want to work on "cool" stuff.

One thing I’ve noticed more and more is all the “cool” jobs require you to already be an established domain expert.

Another things I’ve noticed, and this is probably mostly just my opinions evolving, but all the “cool” stuff that catches my interest these days is not in software. Software is boring.

▲

satvikpendem an hour ago | parent [-]

What catches your interest these days?

▲

cliglot 37 minutes ago | parent [-]

I’ve been in a bit of creative/intellectual rut the last few years, but before that there were a handful of things that intrigued me in the last 5-10 years.

Most recently, I became interested in the field of photonics/optics, particularly in the field of novel optical communications research.

I’ve had mild interests in things like Biology and History since I was a child. The latter particularly hooked me a few years back.

Neuroscience is a pretty cool one as well. The human brain is of course one of the most fascinating pieces of hardware in existence and understanding it (to whatever level we currently can) is incredibly interesting to me.

At one point I thought about going into security research, but now that everyone and their mother is headed that direction, it’s become less feasible.

Unfortunately I don’t even have a bachelors degree, and most of the fields are research heavy and not very accessible to hobbyists, so my actual interaction with these things remains relegated to reading papers/pop sci articles/etc.

	▲	dieselgate 4 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Don't forget the study of neuroscience is much larger than just the human brain. Many other target organisms are studied e.g. fruit fly and are much more thoroughly understood on a fundamental level. Respectfully, when people want to understand the human brain they usually intend to study sociology or psychology rather than neuroscience. Although, of course, neuroscience is applicable to human brains as well.