Homeless engineers are few and far between.
This is probably because getting an engineering degree is not an easy thing to do – therefore the supply of engineers is low.
At the same time, technology is moving forward and automation feels always on the rise – therefore the demand for engineers is still strong.
This is why my best advice for an 18-year-old is to go get an undergraduate degree in engineering.
Then go do whatever you want to do.
Go be a writer, a teacher, a musician, a doctor, start a business, or a whatever.
And then when life happens, you have a fallback alternative that is better than most.
Heads I win, tails I win.
Let’s try to put ourselves in more situations like this.
Adams also wrote about this in his book How To Fail At Almost Everything And Still Win Big.
But if you are playing the odds, always look for situations that give you two ways to win and almost no way to lose. I sometimes describe this situation in a more generic sense as having a system instead of a goal. A goal is, by definition, one way to win and infinite ways to lose. A good system gives you lots of ways to win and far fewer ways to fail. An example of a good system is going to college and getting an engineering degree. You don’t yet know what your ultimate career will be, but the engineering degree gives you lots of ways to win while vastly reducing the number of ways to lose. You don’t see many homeless engineers. And if you do, it involves substance abuse or mental issues.
-Scott Adams, Win Bigly
