>>8043215
you spout meme, unrelated authors and show absolutely no signs of actually knowing any philosophy

you sound like you want lazy continental memery. and that sounds like an absolutely terrible idea.

if you're sick of your degree you definitely need to change ASAP though, so tell us more about your interests, at this point it's only "i like meme philosophy and programming I guess" and that's shit

>>8043215
if you absolutely must study philosophy just double major you fuckhead

but you're asking 4chan for advice on a serious life decision, you're already bound for failure

>>8043228
You kind of illustrate my point. Wouldn't studying philosophy help me... well, learn more about philosophy?
In the last three years of my degree I barely read any non scientific literature and had very few creative thoughts that weren't clever ways of solving a tricky integral. In light of this I never really outgrew "meme philosophy" as you call it.

What would you call "good philosophy" btw? Russel, Wittgenstein, Sartre, Kant, Heidegger?

But to get back to my main point: I feel like I lost sight of my actual interests by burning all my energy on something that I don't actually want to do.

I have programmed in R, Java, Fortran, DrRacket and Python. I did quite a bit of scientific programming, including geostatistical methods and numerical methods of illustrating nonlinear systems. My Bachelors thesis focussed on the the fluorescence properties of eGFP. But of my studies I mainly enjoyed the parts where I got to program things, hence me saying I "enjoy programming".

If you need to know something specific to give me constructive advice please ask a specific question and I will do my best to answer it.

>>8043241
I am not "asking 4chan". I am asking people that browse 4chan. People like me, less educated people, more educated people, people from different walks of life.

And I would definitely do a double major if I decided to go with philosophy, no doubt.

>>8043257
yeah I'd say that's good philosophy

how did you end up in your position? it sounds like you hated physics for a long while now. what do you dislike about it? I switched from a computing career to math three years in and it was the best decision I ever made, and it would be good to see what you dislike to see what you might like

enjoying programming sounds good, but computing in general is very broad. there's systems engineering, where you basically manage enterprise systems, there's software development where you work on design and architecture of big pieces of software, there's computer science where you research algorithms, data structures, computability, etc etc.

some general advice I would give to you is to get more involved in things you might like. attend philosophy / logic classes in your institution, and get involved with competitive programming maybe, that's a nice way to learn about algorithms and get noticed by big players in software

>>8043257
Why in the fuck would you do something you hate that much?
I mean, I admire your sheer determination to get a bachelor's in physics, but wouldn't your philosophers say that it isn't worth it if you're not happy with it?

You do realize that a philosophy degree isn't necessarily useless, right? Lawyers, ethics committees, human resources, educators, environmental agencies, and many other career paths can make use of philosophy.

Since you already have a degree in physics, you may be able to get a philosophy degree and merge the two together.

>>8043273
Interesting. I've read some of all of those but found Kant and Heidegger very tiring to read on my own. I feel like with authors like that some guidance would really help me.

To be honest I thought about studying Philosophy from the get go but my ego got the better of me. I saw and heard how little people in general respect the social sciences and how much they are in awe of the "hard sciences". I wanted to be one the "smart people". One of the people that can do things others can't. Pathetic, I know.
So I decided to go for Physics and my stubborness pulled me through. I didn't enjoy it but I was too stubborn too fail.

I find it hard to pinpoint what exactly I don't enjoy about Physics. On some level I do find it truly fascinating and a worthwhile pursuit. The things I probably dislike most are experimenting and documenting experiments. Now you might ask why I don't just go into theoretical physics and to that I would answer: My mathematical inclination is not strong enough either. I am not horrible at maths, but it brings me little enjoyment and much frustration.

Adding to that: I enjoy discussing and thinking about societal issues a lot. Especially in turbulent times such as ours, where there are cultures clashing and the very foundation of what "correct" ethics are is constantly questioned. It is such an exciting time for social sciences and I feel that I am missing out. Undoubtedly we are also in a great age of the natural sciences but the discoveries in those fields just don't fascinate me as much for some reason.

In short: social sciences, in which I would include applied philosophy, fascinate me more than the natural sciences.

Most of what I have done in regards to computing so far would probably fall under the realm of computer science more than anything else. Learning more about systems engineering and software development would be nice though. Just to actually get a feel for those as well.

CONT

>>8043319
I already visit a lecture on pattern recognition and it is quite interesting. But maybe I should drop some other lectures to make some room for some of the activities you proposed. Thank you for the advice so far.

>>8043298
I'm a stubborn idiot that was sadly not stupid enough to outright fail. I realize that a philo degree isn't necessarily useless, yes, but actually making a cut and saying I will focus on something else from now on isn't a very easy step for me.

>>8043319
>>8043326
you sound like you don't like experimental science, and might like theoretical things. but then you don't like math and you like social science? it's odd.

computing and philosophy do sound promising. but if you really like social science, haven't you considered something along the lines of sociology and psychology? or neuroscience?

the advice is definitely to take classes in all fields that might interest you. find one in which you wouldn't mind being the rest of your life, and pursue it longer to test it out.

>>8043331
Sorry, my thoughts are rather unsorted and I am doing a bad job of expressing myself.
I like applying math. I do however not like higher mathematics. At some point the level of abstraction gets too high for me and it frustrates me. I can work through those things and understand them, but it doesn't feel worth it afterwards.

Funny that you mention socioligy, I was actually approved for a socioligy/econ major before I decided to study Physics. One of the problems really might be that in principle everything seems so interesting and ecciting to me. I want to do it all, but I don't have the energy.

I will talk to my parents and sister over the next weekend to see what their thoughts are, but your advice of just tasting the rainbow and sticking with what I like most seems very promising. Thank you for the advice.

May I ask why you switched from computing to maths?

>>8043356
you don't have the energy? don't be so pessimistic, first you find something you might like, and then you work on that and see how it goes.

i switched from computing so math because I don't like practicality. I love learning and understanding and proving, and experimental science doesn't cope well with me, so I strayed away from the practical side of computing. I could have gone on with pure CS and that was my plan for a while, but in the end after tasting math I loved it too much and just decided to stay in it

>>8043416
No no you misunderstand. I don't have the energy to ALL the things I think I could potentially be interested in.

How far are you in your studies now?

>>8043437
oh all of them, well yeah, that's pretty obvious. you should focus on one and only one thing, and then go from there adding side interests as time goes on. don't try to grab 2+ things from the get go

right now I'm a junior, and I'm doing ok, already started doing undergrad research for my thesis and i'm feeling comfy

>>8043441
(might be good to clarify: degrees here take 10 semesters, I switched from computing to math in my 7th semester, losing one or two semesters, and now I'm in the equivalent of math's 8th semester)

>>8043443
Best of luck with your thesis then! Thanks for your input.

Good morning friends! Bumperino for some more opinions if there are any.

>>8043215
>Any input on this matter?
You can study Physics and get a good job and use parts of your income to study philosophy privately.

Or you can study Philosophy and go for a life in debt.

Physics used to be called "Natural Philosophy" since it relates to asking fairly deep question. QM is going to the edge of the known and asking rather profound questions about what reality is, about humanity (does an observer in Schrödinger's cat experiment have to be a human, have a consciousness or will, well, another cat do?), about free will (have all decisions in reality already been done?) and much, much more.

The problem with Physics is that you need a very very deep foundation before you can get anywhere and building that foundation is rather boring. Just hang on in there.