Professions that require thinking.

MACAQUE

Active member
I'm a freshman in highschool and I have zero idea what I want to do with my life. Not really a big deal since I got a lot of time to figure it out, but I want some direction, because currently I don't really have motivation in school. The only things that I like to do in school are things that require actual thought, and not just the regurgitation of information, especially in math and science. So what are some professions that require innovative thought, in which the only way to get ahead is to come up with better ideas than everyone else? It's a vague question, so just tell me what you got.
 
philosophizer... hahaha
seriously though theoretical physicist theoretical cosmologistastronomerartistanything in psychologyphilosophy
 
Chemical engineeringElectrical engineeringMechanical engineeringMicrobiologyChemistryPhysics

Come up with a new working invention that could be integrated into an existing franchise to reduce their costs, patent it and license it to them or a manufacturing company that does business with them
 
You could do these if you want to be poor and have nobody take you seriously. OR if you're set for life already and have a strong interest in one of these fields. There's nothing really applicable here besides theoretical physicist. But with theoretical you don't really have anything to work with
 
Seriously. You have a shit ton of time before you figure out what you wanna do. Don't even decide anything until you are deciding on colleges
 
not even a freshman in college, but a freshman in highschool.
I'm a sophomore in college and I still don't know what i want to do, however, I currently am in school, have a good part time job and a pretty fly apartment financed by my part time job and lots of savings.
my advice, get a good part time now while you're in highschool and save up some money (since you're currently a freshman it shouldn't be too hard to save a couple grand before grad) then when you graduate transfer all that money into a high interest bank account so that it can save you & make you money while you're in college. I'd leave it there for anywhere from four to eight years or longer...
as for majors, wait until you're done with highschool to start thinking about picking one. went into highschool thinking bio major the whole way, finished my senior year and AP biology with an A but ultimately decided it wwasn't for me. I'm a pre-law major english minor right now.
 
just look for what you enjoy, what kind of job will keep you interested and wanting to come to work today, you're young, you have years to decide what you want to do
 
lol you're having trouble now, just wait until next year and junior year

i had serious motivation issues last year, grades went to shit, never hung out with anyone on weekends. turns out i had lyme disease the whole year and it was slowly eating away at me and making me feel miserable 100% of the time

high school is about finding out what you like, not about deciding freshman year and trying to spend the rest of the time convincing yourself you like what you chose. take as many different classes as you can, ranging from AP art to economics and whatever you think might be interesting. somewhere along the way something will pop out at you and you'll realize that's what you wanna do

it still hasn't really happened with me yet, i'm a junior and completely lost about what i want to study, but i'm confident that if i keep trying new things that something will pop out along the way, otherwise i'll major in something i'm sort of interested in and then ski for a few years while i figure out where i want to take my life, but don't give up now because then when you figure out what you wanna do with your life you'll have much fewer options

any somewhat interesting career will force you to use your head if you make it that way, but if you constantly think about how much you hate it the only thing you will get out of it is depression and lost time

nobody on the internet is gonna tell you what your major is because i can guarantee that won't motivate you. interest comes from within.../cliché
 
Any of these really, My friend goes to University of Maine for Chemical Engineering and he says there is about 5 hours of homework a week and so and you need to know your stuff. Or if you like studying, business is a good subject to major in.
 
psychologists and psychiatrists aren't really that similar, psychologists have a phd in psychology but no medical training, while a psychiatrist is just a doctor who specializes in psychology
psychologists become university profs while psychiatrists make way more money
 
5 hours?...

Any engineering is great to get into if you like problem solving. And the degree will actually be useful and can get you a job which can't be said for all majors.
 
Im the exact same way, good at math and science and love to solve using formulas and find the challenge to be very interesting and fun.

I really like chemistry and i kinda wanna build stuff, so I'm going to look into Chemical Engineering in college. Its also one of the highest paying jobs...
 
well since your asking other people for an 'Innovative' career, that isn't very innovative so i mean to be completely original, start your own company doing something that nobody else does. that should keep you pretty busy
 
Is five hours of studying a week considered a lot in the States? Because speaking from a Mechanical Engineering point of view in Canada, that's about my nightly quota during the semester...
 
you have to regurgitate information for the next 5 to 6 years regardless of what profession you want. you need to know all the information that seems pointless now to be able to apply it later on. in the real world no body will come up to you and hand you a math problem thats already set up and say crunch the numbers for me. you need to become familiar with all math and stuff that seems pointless now so when someone in your job says "hey go fix global warming" or something you will be able to apply all of the years of pointless math and science or whatever and set up the equation you need to solve (which is way harder than actually solving it). if you dont like regurgitating facts now, try to understand the theory behind them.
 
Vagabond. It literally requires you to think, because the stakes are so high. If you can't think up a sound way to get your next meal, you don't eat. To me, that's living to way men were meant to live. Stay hungry.
 
If you don't have motivation in school, think about it this way
Do good in highschool ------> Get to good college ------> Get good job ---------> MO MONEY
and everyone knows that MO MONEY = MO WEED
So therefore, by the transitive property, doing well in highschool = MO WEED
Also take it from me bro community college is whack. My advice for highschool is either worry about it and do really well and reap the benefits, or just do what I did and don't even go. There is a magical thing called community college that makes it easier and cheaper for people that didn't do well in highschool to get in to college than asians with 4.3 GPAs.
So yeah either be a badass or do your work, but don't not do either of those things and be medicre, because then you won't be cool or get MO MONEY.
 
Oh and also something in marketing/advertising.
Those people are straight up paid for ideas, its all creative thinking. I mean, you will be pure evil incarnate perpetuating the endless cycle of soul-crushing consumerism, but it would probably be fun. Pays well too.
 
5 hours a week? thats nothing, im ECE and have 20+ hours a week, and thats when i understand it and i dont have to spend time trying to figure out how to start the problem.
 
Whats ECE? Because all I can think of is early childhood education, and I can't understand how that would be difficult to understand. Little kids are pretty easy to teach.
 
yeah. plus i work 20 hours a week. and that 20 hours didnt include any of the 21 lab reports i had to write this semester or any other extra work out side of lab periods, which usually added another 3 to 4 hours a week.
 
go to school and get a degree that makes you proficient with networking in linux / unix environments and as a pillar of your education you devote your computing expertise to really be on database administration working with MySQL / Oracle.MySQL / Oracle database admins will be around for a while.
Databases if you don't know are just big piles of information.
It is definitely a career that will be around, and not completely out sourced, and you can work for any company. Pick any fortune 500 company and they have a whole crew of people making 6 figures running these things.
plus since you will be proficient with networking with unix you have just a variety of other careers to look at if you hate databases.
 
it doesn't matter... because most likely the people that actually do something know before they enter high school. so you might as well drop out of high school, and start working at McDonalds.

 
technically you've got to think to do any task.

I want to get into the tree cutting industry though, i could see myself thoroughly enjoying a career dropping trees. I'd also enjoy saving up as much money as possible doing whatever i could then buying a decent seafaring sailing vessel and adventuring around the world, stopping from place to place to pick up work and re-up on supplies.
 
Logging would be a tremendously fun job. Cutting down trees is the best way to spend an afternoon.
As yeah, as a tramp, I'll spend my fair share of time crewing on cargo vessels
 
Check out Industrial Design. In that line of work you always need to be innovative and thinking things through.
 
Well, you like math and science. You like thinking jobs. Get a PhD in physics. You'll be doing a fuckload of math and science. And you get a wikipedia page if you're lucky! Thats my plan lol.
 
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