[Sussex] IT qualifications advice

[Geoff Teale]

Nik makes a very good point.

I think the thing is that a degree is now considered a baseline for
people in the way that O-levels were 20+ years ago.

The differentiation that will cause an individual to succeed in life is
all about their character and abilities above and beyond that baseline.

One notion that I'd like to argue strongly against is that success in
life is measured by how much money you make and how young you do it. 
Money, per se, is not the key to happiness (although I'll be the first
to say that not having any money is a really effective route to
unhappiness).

As has been reported by psychologists recently, it seems that the keys
to happiness are:

 - Good loving relationships
 - Having something to strive for and believe in.

... I know a lot of people who are wealthy, but deeply unhappy because
they gave up on those two things in order to "succeed".  

Both Nik and Mark are married men, Mark has a daughter, Nik has a child
on the way.  I'm sure they both work very hard, but they have their
_own_ businesses and that gives them the thing to strive for and believe
in.  I'm not going to make any judgements on whether Nik or Mark are
happy, but they both seem pretty taken with their lives so lets assume
they are good role models.
-- 
Geoff Teale <tealeg at member.fsf.org>
Free Software Foundation