"I could do well at school if it was a priority of mine. [...] this BA would not be unlocking any doors for me."
If philosophy degree is nothing for you, than tell your parents. Come clean, start a new and maybe take on a technical or software degree, or symbolics, or math, physics. You should do something your comfortable with!
"Finishing college is just so not in line with where my desires really are."
Education (College/University) is one way to guide young people. Kind of a guiding light. Some young people don't read HN or use the internet to educate themselves, teach themselves, learn to discuss, learn to write (say blogging), ...
But when you are already orientate your life and future among your peers (HN, friends who code too, conferences) and identify yourself in them, than this BA in Philosophy is in your way. What you have to do is to monetize (business model ;-) your passion, your skills, ... look around your peers what they are doing. And I know it is easier said than done. Especially in this time.
But identification within somebody else (peer/parents/older friends, brother) beyond the age of 18 is crucial, and sometimes young people take the wrong route, or postpone it and thus underperform at formal education because of the lack of motivation.
And why formal education systems don't pick that up, the theme of identification, is that there is too much BS out there, rock stars, glamor, TV, ... there is too much 24/7 illusions out there. And media is making the majority of kids delusional by showing and presenting them values which are wrong, wrong in the context, wrong that this happened without sweat and hard work ... you get me.
"Well, that's a neat idea, but you need to get your degree first."
Then do philosophy as minor and do a major you are fascinated with.
"I just refuse to accept that my degree is truly something that I need in order to follow through on my plans to build a company."
You need lots of sweat equity, passion and learning on the go (accounting, economics, management). A formal education gives you only a paper with your name and that you read some books, the rulers, the pencil, and the rules you have to abide. But creativity, cognitive skills, soft skills, and working without boundaries in mind isn't something you don't learn.
Certainly Google App Engine(Phyton). It is nice to have a small free version for experiments and own projects. Great way to get your hands dirty. AWS/Amazon has to do its homework and open up a sandbox type of platform where you can put your small project of your own at no cost, and opt-in that others can copy/improve.
'Open' is the best way to innovate (small steps of improvement) on something.
Zynga (the company and the concept) proved to be successful with enough leverage and network effects Facebook provided.
What I can add is that having learned, worked or teached other parts of the corporate environment, say management, accounting, economics, entrepreneurship, public relations, which can be found in the corporate world will make the entry much more easier.
Knowing something of the above will help you move faster and the hurdle 'to learn on the job' is not there. But still be able to apply insight of (say neuroscience) to your job.
And consultancies aren't the only ones who are looking for outsiders to their business. Small companies and start-ups are much more open to people (IMHO) with a different profile but obviously in the last third part of the IQ spectrum. Smart people with a can do attitude are always an asset.
I basically want to know (your educated opinion) if a new company (what ever business) can drive its business and product though community building. Requirements of a good product and open communication channels are a given.
Can existing companies reduce their PR and marketing budget without a declining customer acquisition rate? Shifting the budget to the community in many forms and let them do the PR and marketing?
Indeed, if we would listen to every message abt food wish is contaminated with gen altering stuff, traces of lead through the tins and coating, pesticides on fruits, and contaminated soil, ... we couldn't eat anything.
Still, from what I read, effects show up only long-term. I might get impotent because of these plastic altering stuff, which makes plastic softer (ie bottles) but this stuff leaks into the fluid/food - alter genes, increase cancer risk, and act like estrogen.
Well, we saw the Dot.com boom/bust/enthusiasm. We see/saw the Web 2.0 enthusiasm. And everyone is asking what is Web 3.0? I'd say there is no Web 3.0 ... there is only the network, and our aim for the next decade is to keep the network as open, ad democratic, and as filter free as possible. See net neutrality, see governments who want to put filters in places, who censor search results.
Thus the next big thing on the network is the internet of things which will expand/and hover around your experience of the internet.
Think of the refrigerator who know what milk you drink, how much you drink, when to order new milk. Your cabined which knows what ingredients you have in the kitchen, and pulls up the recipe off the thousands of content sites, the right meal for you as vegetarian.
And it know it takes only 30 minutes to cook and choose it deliberately because you have a doctors appointment at 5 (it knows because it is in the network, connected to your calendar & Google Health).
The house know when you have a party and who is at your party because of the security cameras and face recognition. And tweets it out who is there, or crosses off the RSVP list and sends a tweet to all those who said they are there but aren't. So the network informs them, hey blabla is here, your bff, why aren't you here, you said you come.
Or your electric car updates your Facebook status that you are driving you kids to school.
The internet of things is the next big thing to happen, they will be part of our social graph, because they are part of our life. The car, the phone, the refrigorator, the microwave, the oven, the flatscreen (blabla is watching this and this), ... yes flatscreen. because TV will be (or is for us) boring and uninteresting.
I should blog about it. The network of things. The next big thing next to renewable energy, democracy, higher taxes, inflation and persistent high unemployment. Well, the last two things are sill a puzzle.