Ask HN: I love paying attention to detail. Is there a career for me?

From your question it sounds like you have already decided to have a career in the tech sector and in particular programming/coding. That is a good choice but keep in mind that choosing to go down that road will require constant learning and effort to maintain your relevance as things change very fast in that field of work. Here is a link to a newish article on data science jobs. https://github.com/tobigithub/tensorflow-deep-learning/wiki/... Also as a fellow person who pays attention to details I have infered that you are still living at home and I am assuming you are around 5 years out of school, and the fact that you enjoy doing repetative tasks most likely means you also play games that reward this, such as mmorpgs and as a person who has lived a little I can tell the best thing you could do for yourself is stop playing all video games and learn how to live or you will find yourself left behind in the real world. One day you will wake up and realize most of your highshcool friends have families with good careers and looking forward to their 10 year highs cool reunions while you are still living with your parents unable to support yourself let alone a family. Even the "Dumb guys" that were less than average in school, learned a trade, worked hard and bought a home and are enjoying their lives while you still struggling. This might not happen to you but it happens to people all the time so don't fall into the trap of gaming, no one will care how high you were ranked in a game at your reunion if you even go.

Sorry for the rant, you seem to be on the right path by asking for advice here and I just wanted to give you some from a guy who was "too smart" for his own good at your age.

QA Testing.

It sounds like you feel rudderless to me. Perhaps you should invest some time into finding yourself rather than a career. Work does define us for sure, but, you should clarify yourself to yourself before you invest time and energy into a career. Consider travelling and experiencing the world Then you will know the answer to your question for yourself and by yourself.

Not programming related, but extreme attention to detail could be used in art restoration. That's a very intricate job of trying to find the exact colors / formula of paint used / how to repair it properly, etc...

Assist someone wiring up a data center?