“[I]s a traditional education sequence the best way to prepare myself for [...?]”
This is hard to answer because in some ways the foundation of a broad education in all subjects is absolutely necessary. And some of them (math, for example), are a lot harder to patch in later if you are bad at them at say, 28.
However, the other side of this is once some foundation is laid and someone has some breadth and depth, the answer to the above question, with regards to nearly anything, is often (perhaps usually) “Absolutely Not.”
So, for a 17 year old, Yes. For a 25 year old, you should be skipping as many pre-reqs and hoops as possible to do precisely what you want. You should not spend too much time on the traditional pedagogical steps as once you know enough, a lot can be learned along the way and bootstrapped to what you need while working on harder or more cutting-edge projects or coursework. To do this type of learning, you have to be “all in” and it feels exceedingly hard, but you get to high level. Also, you should not spend too much time on books and curricula that are not very good.
Somewhere in the middle of these two points though, are things that are just being done badly (math, for example, in the USA).
“[I]s a traditional education sequence the best way to prepare myself for [...?]”
This is hard to answer because in some ways the foundation of a broad education in all subjects is absolutely necessary. And some of them (math, for example), are a lot harder to patch in later if you are bad at them at say, 28.
However, the other side of this is once some foundation is laid and someone has some breadth and depth, the answer to the above question, with regards to nearly anything, is often (perhaps usually) “Absolutely Not.”
So, for a 17 year old, Yes. For a 25 year old, you should be skipping as many pre-reqs and hoops as possible to do precisely what you want. You should not spend too much time on the traditional pedagogical steps as once you know enough, a lot can be learned along the way and bootstrapped to what you need while working on harder or more cutting-edge projects or coursework. To do this type of learning, you have to be “all in” and it feels exceedingly hard, but you get to high level. Also, you should not spend too much time on books and curricula that are not very good.
Somewhere in the middle of these two points though, are things that are just being done badly (math, for example, in the USA).