<p>Life is long. No one says you have to graduate from college in your early 20’s. Is he interested in girls? That might actually help as it would serve as a motivator. Right now, he feels no compunction to do anything but enjoy what tickles his fancy at the moment (and wallow in his depression; BTW, can that be treated somehow?), but once he gets to his late 20’s, he’ll likely realize that living at home with the parents really isn’t that cool; that he won’t get a girl if he stays with the parentfolks with no education and no job; that he needs a job to live by himself; that he needs to pick up skills/an education in order to do that.</p>
<p>He’s his own person; try as you might, you can’t live his life for him, so just let go of whatever you’ve invested emotionally in to him. Love him, but he’ll have to find his own way himself. Take a wry view of the world.</p>
<p>It’s a pity that we don’t have apprenticeship programs like the Germans have: <a href=“The Apprentice Programmer – Too-biased”>http://tobi.lutke.com/blogs/news/11280301-the-apprentice-programmer</a></p>
<p>Try to get him to stay away from the TV (maybe cut off cable to the house) and tell him to code something or invent something. He can try a bunch of MOOCs online for free (and MIT’s OCW–OpenCourseWare–is free). I wouldn’t spend money on his education right now.</p>