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People don't stop being interesting when they get their diplomas. At my last job, one of my coworkers (in his mid 20's) already held local office part-time; ano

People don't stop being interesting when they get their diplomas. At my last job, one of my coworkers (in his mid 20's) already held local office part-time; another fronted a mildly successful band. The writing quality at school newspapers tends to be really bad, unless you're at a good school (stop by a state university campus and pick up a copy some time). I agree that not all jobs have interesting people. But the people who are interesting in school tend to stay interesting. In fact, they're more fun to deal with once their goal changes from "Continue getting financial aid / parental aid" to "Do something that pays well."

jacobolus 17y ago
Plorkyeran claimed that college is about more than a diploma, which you responded to by saying that you learn things on the job that you wouldn’t learn in college. My retort was that colleges are incredibly diverse, and enable many conversations and experiences that simply wouldn’t all happen in any other single place, and the best you can do is to tell me that people are still interesting after they graduate? I’m sorry, but the constitutional law scholar, the electrical engineer, the chamber singer, the neurobiology review editor, the congressional staffer, the south asian dancer, the ancient babylonian historian, the photographer, and the basketball player aren’t going to all be sitting at lunch talking about the lecture they just listened to about Kant with their venerable philosophy professor in any job I’ve ever heard of. Yes, there are interesting people everywhere (in the supermarket, for instance, or at a rock concert or hiking through a national park). That doesn’t mean that the college experience can be easily replaced anywhere else I can think of. Which is not to suggest that college is essential, but only that it has value beyond certification or specific curricula. > ... they're more fun to deal with once their goal changes from "Continue getting financial aid / parental aid" to "Do something that pays well." Both of those sound like awfully boring goals. I’d be pretty disappointed in any friend of mine whose chief ambition in life was to make lots of money.

jacobolus 17y ago

Plorkyeran claimed that college is about more than a diploma, which you responded to by saying that you learn things on the job that you wouldn’t learn in college. My retort was that colleges are incredibly diverse, and enable many conversations and experiences that simply wouldn’t all happen in any other single place, and the best you can do is to tell me that people are still interesting after they graduate? I’m sorry, but the constitutional law scholar, the electrical engineer, the chamber singer, the neurobiology review editor, the congressional staffer, the south asian dancer, the ancient babylonian historian, the photographer, and the basketball player aren’t going to all be sitting at lunch talking about the lecture they just listened to about Kant with their venerable philosophy professor in any job I’ve ever heard of. Yes, there are interesting people everywhere (in the supermarket, for instance, or at a rock concert or hiking through a national park). That doesn’t mean that the college experience can be easily replaced anywhere else I can think of. Which is not to suggest that college is essential, but only that it has value beyond certification or specific curricula. > ... they're more fun to deal with once their goal changes from "Continue getting financial aid / parental aid" to "Do something that pays well." Both of those sound like awfully boring goals. I’d be pretty disappointed in any friend of mine whose chief ambition in life was to make lots of money.