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I'm obviously biased here because I have no formal education beyond high school and I work in skilled manufacturing but I generally dislike the fairly common no

by Inconel 10y ago

I'm obviously biased here because I have no formal education beyond high school and I work in skilled manufacturing but I generally dislike the fairly common notion that people working in the trades have low cognitive ability. Or that those who have gone to a four year university automatically have high cognitive abilities. I won't speak to my own abilities, since I don't consider myself to be smart, and also because people, myself included, tend to be terrible at self evaluation, but I can very comfortably say that I've worked with many people from similarly lacking educational backgrounds who are incredibly smart, have a wide range of interests, and are unbelievably inventive. This isn't to knock college education, I'm sure it's a wonderful environment in which to learn and mature, and I'd love for it to be made available to more people, particularly lower income working class people, but I don't think it is the only path to intelligence or knowledge. Edit: Just to be clear, my response wasn't meant to imply you personally feel this way, it was just a general observation.

zhemao 10y ago
I don't actually agree with the author. I was just explaining what the author's point was. There are certainly a lot of intelligent people with only a high school degree and a lot of stupid people with a bachelors degree. When it comes to finding jobs, the bachelors degree is mainly a form of signaling.
Balgair 10y ago
Yeah, intelligence comes in many colors. Some Profs that I know are terrible in dating and personal relations, and some are good/normal. Similarly, with mechanics and machinists (I come from a long family history of them), some are very smart and very clever, and some are not and they don't typically last very long. I once told a Prof that a garbage man was more important for public health than a doctor. This, as you would expect, did not go well. It's true though, a garbage man prevents more diseases and infections in a year than any one doctor will in their lifetime. So, on the flip side of intelligence, you don't have to be smart to be really really effective, but you then do have to be consistent.

by Inconel 10y ago

zhemao 10y ago

I don't actually agree with the author. I was just explaining what the author's point was. There are certainly a lot of intelligent people with only a high school degree and a lot of stupid people with a bachelors degree. When it comes to finding jobs, the bachelors degree is mainly a form of signaling.

Balgair 10y ago

Yeah, intelligence comes in many colors. Some Profs that I know are terrible in dating and personal relations, and some are good/normal. Similarly, with mechanics and machinists (I come from a long family history of them), some are very smart and very clever, and some are not and they don't typically last very long. I once told a Prof that a garbage man was more important for public health than a doctor. This, as you would expect, did not go well. It's true though, a garbage man prevents more diseases and infections in a year than any one doctor will in their lifetime. So, on the flip side of intelligence, you don't have to be smart to be really really effective, but you then do have to be consistent.