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A fully qualified engineer will be in a much better position to provide valuable products and services than an 18 year old noob. I guess it's better than a gen

A fully qualified engineer will be in a much better position to provide valuable products and services than an 18 year old noob. I guess it's better than a gender studies degree, but believe it or not, undergraduate education is not completely useless. I learned a hell of a lot.

emodendroket 9y ago
Even a gender studies degree would have a lot of value. A lot of people who get university degrees, myself included, end up working in a completely unrelated field, but that doesn't mean the education was worthless.
hacksonx 9y ago
It's not completely useless ... Yet, but with the shift the world is taking (globalisation, *robotisation and move to renewables) it will be. Some engineering degree too will put not have a place in the future.
- EduardoBautista 9y ago
  What he's saying is that a college education does not have ton map directly to a job to be useful. So even in your example an engineering degree will have some value.
20years 9y ago
"A fully qualified engineer will be in a much better position to provide valuable products and services than an 18 year old noob." Not sure I totally agree with this. I have meet a ton of very smart fully qualified engineers who have no business sense whatsoever. That does not mean I am discounting the engineering degree. Not at all. At least an engineering degree will generally give you a very nice return. What makes a good engineer though is not often the same as what makes a good entrepreneur.
- lazaroclapp 9y ago
  Guess the point is: All else being equal, someone with a relevant degree will have an easier time being a successful entrepreneur (and, not less important: a reasonable backup plan) than someone fresh out of high school. Likely they will have a better network too. And this is all assuming that entrepreneurship is really the goal, which, lets face it, for most people is an unreasonable trade-off of safety, personal time, health and comfort for nebulous "freedom" and a very unlikely chance at striking gold.
  - 20years 9y ago
    "All else being equal, someone with a relevant degree will have an easier time being a successful entrepreneur" I think that is where we may disagree. Plenty of Entrepreneurs who made it big without a degree. Some of the top of our time actually. http://www.businessinsider.com/top-100-entrepreneurs-who-made-millions-without-a-college-degree-2011-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/top-100-entrepreneurs-who-mad... "for most people is an unreasonable trade-off of safety, personal time, health and comfort for nebulous "freedom" and a very unlikely chance at striking gold." This I somewhat agree with but I oftentimes wonder if a lot of the "very unlikely chance" part of it has to do with the inaccurate and unrealistic image the start-up scene places along with the lack of good education on starting a business. You can build a very comfortable life running your own business without being a unicorn but seems as though most are shooting for unicorn level. That I believe is where most of the failure comes from. It really isn't all that difficult to build a $200k to $500k+ year small business. Easier today than ever. But that's not sexy so people shoot for the stars and miss more often than not.

emodendroket 9y ago

Even a gender studies degree would have a lot of value. A lot of people who get university degrees, myself included, end up working in a completely unrelated field, but that doesn't mean the education was worthless.

hacksonx 9y ago

It's not completely useless ... Yet, but with the shift the world is taking (globalisation, *robotisation and move to renewables) it will be. Some engineering degree too will put not have a place in the future.

EduardoBautista 9y ago
What he's saying is that a college education does not have ton map directly to a job to be useful. So even in your example an engineering degree will have some value.

20years 9y ago

"A fully qualified engineer will be in a much better position to provide valuable products and services than an 18 year old noob." Not sure I totally agree with this. I have meet a ton of very smart fully qualified engineers who have no business sense whatsoever. That does not mean I am discounting the engineering degree. Not at all. At least an engineering degree will generally give you a very nice return. What makes a good engineer though is not often the same as what makes a good entrepreneur.

lazaroclapp 9y ago
Guess the point is: All else being equal, someone with a relevant degree will have an easier time being a successful entrepreneur (and, not less important: a reasonable backup plan) than someone fresh out of high school. Likely they will have a better network too. And this is all assuming that entrepreneurship is really the goal, which, lets face it, for most people is an unreasonable trade-off of safety, personal time, health and comfort for nebulous "freedom" and a very unlikely chance at striking gold.
- 20years 9y ago
  "All else being equal, someone with a relevant degree will have an easier time being a successful entrepreneur" I think that is where we may disagree. Plenty of Entrepreneurs who made it big without a degree. Some of the top of our time actually. http://www.businessinsider.com/top-100-entrepreneurs-who-made-millions-without-a-college-degree-2011-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/top-100-entrepreneurs-who-mad... "for most people is an unreasonable trade-off of safety, personal time, health and comfort for nebulous "freedom" and a very unlikely chance at striking gold." This I somewhat agree with but I oftentimes wonder if a lot of the "very unlikely chance" part of it has to do with the inaccurate and unrealistic image the start-up scene places along with the lack of good education on starting a business. You can build a very comfortable life running your own business without being a unicorn but seems as though most are shooting for unicorn level. That I believe is where most of the failure comes from. It really isn't all that difficult to build a $200k to $500k+ year small business. Easier today than ever. But that's not sexy so people shoot for the stars and miss more often than not.