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> nothing about "education" is about actual education. I am completely baffled by this comment. University education changed my life and mind completely. Not f
by robotresearcher 9y ago
> nothing about "education" is about actual education.
I am completely baffled by this comment. University education changed my life and mind completely. Not from social access or gatekeeping - I just spent years learning amazing things. Knowing some things has been powerfully useful for me. Also, I just like it.
It was totally the best. If you like learning, higher education is like getting your retirement in at the beginning of your career.
I understand it's not for everyone. But it was incredible for me and people like me. I grew up on welfare by the way, so it's not a wealth club thing.
I totally support investing in another route for training for people who wouldn't get that much from years of books, lectures and essays. Apprenticeships and technical vocational school worked for thousands of years alongside academic degrees.
- 0xffff2 9y agoI couldn't disagree more. I'm in my final quarter of my undergraduate degree, and I consistently stayed so far ahead of the curriculum in personal projects and internships that I learned almost nothing at all in University. For me, it was purely about proving I knew things to professors using an arcane and ever changing set of metrics. I stuck with it because I want to work for a particular organization, and working in that organization in the position I want absolutely requires a degree. If there was any other path to getting a degree besides sitting through years of classes, I'm confident that I would be every bit as good a person and developer if I had taken that route over going to a University.
- robotresearcher 9y agoWe'll that sucks. I'm sorry it wasn't good for you. > I consistently stayed so far ahead of the curriculum in personal projects and internships Wait a second! So you learned a lot while at college? You wouldn't have had those internships if you had a regular job. And maybe not the time to do personal projects. The college system set up that experience and time for you. College is about the opportunity to learn, not them doing anything to you. Maybe there's something to it after all.
- 0xffff2 9y agoI disagree with your reading. I certainly did have time for personal projects. I was a better developer than many of my current undergraduate senior peers before I ever started college, and it was because of personal projects I did while working more than full time. The internships I've had, like my future career, required that I be going to school, but in an alternate reality there's no reason I couldn't have started directly as a very junior software engineer working full time rather than only in the summer between school terms.
- fwdpropaganda 9y agoSo what are you trying to say? That no one learns anything in university? Maybe you're just an outlier, has that thought crossed your mind? You're taking personal experience as generalizing from it. Very fallacious. Like they say, data, not anecdata.
- 0xffff2 9y agoNot at all. I'm certainly an outlier. You may notice that the person I replied to is also sharing their personal experience. All I'm trying to say is that that person's experience is not the only outcome of going to college. In fact, I would say that they are an outlier in the other direction.
- robotresearcher 9y agoI responded to your original blanket dismissal of college as a place for learning, that you have since edited, but is quoted in my response.
- fwdpropaganda 9y agoYeah, I saw that too. So right away you can see this person is dishonest. Instead of saying "oops I might have over-generalized my personal experience, let me re-think my original opinion" he goes "nah, I never had that opinion."
- 0xffff2 9y agoWait what? I don't recall editing my original comment in any way that would have changed its meaning, and the part you quoted is still there...