3 ms·

I think 'accessible' being the key word here. I read the article, and as someone who does not have English as a first language and therefore know next to nothi

by 317070 7y ago

I think 'accessible' being the key word here. I read the article, and as someone who does not have English as a first language and therefore know next to nothing on its literature, I am still amazed by its humanities focus on dissecting old texts and poems. Academic English in this respect looks very different to me than academic Dutch or French. I mean, this is a thing that should never happen to a field "looking for truth": https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_586d5517e4b0c3539e80c341 https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_586d5517e4b0c3539e80c341 On the other hand, having universities educate for the needs of the economy is one of the stupider, short-sighted things happening now.

mcguire 7y ago
Your link: "uMatrix has prevented the following page from loading: https://guce.advertising.com/collectIdentifiers?sessionId=1_cc-session_21fee4d0-f420-4344-902d-3f4401eb33bd https://guce.advertising.com/collectIdentifiers?sessionId=1_... without parameters = https://guce.advertising.com/collectIdentifiers sessionId = 1_cc-session_21fee4d0-f420-4344-902d-3f4401eb33bd" I don't know what that means, but it means something.
rdtsc 7y ago
> On the other hand, having universities educate for the needs of the economy is one of the stupider, short-sighted things happening now. What to do though? At some point after graduation the students would need to find someone to hire them and pay them a living wage. Even if they graduate without any debt like they might in Europe or other countries, what do they do next? Sure, the economy needs editors, and perhaps history majors could make good managers or programmers with some training, but it would be an uphill battle for them. Most people I know who graduated with a humanities degrees ended up in jobs they hated. They only ones that liked their jobs stayed in the academia. But how sustainable is that, I wonder... At least in US with the govt guaranteeing student loans, there is a perverse incentive for the universities to lie and tell students to apply and that everything will be fine, just so they get their hands on that loan money.
- cafard 7y ago
  I worked for many years next office down from a programmer who dropped out of a doctoral program in history of religion. A couple of my best friends studied humanities in college and went on to work with computers. I was myself a liberal arts major in college, and have made my living first in tech support, then in systems administration and programming. And no, I don't hate my job. I very much enjoyed school, but had no desire to stick around an teach.

by 317070 7y ago

mcguire 7y ago

Your link: "uMatrix has prevented the following page from loading: https://guce.advertising.com/collectIdentifiers?sessionId=1_cc-session_21fee4d0-f420-4344-902d-3f4401eb33bd https://guce.advertising.com/collectIdentifiers?sessionId=1_... without parameters = https://guce.advertising.com/collectIdentifiers sessionId = 1_cc-session_21fee4d0-f420-4344-902d-3f4401eb33bd" I don't know what that means, but it means something.

rdtsc 7y ago

> On the other hand, having universities educate for the needs of the economy is one of the stupider, short-sighted things happening now. What to do though? At some point after graduation the students would need to find someone to hire them and pay them a living wage. Even if they graduate without any debt like they might in Europe or other countries, what do they do next? Sure, the economy needs editors, and perhaps history majors could make good managers or programmers with some training, but it would be an uphill battle for them. Most people I know who graduated with a humanities degrees ended up in jobs they hated. They only ones that liked their jobs stayed in the academia. But how sustainable is that, I wonder... At least in US with the govt guaranteeing student loans, there is a perverse incentive for the universities to lie and tell students to apply and that everything will be fine, just so they get their hands on that loan money.

cafard 7y ago
I worked for many years next office down from a programmer who dropped out of a doctoral program in history of religion. A couple of my best friends studied humanities in college and went on to work with computers. I was myself a liberal arts major in college, and have made my living first in tech support, then in systems administration and programming. And no, I don't hate my job. I very much enjoyed school, but had no desire to stick around an teach.