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I'm not sure your "logical conclusion" is accurate, nor do I think that's what Elon Musk is saying at all. Also, I'm not sure your background, but I would defin

I'm not sure your "logical conclusion" is accurate, nor do I think that's what Elon Musk is saying at all. Also, I'm not sure your background, but I would definitely raise a red flag at the idea that all college professors are "experts" in the field they're teaching. I would argue this post is more in favor of online schooling, MOOCs, etc. And against the traditional college experience.

deleted 7y ago
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folkhack 7y ago
> I would definitely raise a red flag at the idea that all college professors are "experts" in the field they're teaching Real-world: they're often not... or at least in my anecdotal experience. I had professors who were shoving Pascal my throat in 2005-6 saying "it will come back because it's such a good language"... they told me that "writing software for the internet is a waste of time" when it was obvious that was the direction of the industry... they told me "MS Access is just as good if not better than other SQL solutions because it's accessible to the office worker".
- SpicyLemonZest 7y ago
  I broadly agree with what you're saying, but it wasn't obvious to most people in 2005 that web apps were the direction of the industry. Visionaries were predicting it, and I think they did know what they were talking about and weren't just making lucky guesses, but the vast majority of software users still had the attitude that a serious program was something you bought at the store and installed.
  - folkhack 7y ago
    I sorta disagree here - it's neigh impossible to argue but I definitely feel like it didn't take a visionary in 2005 to predict that the web would be the next transport/distribution layer for software. My argument: I was in HS from 2001-2005 and when I started it was the end of the Win98/IE era with highspeed internet being one of those things few people had (middle class Iowa). When I got out of HS nearly everyone lower-middle-class and above had a broadband internet connection, online gaming was booming, we were seeing offerings like Gmail, Google Docs happened, online courses were starting to be a thing, blah blah... If you were an educator of the era trying to prepare people for a real-world career in CS you ABSOLUTELY shoulda had your fingers on that pulse noticing that the internet use was growing exponentially for everything from business, to socialization, to entertainment. If anything, they shouldn't have been discriminatory against a student's choice to specialize in it saying "software on the internet isn't a thing" when it clearly already $#@%ing was with an obvious growth trajectory. TLDR: "Software users" - totally agree don't expect them to have seen the wave coming in 2005. Collegiate computer science educator claiming to prepare students for real-world careers should have seen it coming from a mile away if they weren't tone-deaf to the industry (they were).
- alexbanks 7y ago
  Real-world anecdote: They almost never are, unless you're at one of the best universities in the country/world. Most often their experience is dated, they've been tenured for a long time and the quality of their work is pretty poor.
streb-lo 7y ago
The funny thing with this line of thinking is the hand-waving involved when claiming the superiority of non-traditional methods. I'm not going to claim every professor is a good professor -- but University is a human institution. MOOCs, bootcamps, self-help books, jazzercise, etc are all as fallible and just as guilty as University at selling an idea but get a free pass for being 'alternative.'
- alexbanks 7y ago
  Did I claim superiority or equality? And is there not a problem if an insanely expensive institution is not orders of magnitude better than its free/cheap alternatives?

deleted 7y ago

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folkhack 7y ago

> I would definitely raise a red flag at the idea that all college professors are "experts" in the field they're teaching Real-world: they're often not... or at least in my anecdotal experience. I had professors who were shoving Pascal my throat in 2005-6 saying "it will come back because it's such a good language"... they told me that "writing software for the internet is a waste of time" when it was obvious that was the direction of the industry... they told me "MS Access is just as good if not better than other SQL solutions because it's accessible to the office worker".

SpicyLemonZest 7y ago
I broadly agree with what you're saying, but it wasn't obvious to most people in 2005 that web apps were the direction of the industry. Visionaries were predicting it, and I think they did know what they were talking about and weren't just making lucky guesses, but the vast majority of software users still had the attitude that a serious program was something you bought at the store and installed.
- folkhack 7y ago
  I sorta disagree here - it's neigh impossible to argue but I definitely feel like it didn't take a visionary in 2005 to predict that the web would be the next transport/distribution layer for software. My argument: I was in HS from 2001-2005 and when I started it was the end of the Win98/IE era with highspeed internet being one of those things few people had (middle class Iowa). When I got out of HS nearly everyone lower-middle-class and above had a broadband internet connection, online gaming was booming, we were seeing offerings like Gmail, Google Docs happened, online courses were starting to be a thing, blah blah... If you were an educator of the era trying to prepare people for a real-world career in CS you ABSOLUTELY shoulda had your fingers on that pulse noticing that the internet use was growing exponentially for everything from business, to socialization, to entertainment. If anything, they shouldn't have been discriminatory against a student's choice to specialize in it saying "software on the internet isn't a thing" when it clearly already $#@%ing was with an obvious growth trajectory. TLDR: "Software users" - totally agree don't expect them to have seen the wave coming in 2005. Collegiate computer science educator claiming to prepare students for real-world careers should have seen it coming from a mile away if they weren't tone-deaf to the industry (they were).
alexbanks 7y ago
Real-world anecdote: They almost never are, unless you're at one of the best universities in the country/world. Most often their experience is dated, they've been tenured for a long time and the quality of their work is pretty poor.

streb-lo 7y ago

The funny thing with this line of thinking is the hand-waving involved when claiming the superiority of non-traditional methods. I'm not going to claim every professor is a good professor -- but University is a human institution. MOOCs, bootcamps, self-help books, jazzercise, etc are all as fallible and just as guilty as University at selling an idea but get a free pass for being 'alternative.'

alexbanks 7y ago
Did I claim superiority or equality? And is there not a problem if an insanely expensive institution is not orders of magnitude better than its free/cheap alternatives?