2 ms·

You are correct in that regard. But universities really make you push through those things you are not motivated enough to do (and subjects that seems to have

You are correct in that regard. But universities really make you push through those things you are not motivated enough to do (and subjects that seems to have no purpose) and many times you find out it was fun after grooking it and it actually made a lot of other things way easier. The first week after the exam you might be upset over the exam, feel something was unfair, but eventually those feelings fade away and you have another telescope to view the world through and arguably you have gained some grit. The universities are a guiding hand off what the experts in their field find important to know. It's a bit like ordering the chef's choice in a restaurant. Sure you might hate a piece and never come back, but you might also find new combinations of flavours that you start to love but looked tasteless. Anyway how many of us haven't felt great because we can code and suddenly we are more logical? What happens when you suddenly start to study logic or even learn something extremely simple as De Morgan's laws [1]? [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Morgan%27s_laws https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Morgan%27s_laws PS. I would also say that good universities are very, very different from high school. When the professors say something, they've studied it for years so they use precise language and are strict in their teaching. Definitions mean everything for them and you can't just say language is fluid to score a point which seems popular nowadays. PPS. University is free in my country, so I don't consider cost-effectiveness to get a job. Especially as it seems pretty much anyone can get a coding-gig (we had a hot-shot consultant from a very prestigious firm (if you have lived in US, you've heard of it) ask me why his CSV file wouldn't work in our software. He had just taken an Excel-file and renamed the file-ending to CSV instead of exporting it! He could code, it was just that his knowledge was very, very shallow. We where quite expensive too).

rajlego 6y ago
>But universities really make you push through those things you are not motivated enough to do (and subjects that seems to have no purpose) and many times you find out it was fun after grooking it and it actually made a lot of other things way easier. The first week after the exam you might be upset over the exam, feel something was unfair, but eventually those feelings fade away and you have another telescope to view the world through and arguably you have gained some grit. The universities are a guiding hand off what the experts in their field find important to know. I really strongly disagree with this. Good learning is inherently pleasurable[1] and if it isn't then there's something wrong. If a subject doesn't feel like it has enough purpose, it's not worth taking. Your brain is a fairly good predictor of that, contrary to what school would lead you to believe. I think overall you'd be way better off just learning the things that you want to learn, that are applicable to something you actually care about instead of taking a class and learning things your brain tells you are useless and you will probably never use. I haven't read it in depth but I think ultralearning is interesting for the learning-for-application approach. I'm probably a bit biased though because I use incremental reading[2] and no matter how good university teaching is it just can't compare to learning by myself (with occasional help from an expert, rather than being handheld) [1] https://supermemo.guru/wiki/Pleasure_of_learning https://supermemo.guru/wiki/Pleasure_of_learning [2] https://supermemo.guru/wiki/Incremental_reading https://supermemo.guru/wiki/Incremental_reading
- SketchySeaBeast 6y ago
  Do you limit this philosophy to adult education? Because for childhood education it seems totally off - I wonder how many kids wouldn't learn even basic multiplication because it wasn't pleasurable at the time. I wonder what literacy rates would be with such a hedonistic approach (I don't use hedonistic to disparage, but rather in its literal sense of engaging in a pursuit of pleasure). I doubt it even makes sense for adult education - I don't enjoy learning JavaScript nearly as much as I enjoy C#, but I require both for my job. SQL was an afterthought at the time, but it's proven to be incredibly important. If I only did what made me happy my career would be incredibly limited.

rajlego 6y ago

>But universities really make you push through those things you are not motivated enough to do (and subjects that seems to have no purpose) and many times you find out it was fun after grooking it and it actually made a lot of other things way easier. The first week after the exam you might be upset over the exam, feel something was unfair, but eventually those feelings fade away and you have another telescope to view the world through and arguably you have gained some grit. The universities are a guiding hand off what the experts in their field find important to know. I really strongly disagree with this. Good learning is inherently pleasurable[1] and if it isn't then there's something wrong. If a subject doesn't feel like it has enough purpose, it's not worth taking. Your brain is a fairly good predictor of that, contrary to what school would lead you to believe. I think overall you'd be way better off just learning the things that you want to learn, that are applicable to something you actually care about instead of taking a class and learning things your brain tells you are useless and you will probably never use. I haven't read it in depth but I think ultralearning is interesting for the learning-for-application approach. I'm probably a bit biased though because I use incremental reading[2] and no matter how good university teaching is it just can't compare to learning by myself (with occasional help from an expert, rather than being handheld) [1] https://supermemo.guru/wiki/Pleasure_of_learning https://supermemo.guru/wiki/Pleasure_of_learning [2] https://supermemo.guru/wiki/Incremental_reading https://supermemo.guru/wiki/Incremental_reading

SketchySeaBeast 6y ago
Do you limit this philosophy to adult education? Because for childhood education it seems totally off - I wonder how many kids wouldn't learn even basic multiplication because it wasn't pleasurable at the time. I wonder what literacy rates would be with such a hedonistic approach (I don't use hedonistic to disparage, but rather in its literal sense of engaging in a pursuit of pleasure). I doubt it even makes sense for adult education - I don't enjoy learning JavaScript nearly as much as I enjoy C#, but I require both for my job. SQL was an afterthought at the time, but it's proven to be incredibly important. If I only did what made me happy my career would be incredibly limited.