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I always hear the argument that college/grad school is silly because you can go read the textbooks yourself. It requires an immense amount of motivation to gri

I always hear the argument that college/grad school is silly because you can go read the textbooks yourself. It requires an immense amount of motivation to grind away reading 80 pages of a boring CS textbook every day. The structure and motivation provided by an institution encourages people to go deeper, meet deadlines, and not just skim the boring stuff. It isn't the only way to learn, but when I did a master's degree I felt motivated even when the road was rough.

diarrhea 6y ago
My master's degree was essentially thermodynamics, all the various aspects of it, and I have never met anyone self-taught in that area. You just do not sit down and just learn about the physics of energy (storage, conversion, transmission, ...). Part of the reason is that at least in mechanical engineering, the curricula are more or less well-curated and grew over many decades, if not centuries. You learn maths, electrical engineering, mechanics, fluids etc. all at the same time, and they all intertwine. Sometimes one is the basis to learn about the next (mechanics lays the foundation for fluids mechanics; maths is simply the foundation of everything you do and learn). Other times you discover meta-connections that elevate your understanding of everything in combination (voltage, pressure and temperature as potentials, current, mass flow and heat flow as flows resulting from that potential; each with their respective resistances: ohm (or impedance), friction, heat transfer coefficient). It all comes together beautifully and forms a new, elevated whole. I am willing to bet I will go through life without ever meeting someone self-taught, in my field. Computer science might be different, but people confuse computer science and coding. Coding you can self-teach easily, computer science not so much. That is more on the level of self-teaching maths, and I have never met such a person, either.
- thehappypm 6y ago
  Thank you, diarrhea.
Item_Boring 6y ago
Also when it comes to applying what one learned by solving exercises or doing proofs feedback is so crucial and helpful. Firstly, one sees the parts one didn’t fully understand yet and secondly your way might be correct even if it isn’t the same way the provided solution approached the problem.
enumjorge 6y ago
Not only that but the actual college experience can be very valuable too. There’s a reason why people find it hard to make friends after college. It’s about the last time you will be spending a lot of time, physically, with a bunch of people your age. You can get some of that at work, depending on the company, but in a very limited way. You can make friends with co-workers, but you probably shouldn’t go partying with them for example. You probably shouldn’t date someone you met at work, but dating someone you met in one of your classes is more natural.
jimbokun 6y ago
> It requires an immense amount of motivation to grind away reading 80 pages of a boring CS textbook every day. But is it worth paying 10s or 100s of thousands of dollars just to keep you motivated? Maybe that "keep you motivated" functionality can be unbundled and offered for a much lower price?
- thehappypm 6y ago
  Well, I went to grad school for about $25k total, plus I had tuition assistance from my employer.

diarrhea 6y ago

My master's degree was essentially thermodynamics, all the various aspects of it, and I have never met anyone self-taught in that area. You just do not sit down and just learn about the physics of energy (storage, conversion, transmission, ...). Part of the reason is that at least in mechanical engineering, the curricula are more or less well-curated and grew over many decades, if not centuries. You learn maths, electrical engineering, mechanics, fluids etc. all at the same time, and they all intertwine. Sometimes one is the basis to learn about the next (mechanics lays the foundation for fluids mechanics; maths is simply the foundation of everything you do and learn). Other times you discover meta-connections that elevate your understanding of everything in combination (voltage, pressure and temperature as potentials, current, mass flow and heat flow as flows resulting from that potential; each with their respective resistances: ohm (or impedance), friction, heat transfer coefficient). It all comes together beautifully and forms a new, elevated whole. I am willing to bet I will go through life without ever meeting someone self-taught, in my field. Computer science might be different, but people confuse computer science and coding. Coding you can self-teach easily, computer science not so much. That is more on the level of self-teaching maths, and I have never met such a person, either.

thehappypm 6y ago
Thank you, diarrhea.

Item_Boring 6y ago

Also when it comes to applying what one learned by solving exercises or doing proofs feedback is so crucial and helpful. Firstly, one sees the parts one didn’t fully understand yet and secondly your way might be correct even if it isn’t the same way the provided solution approached the problem.

enumjorge 6y ago

Not only that but the actual college experience can be very valuable too. There’s a reason why people find it hard to make friends after college. It’s about the last time you will be spending a lot of time, physically, with a bunch of people your age. You can get some of that at work, depending on the company, but in a very limited way. You can make friends with co-workers, but you probably shouldn’t go partying with them for example. You probably shouldn’t date someone you met at work, but dating someone you met in one of your classes is more natural.

jimbokun 6y ago

> It requires an immense amount of motivation to grind away reading 80 pages of a boring CS textbook every day. But is it worth paying 10s or 100s of thousands of dollars just to keep you motivated? Maybe that "keep you motivated" functionality can be unbundled and offered for a much lower price?

thehappypm 6y ago
Well, I went to grad school for about $25k total, plus I had tuition assistance from my employer.