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> Cal State sticker-price in-state tuition is only $5,700/year. Online education will be cheaper. With state subsides it'll probably be free. khanacademy is a

> Cal State sticker-price in-state tuition is only $5,700/year. Online education will be cheaper. With state subsides it'll probably be free. khanacademy is already free. Check out this lecture on cellular energetics: https://www.khanacademy.org/science/ap-biology/cellular-energetics/enzyme-structure-and-catalysis/v/enzymes?modal=1 https://www.khanacademy.org/science/ap-biology/cellular-ener... If you want to know why college will be disrupted this is the best essay ever: https://a16z.com/2011/08/20/why-software-is-eating-the-world/ https://a16z.com/2011/08/20/why-software-is-eating-the-world... It's no different than what's happening to every other industry. > If they can't keep up with the material, they can enroll in fewer classes. If they're bored, they can take more, or take graduate-level classes. It's still rigid compared to online. Still have to study things that might not be necessary for your job or you don't care about. Taking more or less classes doesn't mean at your own pace, it means a rigid schedule you can handle. What if I can complete a course in 6 weeks instead of 16? What if I only want to concentrate on one course at a time for a smaller period of time? What if I'm 9 weeks in, hate it and want to change majors? What if I want to sit at my computer instead of commuting to school or physically going to class? What if the professor talks too slow and I would rather have them go 1.5x speed because It holds my attention? What if I want to rewind them because I missed something they said? What if I can't understand the professor? That lack of physical space and material allows for greater flexibility.

phobosanomaly 6y ago
"That lack of physical space." This stuck with me, I guess because it also implies a lack of social space as well. For this to work, the majority of people thinking of attending college would need to have an aversion to sharing physical space with others. Otherwise they would derive some utility from sharing physical space with others, which could then be assigned a dollar value. The dollar value is tuition. I would concede that there is a nonzero percentage of college students for whom the utility of sharing physical space with others is a net negative. I would also argue that this percentage is in the minority, and although they may not, their parents might derive positive utility from increased socialization of their child. For the vast majority, the opportunity to share physical space with others engaged in the same pursuit generates positive utility, and can therefore be assigned a dollar value. As long as there is a dollar value there, tuition will be collected. There is also the motivational aspect. Due to fundamental adaptations in human nature, external structure is often needed to motivate productivity. Although there are those who are outliers, and are truly motivated by intrinsic interests, these seem to be in the minority. Therefore, having external structure to motivate also generates positive utility and willingness to pay. You can do all of what you described in your room with a textbook and practice problems, but why doesn't anyone just do that for four years, and then go out and get a job? Sure, it happens in software, but that's unique in that in software you can literally go from NAND gates to DOOM in a sandbox-like environment, but the rest of the world doesn't have that ability to manipulate their field of study from first principles in an interactive environment.
- primrose 6y ago
  > For this to work, the majority of people thinking of attending college would need to have an aversion to sharing physical space with others. Or it's cheaper and more convenient. Like online shopping. > their parents might derive positive utility from increased socialization of their child I think college is less necessary for this. I have friends who didn't go to college. They're fine. > external structure is often needed to motivate productivity I think for most getting a job is enough of a motivating factor. > but why doesn't anyone just do that for four years, and then go out and get a job? Eventually the necessity for credentials will morph into assessments or accepted online credentials. > but the rest of the world doesn't have that ability to manipulate their field of study from first principles in an interactive environment. I would argue that "rest of the world" get's smaller every day. If you're a doctor their are probably a ton of classes that could be done all online.
  - phobosanomaly 6y ago
    Fair enough. I have no complaints with that scenario. If someone can cook up a way to deliver remote higher education of complex subjects in an interactive environment with dynamic, real-time feedback in a way that is comparable to in-person education in fields other than software, for your average person of average motivation, with no negative impacts on socialization cheaper than $1,600/year, I really can't argue with that. Whoever figures out a mechanism for this, they will make a whole wheelbarrow full of cash, and I would be the first to sign up for that program.
    - primrose 6y ago
      It's being worked on.

phobosanomaly 6y ago

"That lack of physical space." This stuck with me, I guess because it also implies a lack of social space as well. For this to work, the majority of people thinking of attending college would need to have an aversion to sharing physical space with others. Otherwise they would derive some utility from sharing physical space with others, which could then be assigned a dollar value. The dollar value is tuition. I would concede that there is a nonzero percentage of college students for whom the utility of sharing physical space with others is a net negative. I would also argue that this percentage is in the minority, and although they may not, their parents might derive positive utility from increased socialization of their child. For the vast majority, the opportunity to share physical space with others engaged in the same pursuit generates positive utility, and can therefore be assigned a dollar value. As long as there is a dollar value there, tuition will be collected. There is also the motivational aspect. Due to fundamental adaptations in human nature, external structure is often needed to motivate productivity. Although there are those who are outliers, and are truly motivated by intrinsic interests, these seem to be in the minority. Therefore, having external structure to motivate also generates positive utility and willingness to pay. You can do all of what you described in your room with a textbook and practice problems, but why doesn't anyone just do that for four years, and then go out and get a job? Sure, it happens in software, but that's unique in that in software you can literally go from NAND gates to DOOM in a sandbox-like environment, but the rest of the world doesn't have that ability to manipulate their field of study from first principles in an interactive environment.

primrose 6y ago
> For this to work, the majority of people thinking of attending college would need to have an aversion to sharing physical space with others. Or it's cheaper and more convenient. Like online shopping. > their parents might derive positive utility from increased socialization of their child I think college is less necessary for this. I have friends who didn't go to college. They're fine. > external structure is often needed to motivate productivity I think for most getting a job is enough of a motivating factor. > but why doesn't anyone just do that for four years, and then go out and get a job? Eventually the necessity for credentials will morph into assessments or accepted online credentials. > but the rest of the world doesn't have that ability to manipulate their field of study from first principles in an interactive environment. I would argue that "rest of the world" get's smaller every day. If you're a doctor their are probably a ton of classes that could be done all online.
- phobosanomaly 6y ago
  Fair enough. I have no complaints with that scenario. If someone can cook up a way to deliver remote higher education of complex subjects in an interactive environment with dynamic, real-time feedback in a way that is comparable to in-person education in fields other than software, for your average person of average motivation, with no negative impacts on socialization cheaper than $1,600/year, I really can't argue with that. Whoever figures out a mechanism for this, they will make a whole wheelbarrow full of cash, and I would be the first to sign up for that program.
  - primrose 6y ago
    It's being worked on.