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I’m also a college dropout (granted, I’m orders of magnitude less wealthy compared to Gates) but I don’t have any beliefs in the “power of college”. As a matter

I’m also a college dropout (granted, I’m orders of magnitude less wealthy compared to Gates) but I don’t have any beliefs in the “power of college”. As a matter of fact, that “power” evaporated pretty quickly 20 years ago while I was attending one of most prestigious CS schools in my country and when I saw that the powers that be were doing absolutely nothing to handle/address the student suicides that were happening during each exam session (presumably because of the stress).

sebmellen 6y ago
On the one hand, there is something rotten in the university ecosystem. I have met a ton of people who laboured their way through degrees (even in sought-after fields) who have now ended up working minimum wage jobs at Starbucks or something equivalent. In the US, these people are also usually in debt, between ~$20-150k. On the other hand, the gatekeeping that a degree offers does seem to be important. I think this is mainly because degrees serve as a sort of stamina test, of the kind which is hard to replicate elsewhere. Someone who plodded their way through a coding bootcamp is unlikely to have the same grit and determination as someone with a Bachelor's degree. Perhaps we just need a better way of gatekeeping, and then the universities can once again serve as centres of education and learning. I think it would also help if employment guarantees were offered, so universities would be incentivized to teach their students relevant skills.