6 ms·

His entire argument boils down to the belief that universities can greatly improve your critical thinking skills. On the other hand, one of the main criticisms

by rkon 15y ago

His entire argument boils down to the belief that universities can greatly improve your critical thinking skills. On the other hand, one of the main criticisms of universities these days is the fact that they seem to be doing very poorly in that regard (http://chronicle.com/article/New-Book-Lays-Failure-to-Learn/125983/ http://chronicle.com/article/New-Book-Lays-Failure-to-Learn/...) I tend to agree with the critics, and couldn't find anything compelling me to think otherwise in this post.

hugh3 15y ago
Once again, it all comes down to what you choose to study. Mathematics? Yes. Womyn's Studies? No.
- alain94040 15y ago
  What's wrong with women studies? One of the fascinating benefits of college is that you will bump into people with completely different world view from yours. Some of them will tell you at the university cafe why women studies is more likely to impact the world than your tech startup. If you focus only on programming between the age of 18 and 30, you may believe than HN represents the universe.
  - TheAmazingIdiot 15y ago
    "What's wrong with women studies? One of the fascinating benefits of college is that you will bump into people with completely different world view from yours. Some of them will tell you at the university cafe why women studies is more likely to impact the world than your tech startup." You explained exactly what's wrong with women's (now called gender) studies: all they can do is talk and react. They don't do. In the sciences (I use that term loosely), there is a boundary of what isn't known. Scientists probe that boundary and make it further by testing and finding out what is and isn't. Now, what does 'gender studies' do? They sit around in a circle and blab about stuff that affects them. From IU Bloomington, the first campus to offer this type of degree: "Women’s Studies and Gender Studies offer exciting interdisciplinary courses that concentrate on the position of women and men across many cultures. Courses explore issues related to women and gender across academic disciplines, examining such topics as race and class, business and politics, health, the body, sexuality, developing societies, the arts, academic institutions and knowledge, sports and leisure, law, and the media." Cited http://www.indiana.edu/~wostgens/ http://www.indiana.edu/~wostgens/ Engineers make stuff. Programmers make stuff. Chemists make stuff. Creators create, and that adds a lot of value to civilisation. What does gender studies add? A whole lot of nothing. We only have their own website to go by.
- barry-cotter 15y ago
  I kind of agree with you but I still downvoted because using Womyn's Studies offends at least some people who might otherwise listen to you. One does not argue on the internet in order to convince the person one is debating with but to persuade the lurkers. Also, what you wrote wasn't worth writing unless you were going to back it up. It's pure applause lights[0] [0]http://lesswrong.com/lw/jb/applause_lights/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/jb/applause_lights/
  - hugh3 15y ago
    Is posting a link to lesswrong.com an applause light in itself? Also, what you wrote wasn't worth writing unless you were going to back it up. Do you think so? I think my point, regardless of my particular examples, was pretty sound and important -- people keep talking about "going to college" as if college were monolithic, but college offers you many possibilities for your education, ranging from fairly useless to incredibly valuable.
    - barry-cotter 15y ago
      On lesswrong being an applause light, I don't know. I don't think it's even saturated HN's pop culture to the extent it will yet, so I expect that linking to the explanation of the term provides value. Your last sentence makes the point that you meant to make much better than you originally did. You could have made it better butthis time there was something other than derision there.

by rkon 15y ago

hugh3 15y ago

Once again, it all comes down to what you choose to study. Mathematics? Yes. Womyn's Studies? No.

alain94040 15y ago
What's wrong with women studies? One of the fascinating benefits of college is that you will bump into people with completely different world view from yours. Some of them will tell you at the university cafe why women studies is more likely to impact the world than your tech startup. If you focus only on programming between the age of 18 and 30, you may believe than HN represents the universe.
- TheAmazingIdiot 15y ago
  "What's wrong with women studies? One of the fascinating benefits of college is that you will bump into people with completely different world view from yours. Some of them will tell you at the university cafe why women studies is more likely to impact the world than your tech startup." You explained exactly what's wrong with women's (now called gender) studies: all they can do is talk and react. They don't do. In the sciences (I use that term loosely), there is a boundary of what isn't known. Scientists probe that boundary and make it further by testing and finding out what is and isn't. Now, what does 'gender studies' do? They sit around in a circle and blab about stuff that affects them. From IU Bloomington, the first campus to offer this type of degree: "Women’s Studies and Gender Studies offer exciting interdisciplinary courses that concentrate on the position of women and men across many cultures. Courses explore issues related to women and gender across academic disciplines, examining such topics as race and class, business and politics, health, the body, sexuality, developing societies, the arts, academic institutions and knowledge, sports and leisure, law, and the media." Cited http://www.indiana.edu/~wostgens/ http://www.indiana.edu/~wostgens/ Engineers make stuff. Programmers make stuff. Chemists make stuff. Creators create, and that adds a lot of value to civilisation. What does gender studies add? A whole lot of nothing. We only have their own website to go by.
barry-cotter 15y ago
I kind of agree with you but I still downvoted because using Womyn's Studies offends at least some people who might otherwise listen to you. One does not argue on the internet in order to convince the person one is debating with but to persuade the lurkers. Also, what you wrote wasn't worth writing unless you were going to back it up. It's pure applause lights[0] [0]http://lesswrong.com/lw/jb/applause_lights/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/jb/applause_lights/
- hugh3 15y ago
  Is posting a link to lesswrong.com an applause light in itself? Also, what you wrote wasn't worth writing unless you were going to back it up. Do you think so? I think my point, regardless of my particular examples, was pretty sound and important -- people keep talking about "going to college" as if college were monolithic, but college offers you many possibilities for your education, ranging from fairly useless to incredibly valuable.
  - barry-cotter 15y ago
    On lesswrong being an applause light, I don't know. I don't think it's even saturated HN's pop culture to the extent it will yet, so I expect that linking to the explanation of the term provides value. Your last sentence makes the point that you meant to make much better than you originally did. You could have made it better butthis time there was something other than derision there.