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College is a system created to create employees so it's not surprising many entrepreneurs think of it as a waste of time (and money, especially in the expensive

by rythie 15y ago

College is a system created to create employees so it's not surprising many entrepreneurs think of it as a waste of time (and money, especially in the expensive US system) Most people however are better off as employees, starting a company is not easy and many want to work 9-5, have a family and a balanced life, with a good salary. Going to college gets you on that track.

crs 15y ago
In my case, my business partner was my college roommate. We also have made a lot of contacts through school that continue to benefit us. Your classes are not the only thing about school that will help you in the future. Like I said in a previous post, college is what you make of it.
tbrownaw 15y ago
Most people however are better off as employees however Why is this? We clearly ought to be overall better off since it allows greater specialization and higher productivity, but how much better do more specialized people with fewer choices actually do in general? starting a company is not easy and many want to work 9-5 Yay for us programmers being FLSA-exempt I suppose...
jseliger 15y ago
"College is a system created to create employees so it's not surprising many entrepreneurs think of it as a waste of time (and money, especially in the expensive US system)" This isn't really true. Universities got started in the Middle Ages to a) collect what knowledge existed, especially from Greek and Roman sources and b) to a lesser extent, train religious authorities and theologians. In the U.S., universities got going to basically create gentlemen, and later to create scholars and researchers (Menand goes over a lot of this in his book The Marketplace of Ideas: http://jseliger.com/2010/01/21/problems-in-the-academy-louis-menands-the-marketplace-of-ideas-reform-and-resistance-in-the-american-university/ http://jseliger.com/2010/01/21/problems-in-the-academy-louis...). Today, a lot of colleges and college majors focus on creating employees, but that's a relatively recent shift that only began taking place on a large scale circa 1980, as far as I can tell. That's when the number of business majors, relative to the liberal arts and sciences, really takes off in the U.S. I don't know enough about the European situation to comment on it.

by rythie 15y ago

crs 15y ago

In my case, my business partner was my college roommate. We also have made a lot of contacts through school that continue to benefit us. Your classes are not the only thing about school that will help you in the future. Like I said in a previous post, college is what you make of it.

tbrownaw 15y ago

Most people however are better off as employees however Why is this? We clearly ought to be overall better off since it allows greater specialization and higher productivity, but how much better do more specialized people with fewer choices actually do in general? starting a company is not easy and many want to work 9-5 Yay for us programmers being FLSA-exempt I suppose...

jseliger 15y ago

"College is a system created to create employees so it's not surprising many entrepreneurs think of it as a waste of time (and money, especially in the expensive US system)" This isn't really true. Universities got started in the Middle Ages to a) collect what knowledge existed, especially from Greek and Roman sources and b) to a lesser extent, train religious authorities and theologians. In the U.S., universities got going to basically create gentlemen, and later to create scholars and researchers (Menand goes over a lot of this in his book The Marketplace of Ideas: http://jseliger.com/2010/01/21/problems-in-the-academy-louis-menands-the-marketplace-of-ideas-reform-and-resistance-in-the-american-university/ http://jseliger.com/2010/01/21/problems-in-the-academy-louis...). Today, a lot of colleges and college majors focus on creating employees, but that's a relatively recent shift that only began taking place on a large scale circa 1980, as far as I can tell. That's when the number of business majors, relative to the liberal arts and sciences, really takes off in the U.S. I don't know enough about the European situation to comment on it.