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Sadly, many if not most people seem to confuse schooling with education and credentials with competence. It's toxic in multiple ways. First is the assumption

Sadly, many if not most people seem to confuse schooling with education and credentials with competence. It's toxic in multiple ways. First is the assumption that those who have learned on their own as Charlie has are incompetent. Worse still, is the assumption that people with some certificate or degree automatically have whatever technical/language/business/artistic skill their paper says they do. In some cases, especially the hard sciences, the connection is strong. In others, such as literature, it's hit and miss. In a few fields, such as business or film, a PHD is probably a negative indicator. Those headed for the top get lured away before going that far with formalized training.

fleitz 15y ago
Well, universities are accredited so whatever they say must be true, so if an institution like Harvard says that Forrest T. Whittaker the 3rd of Upponton Connecticut has a degree in Computer Science it must mean that he's really good at turning database records into HTML / Javascript. However, as a great (and I believe unaccredited) playright once said, a fool and his money are soon parted.
shadowfox 15y ago
> Those headed for the top get lured away before going that far with formalized training I am by no means someone "heading for the top" and maybe this was just an oddity. But for me PhD was one of the most unstructured things I have ever done. There was little that could be called "formalized training". For most part you was left to your own devices. There were long to medium term milestones that needed to be hit. But that was about it. If you needed to learn something new for your work, you just did it on your own using whatever learning methods suited you. Sometimes there were classes that could help. But for the most part, by the time you are actually in to your research, there wouldn't be many classes that are suitable for you anyway. At least one of my lab mates lived the autodidact's dream ;) [Even me to some extent, now that I think about it] "Formality" was required only when writing out research. (This was technical field; you need the precision) Anyway just a note.

fleitz 15y ago

Well, universities are accredited so whatever they say must be true, so if an institution like Harvard says that Forrest T. Whittaker the 3rd of Upponton Connecticut has a degree in Computer Science it must mean that he's really good at turning database records into HTML / Javascript. However, as a great (and I believe unaccredited) playright once said, a fool and his money are soon parted.

shadowfox 15y ago

> Those headed for the top get lured away before going that far with formalized training I am by no means someone "heading for the top" and maybe this was just an oddity. But for me PhD was one of the most unstructured things I have ever done. There was little that could be called "formalized training". For most part you was left to your own devices. There were long to medium term milestones that needed to be hit. But that was about it. If you needed to learn something new for your work, you just did it on your own using whatever learning methods suited you. Sometimes there were classes that could help. But for the most part, by the time you are actually in to your research, there wouldn't be many classes that are suitable for you anyway. At least one of my lab mates lived the autodidact's dream ;) [Even me to some extent, now that I think about it] "Formality" was required only when writing out research. (This was technical field; you need the precision) Anyway just a note.