Not at all, you can delve into a huge pool of educational content rife with opportunities for self-edifying tangents. You could do the same on Audible. Or at a

Not at all, you can delve into a huge pool of educational content rife with opportunities for self-edifying tangents. You could do the same on Audible. Or at a book store (or on library genesis). I picked up Taleb, heard about Mandelbrot, learned about fractals (a complement to my hobby, 3D), all because I wanted to trade some puts because I saw an opportunity in 2020 while working as a janitor - not a fucking thing to do with with some slovenly professor whose class I'm forced to occupy disinterestedly while spending large sums to listen to him parrot the chapter contents read from a slide for the third time of the day. We haven't been trapped in a world where the only access to the arcane and the esoteric is held in hand copied, gilded manuscripts, we've even largely transcended the need for libraries. "Higher education" is, at best, internally conflicted with two very different motives. On one hand it is the arbiter of the gates of the middle class. On the other it operates under the pretense of being the authority of intellect. Frankly my experience with the latter half is a joke, a mixed bag of disinterested people that are just there for the class, some that are disinterested in education in general, some egregiously incompetent at the coursework, and the very few (often none) who are passionate about it. This isn't uniquely on the side of the students, but that of the pedagogues as well. And it is contagious. If anything I'd be willing to bet that it does just enough trauma to people that they put a terminal end to their curiosities. Anyways, I don't agree, I think the old approach is wrong, I expect it's harmful from the many anecdotes I have. I think it's one of the many coats of lacquer varnishing the piles of shit that these institutions represent to ensure their continuity, and justify their ability to arbitrate so much of the world around us.