Oh look: a comment not critical of, but nevertheless about, colleges, is being downvoted on HN. Stop my beating heart. The current "college is a waste of money

Oh look: a comment not critical of, but nevertheless about, colleges, is being downvoted on HN. Stop my beating heart. The current "college is a waste of money/time" trend got boring rather quickly - at this point, it's just extraordinarily stupid. It's true, if your goal is to maximize money earned, you should probably not go to college. You should also never have children, or give to DWB, or learn to play an instrument. Going through college focused on getting the Right Degree and the Right Grades is, of course, a waste of time: your time is better spent angling for promotions at McDon's. But exploiting the nearby presence of hundreds or thousands of extraordinarily intelligent people just in your field, for four years, is definitely a worthy experience, and not just for a tiny minority of people. If you're going into a field that presents novel challenges with as high frequency as programming does, it's an experience you'd do well to have.