4 ms·

While the loan-fueled runaway cost of traditional university diplomas in America has created a big mess that seems to serve everyone except high level administr

While the loan-fueled runaway cost of traditional university diplomas in America has created a big mess that seems to serve everyone except high level administrators poorly, I don't really see the solution at a societal level being self-teaching. I say this as a 100% self taught programmer who started learning (unprompted) from a book as a 10 year old in 1998. I slowly built a base of marketable skills and CS fundamentals over time, and have done well for myself, but I don't really see this as a viable alternative to formal education programs at scale. I'm not saying that I'm somehow super special, but I do think that I approach learning things differently than the great majority of other people I know. I also very much appreciated my traditional liberal arts education (I studied Political Science thinking I wanted to go to law school), and feel that our society would benefit from tech workers having a broader background in history, humanities, religion, and social sciences overall.

eru 2y ago
> [...] I don't really see the solution at a societal level being self-teaching. Sorry, if I wasn't clear: self-teaching can be part of a solution, but it's not required. (See eg what I said about sitting in on lectures or doing online courses etc.) There's also relatively cheap universities you can attend. > I also very much appreciated my traditional liberal arts education (I studied Political Science thinking I wanted to go to law school), and feel that our society would benefit from tech workers having a broader background in history, humanities, religion, and social sciences overall. There's nothing wrong with people choosing to learn about these things, yes. Though I don't think making these topics mandatory would do much (or does much). Just have a look at all the mandatory crap in school, and what people actually remember. Eg they have years and years of math (or history etc) and barely anything sticks.

eru 2y ago

> [...] I don't really see the solution at a societal level being self-teaching. Sorry, if I wasn't clear: self-teaching can be part of a solution, but it's not required. (See eg what I said about sitting in on lectures or doing online courses etc.) There's also relatively cheap universities you can attend. > I also very much appreciated my traditional liberal arts education (I studied Political Science thinking I wanted to go to law school), and feel that our society would benefit from tech workers having a broader background in history, humanities, religion, and social sciences overall. There's nothing wrong with people choosing to learn about these things, yes. Though I don't think making these topics mandatory would do much (or does much). Just have a look at all the mandatory crap in school, and what people actually remember. Eg they have years and years of math (or history etc) and barely anything sticks.