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"...starting to settle in." The generation ahead of me believed exactly this, that college education was for the "elite." The generation behind me challenged t

by delinka 13y ago

"...starting to settle in." The generation ahead of me believed exactly this, that college education was for the "elite." The generation behind me challenged this perception and went to college. It was a boon for the oldest of that generation. Then the world became saturated with college grads expecting top-notch salaries and benefits; when it was obvious that not everyone with a degree would receive The Best Salary Ever, the younger of the same generation began to question the need for post-secondary education. I think we're just coming back to previous perceptions. I think with this ebb-and-flow of Things That Will Always Be is just happening faster than ever because of increased awareness (faster communication, broader audiences) brought about by technology; specifically the internet. As for needing a "college level education," why would everyone require this? Are we all, the entire population, headed toward a society where every job is performed by a machine, leaving us to advance our existence through focused philosophy? This, I feel, is the utopian world of The Academics. Anything short of that simply requires access to the knowledge that allows one to function in the world and perform their chosen profession.

Aqueous 13y ago
"starting to settle in...again." I agree. This is nothing new. But I believe even people in the trades should have a college-level education. College education is not about learning facts that are directly relevant to whatever we end up choosing to do. It is about learning critical thinking, how to work with others at a high level, how to acquire new knowledge and talents efficiently. These are skills that are valuable everywhere, in every profession. "Are we all, the entire population, headed toward a society where every job is performed by a machine [...]"] In short, yes. This won't happen for a while but most of our manual professions will be automated in the not-so-distant future. That will leave us, collectively, with a lot of time on our hands to figure out what to do with ourselves. Knowing where the next horizon lies will require a ton of high-level, specialized scientific knowledge, and those of us who were not lucky enough to receive a college education will be worse off as a result.
- angersock 13y ago
  That education in critical thinking would be a waste, due mainly to the sorts of businesses and products people like us develop and push here everyday. People are less and less able to work with each other at a high level (consider the inability to deal with blue-collar banter at conferences, and the common situation of ignoring each other to tweet or use phones). People are not interested in acquiring new knowledge (they may, perhaps, cache relevant results from Stack Overflow or Google--usually not). People do not want to think critically--think about how much effort we put into making our tools as simple and intuitive as possible, and how much we emphasize convention over configuration, and how much we spend on advertising to make people want our stuff. There is probably no next horizon--there's just bullshit makework to help people function in a token economy spoonfed ads by Adsense on their iJiggers.

by delinka 13y ago

Aqueous 13y ago

"starting to settle in...again." I agree. This is nothing new. But I believe even people in the trades should have a college-level education. College education is not about learning facts that are directly relevant to whatever we end up choosing to do. It is about learning critical thinking, how to work with others at a high level, how to acquire new knowledge and talents efficiently. These are skills that are valuable everywhere, in every profession. "Are we all, the entire population, headed toward a society where every job is performed by a machine [...]"] In short, yes. This won't happen for a while but most of our manual professions will be automated in the not-so-distant future. That will leave us, collectively, with a lot of time on our hands to figure out what to do with ourselves. Knowing where the next horizon lies will require a ton of high-level, specialized scientific knowledge, and those of us who were not lucky enough to receive a college education will be worse off as a result.

angersock 13y ago
That education in critical thinking would be a waste, due mainly to the sorts of businesses and products people like us develop and push here everyday. People are less and less able to work with each other at a high level (consider the inability to deal with blue-collar banter at conferences, and the common situation of ignoring each other to tweet or use phones). People are not interested in acquiring new knowledge (they may, perhaps, cache relevant results from Stack Overflow or Google--usually not). People do not want to think critically--think about how much effort we put into making our tools as simple and intuitive as possible, and how much we emphasize convention over configuration, and how much we spend on advertising to make people want our stuff. There is probably no next horizon--there's just bullshit makework to help people function in a token economy spoonfed ads by Adsense on their iJiggers.