31–37 of 37 posts
Worked in Silicon Valley all my life. The degree meant nothing. Worked with lots of guys with no degree, doing the same job. All that mattered was skills.
and "who you know" didn't matter?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Perhaps programming is an atypical example, though? Without wanting to offend anyone, could I suggest that programming is a profession more like a skilled craftsman such as a carpenter or a plumber than anything which would have traditionally required a degree? For the most part it requires a great deal of skill and expertise, but not necessarily so much education . Practice is the most important thing, the amount of…
The two professions you mentioned (doctor and lawyer) are graduate degrees. And no, it's not true just of programming. I'm currently working a job that I would get paid more for with an Associate's in the field... my four years of Ivy League education is totally worthless. Basically, the only use of a 4 year degree is a stepping stool to a professional degree. For the vast majority of folks, it's completely useless.
Not everyone can or must be successful in high flying, well paid career terms. People of all skills levels are needed by an economy. The UK government's goal of > 50% university attendance always struck me as insidious. The option should be there, but we shouldn't encourage people who are perfectly happy to not go and who have other non-academic or non-career related goals in life (you'd think being a house mom or da…
http://www.millionairedropouts.com/millionaire.php/The_Milli...
Not everyone can or must be successful in high flying, well paid career terms. People of all skills levels are needed by an economy. The UK government's goal of > 50% university attendance always struck me as insidious. The option should be there, but we shouldn't encourage people who are perfectly happy to not go and who have other non-academic or non-career related goals in life (you'd think being a house mom or da…
You seem to be implying that the choice is either to go to college or be a homemaker. That's rather condescending. http://www.millionairedropouts.com/millionaire.php/The_Milli...
The problem if that there aren't very many alternatives that are as "secure" as going to college. Bachelors to grad school or the work force is a easily defined route and is proven to provide most people with the long term financial security they desire. The solution should be to integrate alternate forms of education and preparing for the job market (ie starting your own business or apprenticing for a job) into the…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Perhaps programming is an atypical example, though? Without wanting to offend anyone, could I suggest that programming is a profession more like a skilled craftsman such as a carpenter or a plumber than anything which would have traditionally required a degree? For the most part it requires a great deal of skill and expertise, but not necessarily so much education . Practice is the most important thing, the amount of…
An interesting book on this topic is 'Shop-class as Soulcraft.' There may be some virtuoso programmers that can write astounding software without any prior experience. However, there are aspects that take most people years to learn, due to the time it takes to release a project and see it's failings. This is different from learning physics, philosophy, or the academic aspects of law and medicine which can be learned…
As a medical student that just today finished his first year, I take a little offense to that ;) Namely, there are already fields for exactly what you describe: nurse practitioners, and to a lesser extent, physician assistants. They are taught general patterns of a small set of diseases, and can only diagnose that small set of diseases that specifically follow the course (i.e., pattern) that they were taught.
After a year of schooling, I am nowhere near ready to practice internal medicine or family medicine, let alone specialty fields. I can spot your garden variety shingles, ear infection, etc., but anything more requires experience - and knowledge - that I do not yet possess (even after a year of grueling studying!).