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Going to university does not broaden the mind

economist.com

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Re: Going to university does not broaden the mind

#271

Post by finnthehuman »

jon_richards wrote: post #260
finnthehuman wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't describe the cliche post-highschool hard left swing of someone with a sheltered upbringing as "broadening". I don't mean to be too dismissive, but I spent enough time in a university town after my own graduation to see this trajectory play out a number of times. Kids come in, and adopt a new set of ideas that suit their new environment just as blindly as they adopted ideas compatible with their previous en…

99% of his post is about learning new things. >hard left swing

I mean, it's the swing that's hard, not the positions. That's why I said the bit about positions I support but with but reasoning I can't. But in retrospect that distinction wasn't that clear, my writing is almost as muddled as when I speak out loud.

jedberg didn't spill out the terrible recent-convert gobbledygook I'm used to hearing. Maybe he's did it right, or maybe he's adult-ed up his standing in the meantime, but it fits the mold and was as good a place as any to talk about the archetype.

Re: Going to university does not broaden the mind

#272

Post by Armisael16 »

kbenson wrote: post #268
Valmar wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Jewish" is a religion. "White" is a skin colour, otherwise categorized as "race", which technically doesn't really exist anyways. All that really exists is a diverse range of genetic differences, however, all humans can 100% interbreed without any issues.

Jewish is also an ethnicity. There are even specific subsets of jews that have different health issues.[1] To my understanding, Jew refers to both an ethnic group and a religion, so it can be confusing, but the ethnic group definitely can be referred to as a race (which going by most the common dictionary definitions of race generally includes geographic and ethnic grouping. I looked it up prior to my earlier comment…

Is 'French' a race then?

Re: Going to university does not broaden the mind

#273

Post by AsyncAwait »

Aloha wrote: post #259
AsyncAwait wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not privilege, privilege makes it easier, but it's certainly not impossible without it. No, but it is much, much harder. Assuming all human beings are equal, how can you justify working a lot harder for the same outcome? As an example, we generally want to help the disabled, it is generally a good policy to remove barriers, install lifts etc. not for them to 'just learn to walk properly' or whatever.

> No, but it is much, much harder. Assuming all human beings are equal, how can you justify working a lot harder for the same outcome? I can't, that's my point we need to provide good opportunities for people of all abilities, not just for the smartest, we're failing at this goal. I want a more just and equitable society not necessarily just an equal one.

> I can't, that's my point we need to provide good opportunities for people of all abilities, not just for the smartest

I agree, I was talking about affordability. You can be super smart, but if you're 2/3 as smart and also rich, you're still likely to do better in life than the smart, poor kid would.

Re: Going to university does not broaden the mind

#274

Post by screye »

scarface74 wrote: post #120

Only the privileged can afford to go to college to “broaden their mind”. Most people go to college to compete in the market and get a job. It’s amazing how much push back I get about computer science degrees should teach marketable skills and people say they weren’t meant to be ”vocational degrees” and you shouldn’t go to college for “job training”. Just the idea that people are suggesting in some of the comments tha…

Does it have to be expensive countries ?

Cost of living in Asia is vastly lower than that on European countries.

One can easily live in Urban India safely and somewhat lavishly, with ~300-400/month.

A summer of travel in India would cost $2000-3000 including international flight tickets. The one caveat being that they would need a local Host to help make sense of things.

If they were a part of NGO programs teaching under privledged students or part of structured camp/trek/exchange program then they don't even need a local contact and part of the trip may actually get funded by the org.

I can easily see a $60,000/yr. Salary being sufficient for such an experience once in a decade.

Re: Going to university does not broaden the mind

#275

Post by starky »

Markoff wrote: post #246
starky wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is understandable why they would think this. I've had multiple people from Guangdong refer to the food from the North as spicy, even though Sichuan, Hunan, and Chongqing are considered central China. To most people Southern Chinese food is just Cantonese food.

that's just not truth, every Chinese is aware if difference between sichuanese/hunanese and Cantonese cuisine

That isn't what I said at all. You are conflating two separate statements there.

Re: Going to university does not broaden the mind

#276

Post by analog31 »

WalterBright wrote: post #131
analog31 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would actually surprise me if any university had the ability to impose an overall bias in one of those directions over the other. There would seem to be too much variation among the individual professors, teachers, students, etc. Anecdotally, I live in the shadow of a Big Ten university, so I know a lot of academics, and I don't think any of them have expressed a "follow the rules" approach that I was able to disc…

I don't know about any university, but at Caltech it was consistent that everything used was derived from first principles. There wasn't any "trust me, use this rule".

I went to a small religious college, and my experience was similar to yours.

Edit: There were some exceptions, such as my double bass lessons.

Re: Going to university does not broaden the mind

#277

Post by hnuser355 »

anonytrary wrote: post #74
hnuser355 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha, as if the average US university graduate is joining the ruling class

Haha, as if the average member of the ruling class didn't graduate from university.

Who would say such a thing?

Re: Going to university does not broaden the mind

#278

Post by AnaniasAnanas »

scarface74 wrote: post #262
em-bee wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

learning how to build and manage complex projects doesn't conflict with learning new languages along the way. unless you work on a project that takes longer than 6 months you can still start new projects with another new language each term

And this is at the opposite end of the spectrum.... On one hand, you have computer science majors who know theory but can’t code their way out of a wet paper bag. On the other hand, you have the computer science majors who can do leetCode in their sleep but don’t have the stamina to see a project to 100% completion and easily get distracted by the oooh shiny. And let’s not forget the computer science majors who can c…

> On one hand, you have computer science majors who know theory but can’t code their way out of a wet paper bag.

If their plan in life is to do research on theoretical CS, does it matter? That being said, I doubt that these are that many of them considering that most CS degrees focus on programming.

> And let’s not forget the computer science majors who can code and know theory but don’t know anything about business or how to communicate and deal with large organizations.

They have a CS degree, not a business or management one.

Re: Going to university does not broaden the mind

#279

Post by WalterBright »

someguydave wrote: post #254
WalterBright wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your rights are inalienable. This means that you cannot transfer them, even voluntarily. They remain your rights. Slave contracts are worthless for this reason.

Who defines which rights you have and which ones are inalienable?

Rights are inherent in our nature. They are discovered.

Re: Going to university does not broaden the mind

#280

Post by scarface74 »

AnaniasAnanas wrote: post #278
scarface74 wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And this is at the opposite end of the spectrum.... On one hand, you have computer science majors who know theory but can’t code their way out of a wet paper bag. On the other hand, you have the computer science majors who can do leetCode in their sleep but don’t have the stamina to see a project to 100% completion and easily get distracted by the oooh shiny. And let’s not forget the computer science majors who can c…

> On one hand, you have computer science majors who know theory but can’t code their way out of a wet paper bag. If their plan in life is to do research on theoretical CS, does it matter? That being said, I doubt that these are that many of them considering that most CS degrees focus on programming. > And let’s not forget the computer science majors who can code and know theory but don’t know anything about business…

Out of all the CS majors, what percentage do you really think are going to be in an ivory tower doing “research” and not working for for profit businesses?

Have you never been on discussion boards where brand new CS majors ask for advice on how they can convince their boss to move from their $x million dollar oracle implementation and Java stack to some open source NoSQL database and Node?

I don’t see too many people posting on HN - a site sponsored by VC company that funds for profit businesses - talk about their “research”.

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