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What Oxford taught me about posh people

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Re: What Oxford taught me about posh people

#111

Post by HN-is-stupid »

WalterBright wrote: post #106
vletal wrote: post #4

My life goal was to attend one of these elite universities. I desired to work at companies such as Google or Apple. After graduating from the Czech Technical University I realized that 1. I am much less special then I thought 2. There is much more hard working focused average people then the few talented superstars, both usually achieving the same 3. Surprisingly many of the exceptionally smart people in my social bu…

> Work, life, and social structure is extremely unfair It's always going to be unfair. Attempts to fix it always result in some other unfairness. The real thing that works is freedom, i.e. not having the law artificially holding you back. Instead of being consumed by envy of others, you can make your own life better.

On queue, here's Walter to tell everybody to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

Shut the fuck up, would you?

Re: What Oxford taught me about posh people

#112

Post by matthewowen »

hellbannedguy wrote: post #105
vr46 wrote: post #97

I am acquainted with a disproportionate number of Oxbridge grads, mainly through my old school, which has always targeted those universities for its boys. While everyone is smart and pleasant, there is the constant reinforcement that Oxbridge grads seek each other out throughout their lives to almost exclusively hang out with each other. I mean, as towns they're not exactly next door, but in London there is the joint…

Actually, for what most colleges charge, they should provide free clubs for alumni? Although, the thought of my pompous college mates is not a memory I want to think about today though. I went to a state school. I honestly thought my local community college did a much better job, but graduated anyways. I went to a professional school, and kinda thought the same--a whole lot of wasted time. I will never forget our las…

Oxford and Cambridge don’t charge any more than other universities in the UK, and the Oxford and Cambridge club is a private members club that isn’t meaningfully affiliated to either institution.

Re: What Oxford taught me about posh people

#113

Post by anonymousDan »

iratic0 wrote: post #15
osrec wrote: post #9

As someone who was also raised in the North of England, went to a state school, and also ended up going to Oxford, this article is spot on. It took me a while to realise that the state educated people were often the more talented ones (they've not had anything handed to them on a plate), and our lack of poshness was actually something to be proud of - not something to feel inferior about!

Also comp educated and went to Oxford. I feel like in the last 5 years or so it's become "uncool" to be posh. Feel like this has been instigated by (in the West) Brexit and Trump bringing the Establishment down a notch.

Yes there was an article in the Times recently about how for the first time in a long time enrolments in private schools are falling. Apparently a lot of kids also now resent their parents for sending them to a private school as they are made to feel awkward about it (i.e. that they have kind of cheated the system). Of course that's not to say this is the cause of the drop in enrolments.

Re: What Oxford taught me about posh people

#114

Post by [deleted] »

iratic0 wrote: post #7
mmmrk wrote: post #2

I'm currently reading Taleb's Antifragility book and he strikes a similar tune: The education system being little more than a way to cement social status, with actual innovation and entrepreneurship largely taking place outside it. Wealth leads to education, not the other way around. I find this topic fascinating and it makes me see discussions about underfunded education systems and universities from a different ang…

"Wealth leads to education". This is how it used to be. The "Liberal" Arts were named so as the sort of people who studied them had freedom from normal labour. Then came the push in the 80s to 00s to get more working class kids into higher education, so they could have the same opportunities as upper class folk, thinking education leads to wealth. Instead we've just ended up with a bunch of working class kids graduat…

[deleted]

Re: What Oxford taught me about posh people

#115

Post by greycol »

vr46 wrote: post #97

I am acquainted with a disproportionate number of Oxbridge grads, mainly through my old school, which has always targeted those universities for its boys. While everyone is smart and pleasant, there is the constant reinforcement that Oxbridge grads seek each other out throughout their lives to almost exclusively hang out with each other. I mean, as towns they're not exactly next door, but in London there is the joint…

But it will only be a few of them that view it as an identity.

For them it'll be a chance to talk with people from different walks of life such as bankers, lawyers, doctors, artists, entrepreneurs, business owners, or COs. Since so many have wide breadths of opportunity they'll be able to talk to people who have had novel experiences from themselves.

I mean the default experience seems to be a sheltered(maybe insular is a better word?[1]) one, but I can't say I'm not similar in my own social circle. I haven't purposefully gone out of my way to mingle with people in other groups outside of my normal social circle except at work/hobbies/sports and really only talk to those I already know at Friday drinks.

[1] Really I'm kind of looking for a word to express diverse sameness. Something you'd use to express "European countries are all the same except of course each is a unique culture". Maybe talking about untraveled Americans(US) except a word to contrast one who only lived in their rural town vs one who worked and lived from New Orleans, to Detroit, to New York, to Nebraska, to Hawaii and Alaska while not having left the US.

Re: What Oxford taught me about posh people

#116

Post by TchoBeer »

WalterBright wrote: post #106
vletal wrote: post #4

My life goal was to attend one of these elite universities. I desired to work at companies such as Google or Apple. After graduating from the Czech Technical University I realized that 1. I am much less special then I thought 2. There is much more hard working focused average people then the few talented superstars, both usually achieving the same 3. Surprisingly many of the exceptionally smart people in my social bu…

> Work, life, and social structure is extremely unfair It's always going to be unfair. Attempts to fix it always result in some other unfairness. The real thing that works is freedom, i.e. not having the law artificially holding you back. Instead of being consumed by envy of others, you can make your own life better.

That sounds rather defeatist. Is it impossible to make work, life, or social structure more fair? I doubt you think that.

Re: What Oxford taught me about posh people

#117

Post by today20201014 »

psychomugs wrote: post #101

I went to a public state school for undergrad and a private Ivy for grad school. While there are diverse socioeconomic backgrounds at the latter, people with similar backgrounds as myself are definitely far and few between. The standards of living is far removed from the penny-scrounging dollar-menu-eating existence that I knew. I'm still taken aback by the disparity in leisure activities; it seems like a lot of peop…

I have a similar story; undergrad at a public state school and grad at a private Ivy. My experience at the Ivy was eye-openi. The loudest [1] Ivy undergrads came from private elementary/high schools and had a very dismissive view of the students who matriculated from public elementary/high schools. Academic breaks were used for luxury travel.

[1] "loudest" in the sense that they made sure that other students knew where they came from.

Re: What Oxford taught me about posh people

#119

Post by lupire »

iratic0 wrote: post #48
nicoburns wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When has it ever been cool to be posh?

In the UK after the Conservatives came to power in 2010 electing an Old Etonian, I felt culturally there was a shift towards "posh" is good as a signifier of status and social power. I feel like in the last 5 years or so it has turned to posh is "uncool". In the US, I feel like they had something similar. Obama was elected in 2008, but some people did have concerns of electing someone unestablished. To assuage these…

What president has ever not promoted the elite?

Was Jimmy Carter posh? Harry Truman?

Re: What Oxford taught me about posh people

#120

Post by lotsofpulp »

pm90 wrote: post #51
varispeed wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding 6. sometimes companies, especially start-ups hire those people not for their abilities, but to be able to tell investors they hire top uni educated workforce. They are more for PR than actual work. Sometimes it is frustrating, if they get paid the same as people who actually do work.

Ugh this has become common in Silicon Valley. “We have a brilliant team of engineers who previously worked at FAANGUberAirBnB”…it’s sickening. So is what the companies say about their board members and their C suite. I guess it could just be a reflection of facts but I fear this will lead to future startups hiring purely on this sort of credentialisms.

There is nothing wrong with using branding as a heuristic. Everyone does it when they prefer buying one brand over another. People do not have enough time or information to make fully informed decisions about each and every thing, including other people.
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