Paul Graham Keynote at PyCon

Ever think experience with different people is not comparable?

You can learn things well being at a shitty uni. I did this. You miss out on the whole experience of being surrounded with awesome people with awesome ideas, though. It's a very important aspect, which is difficult to make up for if you try to. It's possible with computer-related topics because of nntp, irc, ftp, web, and now places like hn. It doesn't fully replace it but it's a good prosthesis. It doesn't work for most other subjects. To put it simply, you can learn to cook italian never have been to Italy -- but you won't be a good cook.

Please expand considerably on this point if you want anyone to understand what you mean rather than giving you the benefit of the doubt.

I do not have yummyfajitas' experience, teaching at (minimally) a top 50 US university, I've only taught high school students whose parents are paying lots for them to be there. They mostly don't care. Teaching primary school sometimes leaves me exhausted but never demoralised, middle school is occasionally like watching the capacity to care drain out of you permanently.

Anyone who does a Ph.D. for any reason other than a genuine love of research and a desire to become a professor is mad. There are fields where it's better or worse but none where a real doctorate[0] is the best way to get what you want except academia.

If you like teaching getting a good Master's degree and some highschool teaching experience before teaching at an expensive prepschool would probably be more rewarding than teaching at most state universities.

That the life of the mind and teaching the callow youth are currently bundled goods is a historical accident I devoutly hope to see ended within two decades; I'd love to see it happen sooner.

I meant: some guy A meets some professors, says "most professors don't care about their subjects". Guy B meets some other professors, says "most professors DO care about their subjects". Guy A and guy B are looking at two sides of the same apple, one says it's yellow, the other says it's red. As an educator you should know very basic concepts of psychology and (social) group theory such as observational bias.

teaching at an expensive prepschool would probably be more rewarding than teaching at most state universities I've only taught high school students

talking out of your rear end? This one really alarmed me, because you're supposed to be a teacher.

Seriously, what is it with teachers who never check their facts and just banter on like they know everything? You are putting knowledge in the heads of hundreds of kids. It will be there forever. Looking at your quality of your discourse (where's that reference you were going to post?) you're not afraid of putting rotting crap in their heads, mentally crippling them forever. Knowledge (information) is the essence of your work, of your life, and of your calling. You should be nurturing it, and treating it with utmost respect. Instead, you come here, display lack of most basic education in your trade, and spew self-contradictions as authoritative statements. It shows total disregard for the trust put in you by countless hopeful parents of children left under your watch.

The worst thing? Teachers doing that sort of stuff just don't care. It's just another job, like flipping burgers. Burger flipped wrong? Don't worry, I'll make a new one. Kid fucked up for life? Twenty will come after him, I will perhaps maybe get it right some day.

Re-reading your post again and again I see more and more evil. For example:

Please expand considerably on this point if you want anyone to understand what you mean rather than giving you the benefit of the doubt.

Now I get it! You're not actually discussing with me, or replying to my post. You're grading my post! That's fucking amazing. Do I get an A? No? Well, tough luck.

You have assumed by default a position of authority over me, displaying you do not think of others as equal to you.

Let's now consider this quote: That the life of the mind and teaching the callow youth are currently bundled goods is a historical accident I devoutly hope to see ended within two decades; I'd love to see it happen sooner.

The whole post is written in simple English. Sometimes even broken English:

I do not have yummyfajitas' experience, teaching at (minimally) a top 50 US university

Sounds more akin to what someone digging up turnips for a living would say.

So you give us this cow-back ride, and then you go and put this at the end of your post:

That the life of the mind and teaching the callow youth are currently bundled goods is a historical accident I devoutly hope to see ended within two decades; I'd love to see it happen sooner.

We've got it all. Inversion, long words, archaisms, assertions of superiority, uncommon punctuation, hazy - but superficially thoughtful - statements (the life of the mind, uh, thanks, Hakunin: http://youtu.be/J376ardIXvs ). Is this the obligatory pompous verse you put at the end of every homework feedback, or am I special to receive such exquisite treatment?

Then let's drop the lexical analysis of your post and look at the logic. First off, you're replying to the wrong post. Your reply is a non-sequitur; it does not touch on points presented in my post (the single point was observational bias). You drift from topic to topic in a clutter of thoughts, unrelated to the original point. You'd normally separate those out into a post that'll be attached to something it relates to. Then, you use absolutes (Anyone who does a Ph.D. for any reason other than a genuine love of research and a desire to become a professor is mad.) that are completely inane. There are dozens of reasons to get a PhD, such as: a) helping your career b) it's one year extra, let's do it anyways c) having fun while doing it d) wanting to have a PhD like your dad and see what he's been through e) wanting to learn about specific topics only covered in the PhD course.

I seriously hope this post is much below your usual quality of submission. So.. let's spend some time together, shall we? I will now go and look through your comment and submission history.

OK, first comment: you talk about how compulsory education is... bad? Wait, are you a teacher at all? I can't possibly imagine a teacher who'll think compulsory education is bad.. unless.. yeah, unless they're as bad as you and realize they're rather doing a disservice.

Second comment: someone asks about the possible security of self-driving cars and you refer them to a novelization of Wargames. Really?

There are more comments like this.

So let's look at the submissions. An overwhelming majority (around 3/4) of submissions is under 5 points. You'd hope a teacher would have something interesting to say, but apparently this is not true in this case.

Oh, boy, how I hated teachers doing all the stuff you managed to involuntarily display in just one vile venomous thorn of a post in this thread. I sincerely hope you get fired sometime soon and can't do that to children whose mental capacity is not enough to question your bad judgment.

I rest my case.