I taught myself the word autodidact.
The Era of the Autodidact Is Here (2018)
31–40 of 76 posts
Re: The Era of the Autodidact Is Here (2018)
#32On one hand, there's this. On the other hand, with the toughening of the job market, companies are selecting by degrees and pedigrees more than ever. The last company I worked for is currently doing this exactly, only looking at applications from people graduating from select universities. So far it's working for them. As the job market gets worse, I think this trend of stronger emphasis on degrees and pedigrees will…
As someone in the job market right now, with 15+ years experience but no degree... This is an unfortunately very visible trend. It's Especially boggling to see a job posting wanting 10+ years of experience but still demanding you provide your GPA.
Re: The Era of the Autodidact Is Here (2018)
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is it really necessary? I'm not seeing it.
I have friends who did not go the college degree route and it is very grim.
But perhaps a cheap(er) school, almost by definition not quite as competitive, could still be better than "no college degree whatsoever".
Re: The Era of the Autodidact Is Here (2018)
#34The deep irony of praising autodidacticism in lieu of getting a degree is that one has to be a world class autodidact to succeed in a Ph.D program and that a university is stuffed to the brim with resources to support that autodidacticism: libraries, lab facilities, experts, etc. for both graduate and undergraduate studies. And not in just in one field, but dozens and dozens of fields. A real autodidact would be in s…
Being at university helps but accessing those resources doesn’t necessarily require attending, which is out of reach for many people for many different reasons. When I was in high school I emailed a few professors at my local university (Caltech/MIT/Ivy league tier) and they allowed me to audit graduate level classes, participate in labs and group projects, and sponsored visiting faculty status so I could officially…
If you do all that why not just enroll and get a degree while you’re at it?
Re: The Era of the Autodidact Is Here (2018)
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pro tip, people hate ivy droppers. The only people who will respond well are other people who went to the same ivy as you. The value of an Ivy Education is that you become friends with people who have rich parents, and those people bring you into the stuff they start because they have the capital to do whatever they want.
I'm pretty skeptical of the networking with rich people theory. Of course, it happens. But I'm not sure it's a rationale, by itself, to go to Harvard if you can. While I've done business with various people I know in school I can't point to any clear examples where some opportunity came along because of school connections. Professional connections, yes, in pretty much every case. But very little to do with school.
I got invited to a startup that had a good exit through school connections. I left a good bit before the exit because my school chum became a megalomaniac that was impossible to work with, but I can at least give you n=1.
Re: The Era of the Autodidact Is Here (2018)
#36The deep irony of praising autodidacticism in lieu of getting a degree is that one has to be a world class autodidact to succeed in a Ph.D program and that a university is stuffed to the brim with resources to support that autodidacticism: libraries, lab facilities, experts, etc. for both graduate and undergraduate studies. And not in just in one field, but dozens and dozens of fields. A real autodidact would be in s…
University, and especially grad school, is really an amazing environment. Because of these tools and resources and because everyone involved has learning as its prime drive.
We should normalize sabaticals were you go back to university for a summer or what not.
Re: The Era of the Autodidact Is Here (2018)
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Being at university helps but accessing those resources doesn’t necessarily require attending, which is out of reach for many people for many different reasons. When I was in high school I emailed a few professors at my local university (Caltech/MIT/Ivy league tier) and they allowed me to audit graduate level classes, participate in labs and group projects, and sponsored visiting faculty status so I could officially…
If you do all that why not just enroll and get a degree while you’re at it?
My guess is the $$$$ cost?
Re: The Era of the Autodidact Is Here (2018)
#38The deep irony of praising autodidacticism in lieu of getting a degree is that one has to be a world class autodidact to succeed in a Ph.D program and that a university is stuffed to the brim with resources to support that autodidacticism: libraries, lab facilities, experts, etc. for both graduate and undergraduate studies. And not in just in one field, but dozens and dozens of fields. A real autodidact would be in s…
Being at university helps but accessing those resources doesn’t necessarily require attending, which is out of reach for many people for many different reasons. When I was in high school I emailed a few professors at my local university (Caltech/MIT/Ivy league tier) and they allowed me to audit graduate level classes, participate in labs and group projects, and sponsored visiting faculty status so I could officially…
Most of those top universities have very aggressive scholarship programs for low income students. A surprising number of students at those universities pay little or nothing to attend. It’s actually more rare to pay full price than to pay nothing at all at many universities!
Re: The Era of the Autodidact Is Here (2018)
#39I'd argue that - because anyone can technically learn anything - the value of "status symbols" and pedigree has even increased.
Re: The Era of the Autodidact Is Here (2018)
#40On one hand, there's this. On the other hand, with the toughening of the job market, companies are selecting by degrees and pedigrees more than ever. The last company I worked for is currently doing this exactly, only looking at applications from people graduating from select universities. So far it's working for them. As the job market gets worse, I think this trend of stronger emphasis on degrees and pedigrees will…
What's probably true is that between the current market (at least in tech), automated application systems (and, yes, LLMs) of various kinds, etc. companies are just being flooded by applications. They can (and do) various things--lean very hard into referrals, randomly throw half the applications into the trash, etc. But at least one not totally irrational filter is a 10 second credentials check--which is at least objective assuming the person isn't lying. Why not take advantage of a lot of admissions office effort?
At the same time, I can remember the day when certain credentials were non-negotiable and this is probably still true to a certain degree in fields like Big Law and management consulting.