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The Era of the Autodidact Is Here (2018)
61–70 of 76 posts
Re: The Era of the Autodidact Is Here (2018)
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
What you described is similar to a typical work environment you should be ready for, unless you were born rich.
I've been to both (funny you assume otherwise), it's not even a question. The worse jobs are usually worse than the average academic environments but the averages are far apart
In a typical phd program you have a lot more freedom (as long as you publish), a lot more flexibility than in a typical 9-5 job, and a lot less politics on average. Pressure is about the same.
Re: The Era of the Autodidact Is Here (2018)
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been to both (funny you assume otherwise), it's not even a question. The worse jobs are usually worse than the average academic environments but the averages are far apart
In a typical phd program you have a lot more freedom (as long as you publish), a lot more flexibility than in a typical 9-5 job, and a lot less politics on average. Pressure is about the same.
And a risible salary
And the possibility of doing a post-doc somewhere else for another dogsht salary (maybe complementing it with some teaching), then to maybe be able to continue in academia.
just go around YT and see the average opinion on a PhD and postdocs. Or google PhD and "mental health issues".
Re: The Era of the Autodidact Is Here (2018)
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes Except for the @ss-kissing, the unnaturally inflexible academic environment, the pressure for publishing, etc Then academia becomes hell
What you described is similar to a typical work environment you should be ready for, unless you were born rich.
This sounds like justification for a culture of hazing.
Re: The Era of the Autodidact Is Here (2018)
#65The 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 too cool for school is cool though. I'm personally very glad that information is no longer monopolized by institutions and that any self starter can learn anything they like without permission or expense. I'm too cool for school and I love it. Debt free for one thing, adn free to pursue whatever catches my interest at any time.
Re: The Era of the Autodidact Is Here (2018)
#66I'd argue that - because anyone can technically learn anything - the value of "status symbols" and pedigree has even increased.
That's an interesting angle to see it from, it's not "look at what I was able to accomplish" anymore so much as "look at this expensive jewelry I was able to afford."
Re: The Era of the Autodidact Is Here (2018)
#67Back in my home country you are either rich enough to pay tuition or you study hard (as in: you are rich enough so your parents can support your attempts at enter the top public universities) and then there are the shitty cheap uni that people do just to get their degrees. I would call those a borderline scam if people wouldn't getting exactly what they want: a cheap low effort bachelor degree. I've opted out of ever…
Sounds exactly like the United States actually.
Re: The Era of the Autodidact Is Here (2018)
#68I wrote about this in 2008. I’ve made my way in this industry for 41 years without institutional education.
Institutional education is not real education. As someone put it here: you have to be a world-class autodidact to get a Ph.D. Yet, the school takes credit.
Anyway, what I did and how it did it can be found in Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar, published hy Scribner.
Re: The Era of the Autodidact Is Here (2018)
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
In a typical phd program you have a lot more freedom (as long as you publish), a lot more flexibility than in a typical 9-5 job, and a lot less politics on average. Pressure is about the same.
And a risible salary And the possibility of doing a post-doc somewhere else for another dogsht salary (maybe complementing it with some teaching), then to maybe be able to continue in academia. just go around YT and see the average opinion on a PhD and postdocs. Or google PhD and "mental health issues".
Not sure who are you arguing with. I compared learning on your own with learning in grad school. To prepare for real world jobs. Grad school is better imo.
Re: The Era of the Autodidact Is Here (2018)
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Somehow, late stage capitalism seems to bring us to this winner-take-all environment. We are being separated into rich and poor and forced farther and farther apart. In large part for the reasons you stated, I'm sending one kid to a $100k per year private university instead of the $7k per year state school. I was helping my kid try to apply for summer jobs. It involved a lot of 2FA apps and QR codes, which needed to…
While I wouldn't describe it as late-stage capitalism, the situation OP is describing definitely isn't sustainable, we're all becoming more like Korea or China, high stratified and overstressed societies that may well be dead ends given their declining birthrates. I recall the controversy about Amy Chua's Tiger Mom a decade ago, the funny thing is that Amy Chua today believes that her methods would be insufficient fo…
> And the worst part is, for all the rise of "overachievers" going into these jobs, services and products in society just seem to be getting worse and worse.
Sounds natural, as the profit-driven corporate machinery is getting more qualified and more obedient workforce than ever before!