College was my biggest mistake • Hacker News Board

Re: College was my biggest mistake

#21

Post by sunwooz » Fri, Aug 10, 2012, 2:29 AM UTC

hotshothenry wrote: post #16

I feel like everything I read nowadays on this topic has had the tone of "don't go to college it's a waste of time" etc etc. While I agree it's definitely not for everybody, I don't agree with it being a waste of time or that nobody should go to school (even if you're not pursue a career a law/medicine/etc). I have self-taught myself everything I've learned in software engineering, beginning in middle school when I p…

I believe that going to college is worth it if you're being selectively taught by the top 1%. The rest of the 99%? Forget about it-- you can learn more with an internet connection.

Re: College was my biggest mistake

#22

Post by bradleyjg » Fri, Aug 10, 2012, 2:29 AM UTC

It could be worse, you could have started law school circa 2006.

3 years completely wasted, vis-a-vis programming and arguably just about the whole tech universe, $150,000 in tuition. After that you get a degree that serves as an entrance to a profession that is extremely economically depressed, near universally reviled, and the few jobs there are have terrible working conditions and are filled with unhappy people.

Live, learn, and try and pass on some hard won lessons.

Re: College was my biggest mistake

#23

Post by CubicleNinjas » Fri, Aug 10, 2012, 2:29 AM UTC

danielrm26 wrote: post #2

I often wonder how many people who write these kinds of posts actually benefitted greatly from college in ways they don't understand. For example, most people who didn't go to college can't write a blog post like this one. In short, I think most people who can write great posts about how college didn't help them actually gained a lot of their most valuable (if intangible) skills from their college experience.

Do you ever wonder how many assumptions you're making about those who've not completed college? I don't mean this in an insulting way, but I feel it should be noted that it is quite degrading. Your comment assumes:

1) This writer is not self-aware. They haven't taken stock of the full impact of college.

2) Other writers, who also write similar posts, are also not self-aware. This trend is not that college is in fact bad, but that many people who leave college fail at recognizing the true benefits. This is an epidemic.

3) That most people who don't attend college are unable to write well.

4) On top of the items above, that you feel you know more than this person about their own life.

This all feels to me like hefty cognitive bias to me.

Re: College was my biggest mistake

#24

Post by suresk » Fri, Aug 10, 2012, 2:29 AM UTC

Not getting a CS education was my biggest mistake.

I got most of a Finance degree, then dropped out when I ran out of money and found out people would pay decent money to a relatively inexperienced programmer. I'm happy with the way things have turned out for me career-wise - I think I'm a pretty competent developer and have a decent income and good future prospects - but I feel like there are opportunities that I'm much less likely to be able to take advantage of because I've mostly learned things as I've needed them.

Yes, I can (and am) independently learn everything you would in a CS program, but it is much more difficult, and the piece of paper is sometimes useful, too. Yes, plenty of folks get by without one, but I hope people don't get the idea that because they can teach themselves to throw together a website, they won't learn anything from a CS program - when I was 18, I had this idea that CS degrees taught outdated and relatively useless information, which I now believe to be false.

Even beyond the core CS curriculum, there are a lot of benefits to attending college - I feel like I at least got some of those by completing most of a degree.

It is certainly valid for some people to skip college, and that's fine, I just hope that all of this anti-college sentiment we've seen recently isn't just going to create another generation of people like me who regret thinking they didn't need the formal CS education.

Re: College was my biggest mistake

#25

Post by tkahn6 » Fri, Aug 10, 2012, 2:30 AM UTC

danielrm26 wrote: post #2

I often wonder how many people who write these kinds of posts actually benefitted greatly from college in ways they don't understand. For example, most people who didn't go to college can't write a blog post like this one. In short, I think most people who can write great posts about how college didn't help them actually gained a lot of their most valuable (if intangible) skills from their college experience.

> For example, most people who didn't go to college can't write a blog post like yours.

I'm fairly certain this has more to do with the average type of person that doesn't go to college rather than any causal link between Freshman Composition and good writing skills.

Re: College was my biggest mistake

#26

Post by enjo » Fri, Aug 10, 2012, 2:32 AM UTC

tkahn6 wrote: post #25

danielrm26 wrote: post #2

I often wonder how many people who write these kinds of posts actually benefitted greatly from college in ways they don't understand. For example, most people who didn't go to college can't write a blog post like this one. In short, I think most people who can write great posts about how college didn't help them actually gained a lot of their most valuable (if intangible) skills from their college experience.

> For example, most people who didn't go to college can't write a blog post like yours. I'm fairly certain this has more to do with the average type of person that doesn't go to college rather than any causal link between Freshman Composition and good writing skills.

Do you really believe that a collegiate level composition class doesn't improve writing skills at least a little bit?

Re: College was my biggest mistake

#27

Post by scottjad » Fri, Aug 10, 2012, 2:33 AM UTC

Classes didn’t hold my attention- I could teach myself more in an afternoon than I would learn in a 10-week class.

If this were true then you would have spent four afternoons learning Calculus, Business, Communications, and Databases, and another four afternoons showing up for the finals, and you would have gotten a 3.0 instead of a 0.3.

Re: College was my biggest mistake

#28

Post by sunwooz » Fri, Aug 10, 2012, 2:33 AM UTC

I'm in the same boat as the OP: I've been in school for 3 years but everything I know comes from teaching myself. I dropped out and started teaching myself rails/html/css and I'm currently looking for a programming gig(hopefully in a startup). I agree with the OP's sentiment that you shouldn't go for a college degree unless you're looking to work in something that requires credibility(law, medical, etc) and I always tell Highschool graduates about the many options they can pursue without having to waste money paying for a diluted and meaningless education.

Re: College was my biggest mistake

#29

Post by danielrm26 » Fri, Aug 10, 2012, 2:34 AM UTC

tkahn6 wrote: post #25

danielrm26 wrote: post #2

I often wonder how many people who write these kinds of posts actually benefitted greatly from college in ways they don't understand. For example, most people who didn't go to college can't write a blog post like this one. In short, I think most people who can write great posts about how college didn't help them actually gained a lot of their most valuable (if intangible) skills from their college experience.

> For example, most people who didn't go to college can't write a blog post like yours. I'm fairly certain this has more to do with the average type of person that doesn't go to college rather than any causal link between Freshman Composition and good writing skills.

Possibly. But I have seen college itself (not just dedicated writing classes) help people write immeasurably. This is because writing is involved in most everything one does there. It's an extension of high school. Same concept.

Re: College was my biggest mistake

#30

Post by RealGeek » Fri, Aug 10, 2012, 2:34 AM UTC

danielrm26 wrote: post #8

RealGeek wrote: post #5

I commend Steve's effort and hard work. I am a dropout; and we have recruited dropouts, engineering graduates, MBAs and students pursuing a degree distance a learning program at our startup. The best recruits were actually the distance learning students and dropouts by far. I always recommend young hackers to take a year or two off before going to college and figure out what they want to do. For most jobs in Internet…

I think even great programmers who get solid on-the-job training doing a startup job will have major gaps as they progress. There is something to be said for learning fundamentals.

Is there anything we can't learn from Internet?

Give a kid access to computer and Internet, and he will find his way out. This was experimented with kids in Indian slums, who never went to school and can not even read/write.

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/india/thestory.htm...