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The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)

theamericanscholar.org

11–20 of 77 posts

Re: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)

#11

> Witness the last two Democratic presidential nominees, Al Gore and John Kerry: one each from Harvard and Yale, both earnest, decent, intelligent men, both utterly incapable of communicating with the larger electorate. This article: William Deresiewicz Complains That Getting Elected (i.e. Being a Good Leader) Is Ridiculously Hard and Not Taught In Schools Nor Achieved By Being Rich.

Social skills (an important part of leadership) are not taught in schools nor achieved by being rich. Except maybe in specific fields like psychology and economics.

I think they should be. Although I’m autistic so I needed to learn them explicitly, it seems nowadays even typical people are struggling and failing to learn proper social skills, probably due to social media.

Re: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)

#12

Ah yes, the disadvantages of being elite. Just as I am similarly disadvantaged for being too intelligent and good looking. When will we realize as a society these things aren't really an advantage at all?

> these things aren't really an advantage at all?

Which things? Intelligence and looks are a well documented advantage, for an individual. A society is made of individuals.

edit: lol, didn't have my coffee yet.

Re: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)

#13
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If software isn't a trade what is it? Holy orders?

Knowledge work, of course, meaning it pays well but is less honest than real work. But I agree with you. It’s a trade. Just more recent than plumbing.

I often compare software to plumbing. No one else cares how it was done.

Re: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)

#14
post #12

Ah yes, the disadvantages of being elite. Just as I am similarly disadvantaged for being too intelligent and good looking. When will we realize as a society these things aren't really an advantage at all?

> these things aren't really an advantage at all? Which things? Intelligence and looks are a well documented advantage, for an individual. A society is made of individuals. edit: lol, didn't have my coffee yet.

Pretty sure the parent comment is sarcastic.

Re: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)

#15

This was gross.

how? It seems to be a popular subject lately. Dirty Jobs, leaving software jobs to become a trade. (Update: Electrician, Mechanic, Plumber, etc...) Lot of articles on this subject, and calls to bring back the old classes like home-econ, shop, etc...

[deleted]

Re: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)

#16

This was gross.

how? It seems to be a popular subject lately. Dirty Jobs, leaving software jobs to become a trade. (Update: Electrician, Mechanic, Plumber, etc...) Lot of articles on this subject, and calls to bring back the old classes like home-econ, shop, etc...

college educated “thoughtleaders” charged $300/hour by the plumbing company, HVAC, car service department and thinks the trade jobs make that much. yeah no they more often start at $30/hour

Re: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)

#17
post #14
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> these things aren't really an advantage at all? Which things? Intelligence and looks are a well documented advantage, for an individual. A society is made of individuals. edit: lol, didn't have my coffee yet.

Pretty sure the parent comment is sarcastic.

Your parent commenter must have an ivy league education :)

Re: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)

#18
> My education taught me to believe that people who didn’t go to an Ivy League or equivalent school weren’t worth talking to, regardless of their class. I was given the unmistakable message that such people were beneath me.

That's not an elite education, that's a bad education.

Re: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)

#19
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how? It seems to be a popular subject lately. Dirty Jobs, leaving software jobs to become a trade. (Update: Electrician, Mechanic, Plumber, etc...) Lot of articles on this subject, and calls to bring back the old classes like home-econ, shop, etc...

If software isn't a trade what is it? Holy orders?

>If software isn't a trade what is it?

A profession. Trades are things like electrician/plumbing/carpentry that you can typically become resonably competent in 2 or so years of training.

Re: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)

#20
> There he was, a short, beefy guy with a goatee and a Red Sox cap and a thick Boston accent, and I suddenly learned that I didn’t have the slightest idea what to say to someone like him. So alien was his experience to me, so unguessable his values, so mysterious his very language, that I couldn’t succeed in engaging him in a few minutes of small talk before he got down to work.

I'm a self-taught software developer with no university education and I too am socially awkward in front of tradespeople in my house. I don't think this is about Ivy League degrees, just being a nerdy intellectual who's bad at small talk and doesn't have any topics in common with a blue collar worker.

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