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Do I need to go to university?

colah.github.io

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Re: Do I need to go to university?

#121

Post by ForHackernews »

sdan wrote: post #91
arijun wrote: post #83

For context, the author Chris Olah is a researcher at Open AI, who I think is one of the most clear and thoughtful writers in the space. He has a lot of articles on understanding ML models, and pioneers new methods of visualizations and interactivity to improve understandability of these models. If you're interested in the field I would highly recommend reading some of his articles on his blog or on distill.pub, a pu…

Not to mention he got the Thiel Fellowship. That right there would make a good majority of undergrads drop out (I would at least). Thiel Fellowship is basically security in the valley because of the network it gives.

Isn't the whole point of the Thiel Fellowship to pay kids to drop out? Thiel is trying to prove some point about academia, but, as you say, it stacks the deck because the fellowship includes a lot of the connections and foot-in-the-door help that its recipients would otherwise get in university.

Re: Do I need to go to university?

#122

Post by JoeAltmaier »

sokoloff wrote: post #120
inapis wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>In fact most of the time, the people who've said: "don't go to college" are the same people who go to Cornell, UPenn, and Stanford and probably don't realize how much of a network/presitgie gives them to get them where they are now. Can't emphasize this enough. College is still necessary for something like 95% of the planet's population. If you are not born into wealth or have well connected parents, a college degre…

How can college be necessary for 95% of the population when somewhere south of 50% attend now? I’m a significant proponent of college attendance for social and educational reasons, but even with that bias, I don’t agree with “necessary for 95%”.

Because their lives suck now, and college would have alleviated that. That they didn't (have the chance to ) go is part of the point I believe.

But yeah it was worded strangely.

Re: Do I need to go to university?

#123

Post by dreen »

sdan wrote: post #32

I'm a senior in high school and decided to. I started a startup and got invited for a YC interview(got rejected) and am onto another startup which is raising soon. Despite how much success/failure/I learn I endure, college name matters... a lot. I snuck into Nuro's open house last year and found they exclusively invited Harvard/Stanford/MIT students (I can say this because I was a minor at the time of signing their N…

> they exclusively invited Harvard/Stanford/MIT students

Usually this is a good sign you do not want to be an employee there.

Re: Do I need to go to university?

#124

Post by JoeAltmaier »

empath75 wrote: post #109
inapis wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>In fact most of the time, the people who've said: "don't go to college" are the same people who go to Cornell, UPenn, and Stanford and probably don't realize how much of a network/presitgie gives them to get them where they are now. Can't emphasize this enough. College is still necessary for something like 95% of the planet's population. If you are not born into wealth or have well connected parents, a college degre…

My dad was a grocery checker and my mom was a secretary. I didn’t go to college. I’m currently making more than six figures as a software engineer. The only meaningful networking connections I made outside of work was going to raves in the early 2000s.

My six siblings and I had farmer parents with a high school education. We all went to (and finished) college. Now we have 2 fortune-500 VPs, a research nursing administrator, an IT professional, and 2 self-employed business owners doing very well.

So it can help to go to college. Just saying.

Oh. And the next generation - 100% college educated. Several PhD's. All well employed. None working on the farm. So for some segment of America at some time, college was/is a huge factor in their social mobility.

Re: Do I need to go to university?

#125

Post by anonymoushn »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #122
sokoloff wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can college be necessary for 95% of the population when somewhere south of 50% attend now? I’m a significant proponent of college attendance for social and educational reasons, but even with that bias, I don’t agree with “necessary for 95%”.

Because their lives suck now, and college would have alleviated that. That they didn't (have the chance to ) go is part of the point I believe. But yeah it was worded strangely.

If an additional 45% of the population go to college, will society create hundreds of millions of high-paying jobs for them?

Re: Do I need to go to university?

#126

Post by fabian2k »

laingc wrote: post #37

The anti-university sentiment on HN is absolutely alien to me. Not only did I get a lot out of my university education, but it was a totally transformative experience for me. It also enables me to do my job, and I’ve never seen anyone without a good education do it well. Yes, I get that you can be a react developer without a university qualification. This may come as news to some, but most fields bear no resemblance…

I think there are a few additional aspects to this than just a simple anti-university sentiment.

This site is very US-centric, which adds a huge monetary component to this decision. That makes this an entirely different question compared to a country where higher education is free.

I also think that software development is a field that is quite friendly and attractive to people switching from a different career or field. So you have the related, but still distinct discussion about whether you should have a CS degree specifically to work as a software developer.

Re: Do I need to go to university?

#127

Post by chosenbreed37 »

pxhb wrote: post #118
laingc wrote: post #37

The anti-university sentiment on HN is absolutely alien to me. Not only did I get a lot out of my university education, but it was a totally transformative experience for me. It also enables me to do my job, and I’ve never seen anyone without a good education do it well. Yes, I get that you can be a react developer without a university qualification. This may come as news to some, but most fields bear no resemblance…

Agreed! University enabled me to leave the trailer park in the Midwest that I grew up in and now have a comfortable life. It is possible that this could have happened without university, however learning how to think/work through hard problems and the friends/networks I made have paid large dividends. During undergrad, I was worried about the ~40k in loans I took out to pay for it. However, I was able to pay them off…

> The anti-university sentiment on HN is absolutely alien to me.

Mmm...how do measure that? I think it's balanced. I suspect that the majority of the folks that comment have at least an undergraduate degree. Even the ones who argue that the degree is not of great value..

Re: Do I need to go to university?

#129

Post by JoeAltmaier »

anonymoushn wrote: post #125
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because their lives suck now, and college would have alleviated that. That they didn't (have the chance to ) go is part of the point I believe. But yeah it was worded strangely.

If an additional 45% of the population go to college, will society create hundreds of millions of high-paying jobs for them?

For most of my career, nobody 'created' a job for me. I went out and figured out something useful to do, did it, and made a living.

And would we imagine a society of capable, educated, useful people is not preferable to a society of ignorant unskilled people? Why would we wish that on ourselves? How does that improve the world?

Even worse, the implied understanding that our society cannot function without an uneducated subject class is worrisome. Are the socialists right, and Capitalism/the free market demands a slave class?

Anyway, with automation any such demand diminishes yearly and is already small.

Re: Do I need to go to university?

#130

Post by NightlyDev »

As someone who is 27 yo and dropped out of school when already having a job offshore(oil) lined up, I certainly can agree with a lot of this.

I had been doing software development for 4 years and I figured I'd rather work with that than automation and electronics. I had a side project(game) that was earning some money.

Note that this was in Norway so I could have (and still can) go to university for free.

My girlfriend ended up getting a masters degree in software development and is currently working in a consultant firm. She's currently tanking another masters degree in entrepreneurship, mostly for fun.

I've always doubted my skills, but after helping her out every now and then I've realized that 10+ years of experience really can't be matched by going to school.

On the other hand I've also learned that university is a great way to kick off your learning. Some things they're learning are things I often ended up with too, on my own, with trial and error. At least I really understand why some things are what they are because of it.

I started very young and was quite successful with my first project. People has spent thousands of years(combined) actively using my first project.

But even though I have done well, I still feel like I'm taken less serious than those with a full education, cause I've just created a strange game.

I'm considering going to university now just to get cheaper insurance and the degree, but I don't expect I'd learn a lot of new things. But I do enjoy fiddling with stuff, so it might be fun.

Do I regret it? Not really. Am I worried? Slightly, if it all falls down then I need to get a normal job or come up with something else.

Would I recommend it? If you're really driven and are already seeing signs of success, sure, give it a shot.

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