Live data from Hacker News

A generation of American men give up on college

wsj.com

221–230 of 824 posts

Re: A generation of American men give up on college

#221
post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EE programs tend to focus on electronics, not electrical systems. But learning how house wiring works is a simple book away. But be careful - unlike electronics, house electrics can kill you. On the other hand, electricians have weird gaps in their knowledge. If I ask them to do something slightly out of the ordinary, this becomes apparent. For example, none of them understand inductive coupling, or even know what it…

I find this with everything. You have to become an expert at everything if you want it done right. Maybe it's because the truly expert help is generally too expensive. Examples: - Taxes/Pensions - if you just rely on your accountant then they'll do the bare minimum and you'll miss out - Energy company - we're rolling out smart gas/elec meters in the UK. There is an old type (smets1) and a new type (smets2). You don't…

I agree with sentiment, and I discovered early on in my adult life :

Iedereen doet maar wat ( Dutch )

Loosely translated : Everybody just fucks around, wether it is car mechanics, doctors or laywers.

Would love to hear a more canonical term for the phenomenon.

edit: And if it is absolutely critical it is done right? Do it yourself.

Re: A generation of American men give up on college

#222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must have bad information because FAANG companies compete over hiring black software engineers. They want to get their numbers up and there aren’t many to hire.

How many FAANG companies are there? I guess five from the name. Does every black applicant with a CS degree get a job if they apply? It's a free pass? Your sample size of five elite companies can't be taken as a serious attempt to describe the actual experience of black CS grads applying for jobs.

The top 5 have recruited over a million people between 2000 and 2018. That's an average of about 50,000 new recruits per year. Not all of those are in engineering of course, and those are global numbers, but still they hire tens of thousands of engineers every year. Here in the UK local software companies constantly complain that the cream of every year's CS grads emigrate to the US.

Re: A generation of American men give up on college

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know anyone who believes this. Words mean what they're intended to mean and interpreted to mean, and that's how it's used in practice. Claiming otherwise is just a bald-faced "nuh-uh" when people who use the term are confronted with the double standard. If there wasn't at least a little bit of complicity in it being interpreted as a general diss on masculinity, the term would never have caught on, or a differ…

Yeah, but just man up and handle it. That's non-toxic.

Telling someone to "man up" is a telltale sign of toxic masculinity.

Re: A generation of American men give up on college

#224
post #129

COVID has accelerated this big time. Why spend $5,000 a semester to watch a Zoom lecture from an average professor when you can open YouTube in a new tab and see a world-class professor share the same information for free? It makes no rational sense. The moment that a serious, legitimate credential system appears, every average university will disappear overnight. We'll be left with an oligarch class that attends the…

> Why spend $5,000 a semester to watch a Zoom lecture from an average professor when you can open YouTube a new tab and see a world-class professor share the same information for free? It makes no rational sense. Because there is much more possible value in college than just the education. Socializing is a huge part of it. College is a good place to learn how to make friends, date, network, etc. It's also nearly free…

[deleted]

Re: A generation of American men give up on college

#225

I wonder if it could be because masculinity is being challenged on campus in the current era. Why would a male who has issues with women want to go to a place where he will be challenged to change his views in sensitivty and toxic masculinity courses? Conversely, why would a male who does not have issues with women go to a place where he will be labeled as having toxic masculinity? It's not like these issues haven't…

This just in, people who have to spend the vast majority of their time studying don't enjoy being around raging douchebags in the bit of free time they have not studying

More news at 11

Also, your insinuation that males without issues with women equates to "toxic masculinity" is hilariously indicative of your personality.

Go outside and touch grass and talk to people, yeesh

Re: A generation of American men give up on college

#227
post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one ever stopped women from pursuing career in high-frequency trading or anything else. No one ever stopped women from inventing Amazon or Microsoft from their garage. No one ever stopped women from choosing to graduated in science, maths, finance, rather than art, litterature, or "gender studies".

One might think the whole sexism and gender roles thing and would be discouraging woman from perusing certain fields.

This famous hoax has been debunked many times. For a start, the countries where women pursue IT and science the most, are the most patriarchists (Turkey, Iran, Algeria, Middle-east, etc...). The more relaxed are gender-roles, the more women choose to study arts and litterature, or "gender studies", the same who then complain that there are not enough women building trains.

Second, as many in the west have seen here, we were all pushed towards studying, pursuing masters, etc. This was the policy in most of the western countries (some may say this was silly but this is another debate). I have seen first hand our teachers (mostly female, by the ways) pushing us to apply to Science curriculums, and my fellow female students do everything they could to avoid it.

Re: A generation of American men give up on college

#228
post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Women didn't and don't need well paying jobs to start a family. What "equal right" do you mean, that "equaled opportunities in the labor market and education"? Also you seem to miss on the fact that men get worse grades in school (which some say is because of discrimination), which makes it harder for them to enter university.

Why is it that you default to the idea that women want to start a family? It's a big ass cool world we have going on, and starting a family effectively ties you down from being able to explore it. Good grief.

Pattern i observed: When a women settles with a partner and they are doing well financially, they start wanting to have kids. I blame instincts.

Re: A generation of American men give up on college

#229
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The term “toxic masculinity” does not and is not intended to imply that masculinity itself is toxic.

> The term “toxic masculinity” does not and is not intended to imply that masculinity itself is toxic. That's funny, really. I always only ever encounter it used by people who smear any and all masculinity as "toxic". Do you have a link to a place "toxic masculinity" is used to describe a minority subset of the male population?

> That's funny, really. I always only ever encounter it used by people who smear any and all masculinity as "toxic".

Sounds like you've managed to get yourself living in quite the bubble/echo chamber. Go explore the world dude.

Re: A generation of American men give up on college

#230
post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it that you default to the idea that women want to start a family? It's a big ass cool world we have going on, and starting a family effectively ties you down from being able to explore it. Good grief.

Pattern i observed: When a women settles with a partner and they are doing well financially, they start wanting to have kids. I blame instincts.

That's some great anecdata from you, I'm sure that it applies to the wants of all women everywhere, right?
Post reply on HN