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Are Stanford Students Just (Really Excellent) Sheep?

stanford.edu

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Re: Are Stanford Students Just (Really Excellent) Sheep?

#31

Post by sliverstorm »

blake8086 wrote: post #24
maeon3 wrote: post #7

95% of people are sheep, just look around you. Clothing fashions all change with eachother according to what the others are doing. Church: just tell me What to believe. Bars, drinking toxic liquids and smoking radioactive smoke because it's cool. Resumes which plead for others to make us worthy members of society. It takes a special kind of defiance to say no thank you to What the world expects you to be.

I am always amused at this mentality. Have you ever noticed how Reddit is full of people who all think everyone else are sheep? Everyone is unique if you only count the things that make them different, and people are pretty similar if you look for things that make them alike.

Absolutely. You are always a sheep in some regard; non-conforming in every regard is an exhausting and worthless endeavor. Not to mention, you almost have to pay more attention to trends than the unconscious conformer, at which point... who is the slave to trends?

Re: Are Stanford Students Just (Really Excellent) Sheep?

#32

Post by joedev »

maeon3 wrote: post #7

95% of people are sheep, just look around you. Clothing fashions all change with eachother according to what the others are doing. Church: just tell me What to believe. Bars, drinking toxic liquids and smoking radioactive smoke because it's cool. Resumes which plead for others to make us worthy members of society. It takes a special kind of defiance to say no thank you to What the world expects you to be.

95% of non-conformists are sheep. Just look around you. All dressed the same, all act the same, all with the same too-cool-to-be-conforming attitude.

It would really take a special kind of defiance to say "no thank you" to what the non-conformists clique expects their own to be.

Re: Are Stanford Students Just (Really Excellent) Sheep?

#33

Post by jpdoctor »

debacle wrote: post #5
IsaacL wrote: post #4

As a member of generation Y, I think the original "Organisation Kid" article really got what is wrong with my generation. We're not lazy, entitled, or afraid of competition, despite hundreds of articles by gen X/boomers claiming the opposite. We compete and work hard but never ask what it's all for .

When you start to ask "What is it all for?" you stop competing and working hard, because you realize it's an old man's game. It's 2012. You can get HD pornography on a phone. Are we still expected to worry about all of this menial shit from the 60s?

> When you start to ask "What is it all for?" you stop competing and working hard, because you realize it's an old man's game.

That's one possible result. There are others.

Re: Are Stanford Students Just (Really Excellent) Sheep?

#34

Post by joedev »

"We are slouching toward a glorified form of vocational training."

What's wrong with vocational training? Maybe the issue is that the market is demanding vocational skills yet schools are trying to find, or trying to artificially create, a market for liberal-arts skills.

Re: Are Stanford Students Just (Really Excellent) Sheep?

#35

Post by spindritf »

sliverstorm wrote: post #31
blake8086 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am always amused at this mentality. Have you ever noticed how Reddit is full of people who all think everyone else are sheep? Everyone is unique if you only count the things that make them different, and people are pretty similar if you look for things that make them alike.

Absolutely. You are always a sheep in some regard; non-conforming in every regard is an exhausting and worthless endeavor. Not to mention, you almost have to pay more attention to trends than the unconscious conformer, at which point... who is the slave to trends?

Nonconforming is not the same as anticonforming. And the fact that you observe and analyse trends doesn't mean you're a slave to them.

Re: Are Stanford Students Just (Really Excellent) Sheep?

#36

Post by calinet6 »

sliverstorm wrote: post #31
blake8086 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am always amused at this mentality. Have you ever noticed how Reddit is full of people who all think everyone else are sheep? Everyone is unique if you only count the things that make them different, and people are pretty similar if you look for things that make them alike.

Absolutely. You are always a sheep in some regard; non-conforming in every regard is an exhausting and worthless endeavor. Not to mention, you almost have to pay more attention to trends than the unconscious conformer, at which point... who is the slave to trends?

Prescription: 2 doses of zen, stop thinking so much about it, just be and do.

Re: Are Stanford Students Just (Really Excellent) Sheep?

#37

Post by sliverstorm »

spindritf wrote: post #35
sliverstorm wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. You are always a sheep in some regard; non-conforming in every regard is an exhausting and worthless endeavor. Not to mention, you almost have to pay more attention to trends than the unconscious conformer, at which point... who is the slave to trends?

Nonconforming is not the same as anticonforming. And the fact that you observe and analyse trends doesn't mean you're a slave to them.

the fact that you observe and analyse trends, doesn't mean you're a slave to them

Even if you are making the opposite choice, if your every decision is predicated on the trends, I'd still call you a slave to them.

Re: Are Stanford Students Just (Really Excellent) Sheep?

#38

Post by karpathy »

It's a fair point. Doing well in my undergrad classes felt like a game, and I've developed many rules of playing the game to score many points. I think it's fair to say that good grades are some kind of a measure of combination of ambition, perseverance and determination to be the sheep you're asked to be.

The most interesting people I think are those who excel at that game because they realize that it's just the way society functions, but on a side maintain a soul-- interesting extracurricular interests, projects, etc. They use their knowledge not only to pass tests, but attempt to expand on it and apply it in their own creative ways.

That's why I think the article's title is not very appropriate. I'd call it "Is Stanford training just (really excellent) sheep?". There are some good arguments to be made for an affirmative answer, and yet that's not who I see when I look around me.

Re: Are Stanford Students Just (Really Excellent) Sheep?

#39

Post by 234547556 »

socksy wrote: post #27
Spearchucker wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a school of thought in the UK that feels institutions like this reject applications from applicants who's family don't have deep pockets. Similarly, there's the perception that Eton is capable of producing well-educated idiots. Understand me here - this isn't my view. Just saying it's a view that's out there.

I'm not sure Eton is really applicable here, since the income of your parents matters a whole lot more than the application process (and Eton suffer for it in the league tables) — and whilst you may argue that Ivy League schools do just that, I doubt it's quite to the same extent.

Bear in mind that the ivy leagues get to grade their own students whereas the etonians sit national exams...

Re: Are Stanford Students Just (Really Excellent) Sheep?

#40

Post by RedwoodCity »

maeon3 wrote: post #7

95% of people are sheep, just look around you. Clothing fashions all change with eachother according to what the others are doing. Church: just tell me What to believe. Bars, drinking toxic liquids and smoking radioactive smoke because it's cool. Resumes which plead for others to make us worthy members of society. It takes a special kind of defiance to say no thank you to What the world expects you to be.

Everyone forms groups with shared behaviors and values whether they realize it or not. This is neither good or bad, but it does serve to define each and everyone of us whether we accept it or not.

Most animals are driven by a desire to eat, sleep and reproduce including humans. There are exceptions like worker bees and ants that can't reproduce, there is no analog in humans.

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