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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?

#91

Post by sdan »

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.

Re: Do I need to go to university?

#92

Post by farnerup »

From reading the title, I though this had something to do with golang being used in university classes. Is there a point to the custom of capitalizing most words in headings in English? It doesn't seem to improve legibility and you can normally tell it is a heading from the size and weight of the font.

Re: Do I need to go to university?

#93

Post by yiyus »

sanxiyn wrote: post #56
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…

> The anti-university sentiment on HN is absolutely alien to me. I will explain why. Hint: you are the part of the problem. > I've never seen anyone without a good education do it well. This is your lived experience, so I respect it. On the other hand, a lot of people on HN's lived experience is that, they witnessed, first hand, people without a good education do it well, so very well, extremely wonderfully well. Ple…

> I will explain why.

But you didn't.

I do not think that the fact that there are many people who can make a wonderful job without having gone to any university implies that there should be an anti-university sentiment. I think academic careers are necessary, not for everyone, but all that people working without any studies are building on the work done by lots of academics. That should be respected (by the way, I don't think it is not, but if it generally is not I think that it is a problem).

Re: Do I need to go to university?

#94

Post by toyg »

geomark wrote: post #79

Lots of anecdotes here. So I will add mine. I did a 2 year technical diploma program and went to work as an electronics technician. I was good, got promoted fast, started fixing a lot of mistakes the degreed engineers were making. I got pretty far without a degree but eventually hit a ceiling because credentialism was strong at the company. So I went back to college, a good private college, paid for by my employer. I…

You were also lucky to have an understanding employer who was happy to invest on your growth. A lot of people can't get approval to do a one-week, job-relevant, practical training course, let alone sponsor years of higher education.

Re: Do I need to go to university?

#95

Post by donw »

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…

My university education was... varied.

I have two bachelors' degrees, one in Mathematics, and one in Japanese. Those two programs were night-and-day in terms of rigor.

The mandatory "general education" classes were an absolute waste of time, and accounted for over a third of the cost of my college education.

It would have been more productive to spend that money on Pokemon cards.

The reality is, for a lot of people, university is massive waste of time and money. It largely was for me. We would be better off following the German model, with tracks outside University for professional workers and artisans.

Moreover, there are some excellent self-taught programmers out there, who work in the industry, and learn the mathematics and the physics and all the rest because they are passionate about the subject.

I'll take that kind of drive any day of the week.

Re: Do I need to go to university?

#96

Post by sanxiyn »

yiyus wrote: post #93
sanxiyn wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The anti-university sentiment on HN is absolutely alien to me. I will explain why. Hint: you are the part of the problem. > I've never seen anyone without a good education do it well. This is your lived experience, so I respect it. On the other hand, a lot of people on HN's lived experience is that, they witnessed, first hand, people without a good education do it well, so very well, extremely wonderfully well. Ple…

> I will explain why. But you didn't. I do not think that the fact that there are many people who can make a wonderful job without having gone to any university implies that there should be an anti-university sentiment. I think academic careers are necessary, not for everyone, but all that people working without any studies are building on the work done by lots of academics. That should be respected (by the way, I do…

People say things like "I've never seen anyone without a good education do it well", which can only mean they live in such a bubble that they didn't get to meet any. That's certainly possible, but "I live in a bubble!" is nothing to be proud of. Such proud but ignorant proclamation is the reason why there is anti-university sentiment.

Re: Do I need to go to university?

#97

Post by paulcarroty »

christophilus wrote: post #87
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…

It all depends on your goals. Is it to earn a decent living? I know millionaires who never went to university. They started a practical, blue collar business, and enjoyed that path. Is it to experience a broader culture? You could do the 100 Rabbits approach for a lot less money, and get something more interesting out of it. Is it to learn from one of the best minds in a particular field? University is probably the b…

I'd say money isn't very relevant here. Uni can give you better start, but all depends on you.

You wanna go to university to be a coder/designer? Don't do it.

You wanna be a researcher/scientist/politic/etc? Yeah, go.

P.S. I obtained a degree.

Re: Do I need to go to university?

#98

Post by paulcarroty »

donw wrote: post #95
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…

My university education was... varied. I have two bachelors' degrees, one in Mathematics, and one in Japanese. Those two programs were night-and-day in terms of rigor. The mandatory "general education" classes were an absolute waste of time, and accounted for over a third of the cost of my college education. It would have been more productive to spend that money on Pokemon cards. The reality is, for a lot of people,…

> for a lot of people, university is massive waste of time and money.

same story.

Re: Do I need to go to university?

#99

Post by toyg »

fsloth wrote: post #33
tempodox wrote: post #3

Yes, you do.

At least to see what's on offer. It's ok to drop out if you have proof that you are actually smarter than most of your classmates and you are really friggin sure what you are doing .

> if you have proof that you are actually smarter than most of your classmates

That's easy in the first year or so. It's harder to get proof that you're as smart as your professors. If you are Robin Williams and a Juilliard professor tells you that he has nothing to teach him, by all means fuck off and do your thing. Otherwise, chances are that you should stay in school.

Re: Do I need to go to university?

#100

Post by wartijn_ »

xondono wrote: post #67
WalterBright wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience is the same. I often hear people say that a university education teaches nothing useful, that it's just learning to take tests, that the course material is irrelevant, that it's just for networking and signalling, etc. I suspect they both a) selected the wrong major and b) went to the wrong university.

And I suspect that both of you got technical degrees and work in technical fields. You are almost by definition an edge case.

Are technical fields really an edge case?

I suspect going to a university is helpful in most STEM related fields. In anything medical or law related you don't even have to think about getting a job without a degree. I don't see how anyone can compensate an economical or business study by doing project on their own.

If anything I think IT is an outlier, because not going to university and learning the subjects you would have been taught on your own might be a valid option.

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