How college became a ruthless competition divorced from learning
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Re: How college became a ruthless competition divorced from learning
#2This has become so culturally ingrained that people will casually shame a person for studying an Arts or Humanities degree. "Have fun working at McDonalds you idiot!"
An economy is not a society.
Re: How college became a ruthless competition divorced from learning
#3Fascinating. I've been reading a bit of legal history about the U.S. and it's honestly a bit disturbing how long it's been like this at the top courts and political positions. It feels like there must be something distoetionary going on to ensure so many people from elite colleges end up with power.
Still it seems like there would be some incentive for a top performer to target colleges in the 2nd rung. That being, you could basically write your own ticket. Want to work on some interesting part of the law or join some specific project? At an elite school you will be fighting to get that. At one level down you can probably walk into whatever you want.
Re: How college became a ruthless competition divorced from learning
#4Something that keeps me up at night is my fear that I only studied computer science and became a programmer because of economic and status reasons. I do feel incredibly lucky to have the job and freedom I do, but it drains me. And now I feel it's such a specialized education and I didn't explore enough to know anything else, and so I have no idea if I would have liked something completely different.
Re: How college became a ruthless competition divorced from learning
#5This has become so culturally ingrained that people will casually shame a person for studying an Arts or Humanities degree. "Have fun working at McDonalds you idiot!" An economy is not a society.
I am very troubled by this. Because humanities degree holders are the true carriers of our cultures. Local history, news and art you won't find on the internet. You can't read about my town's coal history on wikipedia. A local historian does that. These people are the ones that work with the primary sources, sifitng them and passing on the highlights. As we squeeze these people down we lose our own selves. We need a generous public commitment to these things because they will probably never pay for themselves.
Re: How college became a ruthless competition divorced from learning
#6A lot of invention and innovation in the past few decades is focused around doing more with less - e.g IKEA furniture made out of wood shavings vs. real wood years ago, apartments made more efficient and compact vs. big houses years ago, more biking and public transit vs. enough roads to fit everyone years ago.
My theory is that on a macro level, the world keeps getting more competitive because we keep on churning out babies and expect their living standards to be just as good as they always were. I am not blaming anyone for that, but obviously supporting 7.6bn people (2019) at a given living standard is much harder than supporting 6.1bn people (2000) and there's no sign of stopping. As the western population ages and the period of retirement becomes longer, this becomes even harder because they need more support than someone of working age. Humanity as a whole keeps pulling miracles out of hats to make us even more efficient in the resources we consume but of course it is going to get harder and harder to do so.
Re: How college became a ruthless competition divorced from learning
#7Something that keeps me up at night is my fear that I only studied computer science and became a programmer because of economic and status reasons. I do feel incredibly lucky to have the job and freedom I do, but it drains me. And now I feel it's such a specialized education and I didn't explore enough to know anything else, and so I have no idea if I would have liked something completely different.
Since this feels like it's responding to the common wisdom
/advice to "follow your passions" (and the fear that comes from missing out on this), I recommend reading Cal Newport's "So Good They Can't Ignore You" for an alternative mindset which may provide an antidote to that class of worry.
(Also, consider that the freedom you gained from what is a pretty good career choice might afford you the free time to discover other things which bring you joy.)
Re: How college became a ruthless competition divorced from learning
#8> the schools that focus their training on the quest for competitive advantage betray every plausible ideal of academic excellence.
The author does not seem to understand that these are not mutually exclusive. You can receive a fantastic, genuinely excellent education that is also a competitive advantage. Indeed, they go hand in hand - I’d argue it’s harder to give an excellent education that’s somehow not advantageous.
This article is a rant against elite education because it enables elite opportunities. But perhaps there is something to be said for the students of such schools too, that employers are more likely to give them elite opportunities.
There are too many confounding variables to determine the true cause of this “problem”, if it (a merit-based system enabling social mobility) is problematic at all. There are things we can improve, but overall, the emphasis on education is a step in the right direction for humanity.
Re: How college became a ruthless competition divorced from learning
#9A lot of invention and innovation in the past few decades is focused around doing more with less - e.g IKEA furniture made out of wood shavings vs. real wood years ago, apartments made more efficient and compact vs. big houses years ago, more biking and public transit vs. enough roads to fit everyone years ago. My theory is that on a macro level, the world keeps getting more competitive because we keep on churning ou…
> and there's no sign of stopping
Actually, there's every sign of stopping. Look at population growth rates from the 1970s to now: in general, the wealthier you make a population, the less kids they have.
Re: How college became a ruthless competition divorced from learning
#10Something that keeps me up at night is my fear that I only studied computer science and became a programmer because of economic and status reasons. I do feel incredibly lucky to have the job and freedom I do, but it drains me. And now I feel it's such a specialized education and I didn't explore enough to know anything else, and so I have no idea if I would have liked something completely different.
You may not be in school any more, but you can still study whatever you want. I went the other direction: studied humanities in school, taught myself programming once I was working as a professional because I found it intriguing, and now I do this for a living. You have a whole lifetime. If you want to learn something, you can do it. Even Einstein got started in his spare time.