

College or UnCollege? - sbashyal
http://hacksandthoughts.posterous.com/college-or-uncollege

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kls
_I find it particularly amusing that two of the most vocal advocates of
dropping out of college are Peter Thiel and Mike Arrington—both of whom
completed Stanford Law degrees. College dropouts Bill Gates and Mark
Zuckerberg are strong proponents of finishing your degrees. Even Steve Jobs
talks about the importance of liberal arts education._

The funny part is, I would be more apt to take the advice of those that did
finish. They attained a degree and experienced first hand the lack of
advantage. By completing their degree they are the only ones in the position
to fully evaluate whether it was worth it or not.

As someone who left school and then went back later in life because I fell
prey to the "I need a degree mentality", I can certainly say that only after I
finished school, that I am in a position to evaluate fully whether it was
worth it or not. Only after I finished my degree, was I able to state
unequivocally, that attaining the degree did nothing to further my career.

I achieved the status of CTO 3 times before ever completing it. After that, I
became my own worst enemy and started to convince myself that I needed to
return and seek the completion of a degree. So at the point before the degree,
I most certainly would have been in the you need to finish camp. Only after
completing and the removal of that insecurity, was I able to see that it had
no effect and offered no advantage to where I was before.

Now I am not saying that individuals like Bill Gates are insecure about their
lack of degree. but I do question whether they can truly make an evaluation
the pro's and con's given that they have not completed the experience required
to make a full evaluation.

~~~
sbashyal
I exactly understand your point. It is for that reason that I mention that I
graduated from college. I have a degree but it did not take me to where I
wanted to be. I remain a critic of the education system and I see that
UnCollege addresses some valid issues about traditional colleges.

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brackin
My main issue with this "Get my Piece of Paper" mentally is it seems that
College is more about vanity than education. Which in my opinion it is. People
go to College to have a degree not learn.

I understand that if you don't go to College in most industries then you won't
get a job. But i'm not so convinced that if you want to start a tech startup
or work for one that College is the most important thing. Most startup jobs
pages are open to College degrees or experience/portfolio. Which UnCollege is
vastly about, building experience and learning. I think those which are savvy
are able to get opportunities to build experience, even early on when building
experience. Such as internships, freelance work, etc.

I don't believe College is in any shape a bad choice, but for many it slows
their progress (or wastes time) rather than accelerating them on their path.
But I see the appeal, it'd be very easy for me to get through those years of
College and apply for a job at one of the big names.

But i'm happy to face the possible risks. This issue is something i'm
contemplating at the moment, as i've experienced education wasting my time and
it's not a very enjoyable situation. I know i've still got a lot to learn but
would rather do so on my own time.

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Hyena
College was awesome.

Every time I read a critique of college education, my thought is this: you
paid too much to do too little because you were focused on "getting a piece of
paper". A better strategy is to use that time trying to know everything and
probably not going to the most selective--and thus generally most expensive--
school you can find.

~~~
sbashyal
I checked you HN profile and found your about section interesting:

 _I am unemployed and possibly unemployable._

~~~
Hyena
It's snark from the earlier debates about structural unemployment.

If I'm unemployable, it's because I really don't have the patience to work for
most employers at this point. They can DIAF for what it's worth.

