
The New 95 (2017) - jeffreyrogers
https://www.1517fund.com/post/the-new-95
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cs702
The authors make many valid points, but nonetheless, for me, this essay comes
across as... _ideological_. Consider: The essay offers only criticism, making
zero practical suggestions. The focus is exclusive on the Humanities; there is
zero mention of Math and the Hard Sciences -- you know, fields in which
persevering on homework exercises and interacting with others who are much
more knowledgeable is actually necessary or useful for true learning. The
examples in the essay are cherry-picked; there are numerous people who have
benefited from attending college in the US; the essay mentions zero. I'd give
the essay a C+, maybe a B-.

~~~
ARandomerDude
I think it's intended to be ideological. Recall that Luther was a theologian
who initiated what became the Protestant Reformation.

Ideology isn't inherently bad. We all have one, and it guides our behavior.

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floren
I think they could have said something more profound if they hadn't been so
obsessed with hitting 95. Martin Luther's 95 theses were organized, clear, and
consistent. This, on the other hand, is disjointed, rambling, at times obtuse,
and overall not nearly as complimentary to their institution as they had
perhaps imagined.

~~~
ska
There is truth in this, like many "top ten lists" that have 7 solid entries,
or "101 reasons to..." which run out of steam after 30.

It's a shame really to invite, even demand, comparison with Luther's text by
this formula - and then fall so short of it.

Perhaps a bad stylistic choice?

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Animats
A good analysis of how to reduce college administrative costs to 1980s levels
would be helpful. I occasionally point out that Stanford has a Redwood City
"campus" for lesser administrative functions. It has more administrators than
Stanford has professors.

(On the other hand, having been through Stanford CS for a Masters back in the
1980s, back then they really did need more administration. CS used to be in
Arts and Sciences, run by a rotating chairmanship, and just wasn't well
organized. It was a bunch of professors each doing their own thing, without
much of an overall plan. When CS opened an undergrad program, the department
was transferred to Engineering, which had deans and associate deans to put
together a curriculum and schedule.)

~~~
floren
I'd really like to see a thorough analysis of college budgets. Pick a few
schools and look at what they were spending on in every decade since the 1950s
(which I'd argue was the beginning of the modern college paradigm, thanks to
the GI Bill?). If there's a good, _sourced_ analysis along these lines
somewhere, I'd appreciate a link!

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CawCawCaw
Not sure if it matches what you seek directly, but Graeber in "Bullshit Jobs"
did have a section doing this sort of analysis.

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zitterbewegung
So what have they done in 3 years?

Not to be dismissive I tried looking through their portfolio.

[https://www.1517fund.com/portfolio](https://www.1517fund.com/portfolio)

~~~
dmitrybrant
I'm sure they're doing good work, but the names of those companies look like
randomly generated parodies.

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bJGVygG7MQVF8c
> Jay Z, Kanye, Drake.

Is that supposed to be substantive?

~~~
jasonmp85
It's not even _correct_. It follows a list of people who had "no college", yet
Kanye went to an Art Institute for painting before transferring to an English
degree in a state school and ultimately dropping out at the age of _twenty_.
I'd hardly call that "no college".

~~~
perl4ever
But it's not a list of college dropouts either...

And listing Jane Austen is odd - how would she have been able to, and why
would one assume she wouldn't have benefitted? Why not list other people who
weren't white males and didn't go to college in the 1700s? I mean, it
obviously wouldn't feel right in support of the thesis, but why did _these_
lists seem to make sense to the author?

Edit: I was thinking maybe this is some sort of parody or satire or gotcha,
and then I decided to check out the main page and I read:

"We helped launch and run the Thiel Fellowship, working alongside Peter Thiel
to identify and work with young founders building new technology"

Which instantly repositioned the theses as validation in my mind of the
general dislike of him that some people have. He may not be directly
responsible, but I can't help feeling that if this is the sort of people who
like him...

~~~
notahacker
The irony is that few highly successful companies have been as closely linked
with universities as Thiel's Paypal and its many senior recruits from his alma
mater or his big investment in the Harvard Facebook. Outside that particular
bubble, it wouldn't occur to anyone that investing in the person who doesn't
have the Ivy League degree is Reformation-level radicalism. I looked at the
bio of one of the GPs and chuckled as I spotted 'lectured at Stanford' and
'started Oxford PhD' alongside working with Thiel in the career highlights.

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desc
88\. If the signaling value of a college degree is its most valuable part,
then we are creating a society that values the appearance of success more than
actual success.

Someone might be a bit confused about where the causality arrow is pointing.

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ARandomerDude
Can you elaborate?

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desc
I meant that 'creating' is rather the wrong tense, and that this is probably a
symptom that it's pretty well entrenched by now.

~~~
ARandomerDude
Ah, got it, thank you.

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dwheeler
So what is the proposed alternative? It's fine to complain about a system, but
it's not helpful unless you have a workable alternative instead.

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l0b0
95% less slogans and soundbites might've made this an interesting read.

