Quote:
Originally Posted by Mantus
The other is a simple fact that it takes experience to figure out who you are in life. Even if you waste your first year or two in college academically that is still better than working at Pizza Shack and playing World of Warcraft while waiting for the answers to come. You save thousands of dollars but lose out on years of life. I present an extreme example but also believe that the majority of people lack personal drive and resources to give themselves an equivalent experience in comparison to college.
I believe that for 95% of the population it's better to give college a try than wait around doing nothing.
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I find it interesting that you assume college to be the only or even best way for young people to figure themselves out.
In my youth, I worked the crappy jobs. I worked jobs for minimum wage. From that I learned that nobody gets ahead working jobs for minimum wage. I worked blue collar jobs in construction and shipping. I learned that blue collar jobs pay fairly well, but they're frequently back-breaking, soul-crushing affairs. I started my own business. I learned that running my own business isn't for me, at least not in the field I chose. After all of that, I ended up in a job that I love making good money and with good career prospects.
Am I typical? I don't know. I don't generally think of myself as something special. A combination of my circumstances and my own unique character prevented me from following the same high school->college->career path that my peers followed. I didn't set out to learn anything or be anything or try anything -- I just decided that college wasn't in the cards for me and so I had to figure out an alternative.
Ten years after the fact, the biggest difference between most of my high school peers and I lies in debt -- they have it, I don't.
I'm not vehemently anti-college in the way that Mr. Altucher seems to be. I think there are some people who go and don't need to, or go for the wrong reason. I think the educational institution in it's current format has a habit of monetizing uncertainty. Don't know what you want to do with your life? Go to college, you'll figure it out there! After $40 000 of debt that can never be discharged short of paying it back, of course. Went to college, got a degree and now you hate your job? Just go again! After another $40k of debt, you'll be much happier.
But on the flip side, there are lots of jobs that require a lot of educating. I would never propose that lawyers or architects learn on the job -- I really want the folks who are charged with keeping me out of jail or making sure the buildings I live and work in stay standing know what they're doing. If you've known since you were 12 that you're going to be a surgeon, if that's truly all you've ever wanted and you have no doubts or questions, by all means go to college straight out of high school.
I just wonder, idly, in my fashion, if the rest of our youth could spend those 18-24 years more productively than getting drunk and trying to nail sorority chicks. Or if they're going to do that anyway, if they could do it without having to pay thousands of dollars for the privilege. Are we really convinced that this is the best possible way to teach young people about the world? Isn't it a possibility that an equally good way to learn is to actually be out in it?