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Comment by sonabinu | Hacker News Reader

I don't know if it is intelligence alone - I would call it 'grit' as well. If you are willing to slog through a tough class and use good learning strategies, you don't have to be super intelligent to enter into a career in engineering. Are we setting a bar that is high, where college is expected to be a lot of hard work? If we do, we will see those in all careers that require a college degree brining in something new to the work place. Maybe it is my midday coffee speaking but we need to stop diluting college courses

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Is it true that they've made raw aptitude less of a factor in SAT scores? If so then there's a systemic problem with our training and credentialing process.

Or we need to realize not everyone can be a doctor or engineer. The world needs ditch diggers still. Ditch diggers don't really need college.

Ditch diggers is a go-to insult, but skilled tradespeople are still incredibly valuable. As an apprentice a plumber makes next to nothing, but once you get your time in you can make a ton of money if you have basic business/time management skills.

Everybody poops.

The same goes for carpenters, masonry, etc. The physical work will wear you down — but by the time that becomes a problem you should be skilled enough to be a manager.

I'm making decent money now, but it's crazy how much trade work was frowned upon when I graduated high school. In retrospect I think I'd be totally happy with being a contractor managing a small business.

The apprenticeship and guild systems that states use to regulate them are awful though. Time in is not a great measure of skill and that seems to be a central feature of these systems.

Definitely agree. Time is important to some extent because knowledge is different from practice, but the requirements are generally outrageous.

I've also hired tradespeople who did put in the time and were worse than doing the job myself after watching youtube videos for a few hours, so at that point what's it even accomplishing.

The average graduate is now representative of the average member of the population because so many people are entering and completing universities.

It doesn't necessarily mean that it takes any more or less effort or intelligence to finish a university degree.

It also doesn't mean that average intelligence is dropping.

It just indicates a stereotypical reversion to mean.

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