Comment by ghiotion | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ghiotion | Hacker News Reader

It's an interesting idea and one that has merit. One of the smartest programmers I know didn't go to college. He spent his formative years building pipe organs and having 5 kids.

However, this makes the mistaken assumption that college's only role is to prepare you for a career. I majored in Philosophy at a Jesuit college in Chicago. Currently, I'm a software developer. College was about getting introduced to new ideas and read books I would have never sought out on my own. Really... who reads Augustine or Kierkegaard anymore? I learned how to live on my own in college; how I wanted to spend my time and my money, how to survive in my first apartment and make rent money. I also met a great bunch of friends I still keep in contact with.

Bottom line: college should never be treated like a trade school. It's not designed for job training. If you consider it so, it never makes economic sense. College, and liberal arts degrees in particular, teach you how to think.

If you pay me a mere $8k per year -- a big savings over college -- I'll be happy to let you come over a few times a week and be shamed into reading Kierkegaard and Augustine. I'll even buy the books for you, which is more than your college will do.

For an additional fee I'll let you live on your own, in your very own apartment, and give you the valuable life experience of earning your own rent money.

I can also direct you to places where you will meet lots of college students and programmers -- I live in Boston, so this is so easy that I'll throw it in for free.

I agree with everything you say, except the "it never makes economic sense" part. I'm currently unemployed and programming, thanks to savings from a job that I held for a few years after college that isn't accessible to those without a degree. I suppose there are other routes to independence at 25, too, but there are more young investment bankers in the world than self-made rich people.

On the other hand, I'm going back to grad school in the fall. It's not for the money, or even to meet co-founders. Rather, it's just something that I feel I have to do for me, to sate my curiosity. I'm young and life is long. As long as I can find a nice young lass that will stick with me and be poor for a few years, there's really no drawback to extending my education and waiting to get rich.

Also: networking.

One thing I disagree with you about college is teaching you how to think. At mine anyway, I'm assaulted every day with worthless crap that makes me want to shut off my ears. Mostly liberal crap like 'diversity,' 'cultural appreciation,' and 'the bees are being killed by cell phone waves.'

On the other hand, I do learn all kinds of wonderful things from fellow Computer Science students. It may be worth it.

If you don't feel challenged, then take harder clases then. I thought my first year was really easy, and started getting agressive in choosing harder classes. Major CS, Minor Math and Physics, and by the second semester of the third year school was kicking my balls. Plus I was busy doing TONS of extracurricular activities, meeting people, and of course having some fun and going to parties once and a while.

Overrall it was an exellent experience. If I was 18 again, I'd do it again in a heart-beat.

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