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Comment by mechanical_fish | Hacker News Reader

we should develop and promote a more deliberate practice of discovering passions worth pursuing and problems worth solving in a less haphazard way

Sounds like someone who is tiptoeing right up to the edge of recommending a liberal arts education and then shying away. ;)

I understand the reluctance. If I were back in the time of my own college days, I'd encourage people to go to college and study miscellaneous stuff – and hang around with miscellaneous other people – as a way of broadening their minds. These days, with tuition having grown at huge annual rates for years, and the cost of a four-year degree exceeding the cost of an entire house, it's getting harder and harder for me to do so with a straight face.

I guess one cheap alternative is for us to keep trying to start interesting, miscellaneous conversations on sites like this one.

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"Sounds like someone who is tiptoeing right up to the edge of recommending a liberal arts education and then shying away. ;)"

Emphasis on a liberal arts education, as opposed to a humanities education. A true liberal arts education is about broad exposure but many people interpret the term to mean a simple avoidance of math and hard sciences, which is a huge shame.

Oh, absolutely.

I'm not sure I'm actually prepared to endorse school myself as the solution to the passion "problem". (I was being literal when I said that I expected the article to do so; however, I'm not convinced that I agree with the article ;). But if I were to do so I'm counting the hard sciences as part of any well-rounded education.

I did indeed receive a liberal arts education, and I'm confident it helped broaden my mind. But I'm not sure it's required or sufficient to find one's passion.

Many people graduate with liberals arts degrees and find themselves utterly directionless, perhaps because they've spent so much time avoiding specialization. It's truly important to get exposed to a range of disciplines but it's just as important to sort through which of those resonate with you and which don't. Many people don't go through the latter process very effectively and they end up with indecisiveness.

I'm honestly not sure what the "answer" is here to helping people find their passions; I think it's worthy of an ongoing discussion. But I will say, I doubt hanging out on HN will help to inspire your passion unless it's creating something for technical people.

Alternatively, go to school abroad (specifically, Europe.) Tuition is often less than $3,000 USD annually, and you're in a completely different environment, which (hopefully) will expand your mind more than Podunk U.

There are times where it seems like my travel abroad exceeds the value of my college education.

Combining the two would provide some life-altering value, I'm sure.

Honestly people who live by these Startup School speeches or Entrepreneurship articles written by techcrunch will never get any far. You might as well call it quits.

Reading these kinds of things is like watching porn, you keep watching it and feel good for a while, but before you know it you'll forget everything you just watched. If it makes you feel any better Mark Zuckerberg didnt waste his valuable startup time reading about other startups or Entrepreneurs, he learned it through practice just like how one would understand a math concept.

People probably won't agree with what I've said above and thats ok people have their own opinions, but the fact is, the people who do agree with the above statement are in a position to sculpt tomorrow.

I mean look at the whole YC program, theres only one successful company that deserves any credit and that has legitly taken off. All the YC People listen to these "saints" and think they're changing the world by telling all their friends they're coding all day and working 100 hrs a week. I mean all these people do is use macs, play with ruby, listen to music and stay up late all night pretending they're changing the world.

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