Oddbean new post about | logout
▲ ▼
gravitate3858 | 1 years ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 @2a70c54d Too true. I work with a dev just like that. He's not particularly interested in, or passionate about, the tech; just feels like he picked it off a list because it would pay well (not anything particularly wrong with that).
▲ ▼
7badcc05 | 1 years ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 @fb03856b @2a70c54d That choice becomes less wrong every year that tech workers do not have unions with meaningful bargaining power.  Treat workers as fungible and disposable; get only mercenaries.

Colleges charge too much to do it for personal development.  For that, libraries and Internet resources are amply sufficient, without costing anything beyond taxes and network access fees.
▲ ▼
Adam F. Lawton | 1 years ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 @e0c85d7a @fb03856b Nobody is faulting the students in this; it was never a "wrong" decision. Most people, understandably, are concerned with how they will eat from day to day. If the power structure in your society says "in order to eat you must pay for training," That's what most of us will do. I was just pointing out that that wasn't always the primary purpose of a college education.
▲ ▼
7badcc05 | 1 years ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 @2a70c54d @fb03856b It's not even really education, necessarily, but *certification of* education.

I worked at a place once where they required a college degree to go around the office campus refilling the break room supplies.  The arrogance on that management policy contributed (slightly) to me leaving earlier than I otherwise would have.