Academia in a nutshell
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Twitter has completely destroyed the mystique academics had back when I was in university. We used to check ratemyprof or whatever the site was called, but then you had to decide whether or not to believe the person calling the instructor crazy.
Now you just check the instructor's twitter, and they themselves will tell you they're crazy.
You still learn the only lesson that ever matters, and has ever mattered.
Nepotism and networking are the most useful thing in the world and will be the biggest deciding factor in your future.
It's true: after my first job I made connections with people who then knew I wasn't a total fuck-up. Later on I had to start from zero when I decided to go into a different industry but learned my lesson when I started working in that first industry again.
But I haven't had to deal with HR bullshit for more than a decade. I just get waved on past, and buddies of mine tell HR "hire this guy and pay him whatever he asks, and don't do any of your normal bullshit". No drug tests, no evidence of vaccination, hell I've never taken a personality or coding test.
When I tell people "don't look to fire the reddit mod for being a reddit mod", this is what I mean. Don't worry so much about refusing to deal with people you hate. Worry more about being in a position where you can wave your buddies through the front door. And if you piss the bouncer off in the process of doing so, all the more power to you.
Sadly, it's the way the world works. Once you get past a certain point in an organization, that position was filled because that person knew the right people, and only that.
And if you're lucky, they're atleast slightly competent. But it's one hell of a coin flip.
You're not wrong, though.
"Well sure, it sucks having to flatter the king to get a royal ascent to do business - but that's just how it is!"
You are getting an education.
You are being taught directly that "who you know" is more important than literally everything else you could ever know combined.
That's the way the world works, and has always worked. We can hate it all we want, but its not going to change. And trying to teach kids to focus on their "studies" over their networking is how you have millions of degrees and no jobs.
If you're in STEM, you'll still learn your calculus and stuff, though the standards may have dropped to make it easier. Everything else is infested and corrupted.
So, no.
I actually thought about this the other day when a bartender was trying to make change for me. They got confused when I gave them $60 for a $39 tab so I'd have cash for tip, and I was explaining "my bill was a bit under $40 and I gave you $60, so you should be giving me a bit over $20 back". And it occurred to me that it's the sort of estimation you learn when you don't have a calculator on you at all times.
I never had to work with a slide rule, but I learned from engineers who did. But I didn't have a calculator on me at all times, so I still had to learn estimation from people who were masters at it even though I myself didn't need to be. But I don't have the same level of mastery of the skill as those who taught me because I don't need it as much. The generation who learn it from me won't need it at all. Yet even though they don't need it, something is lost by them not learning it, the same as something was lost by my generation learning it but not mastering it.
I'll guess we'll find out if this all matters if planes start falling out of the sky more often then it seems they ought, because no one looked at a result from the computer and thought "hey that doesn't feel right".
the thing reference as being lost is called mathematical intuition and regular estimation is the single most important foundation of the skill. Having Mathematical Intuition is far far more important than any single other thing because it is the reference point that will inform you that a calculation is incorrect, that a statistic is bullshit, that somebody is trying to fleece you etc.
It really is, and I can't tell you how many times I've had to explain it to seasoned engineers. They show me something and I just say "you do your unit math on that, because it doesn't make sense if you did" and get blank stares back.
So many problems -- even those given to experienced engineers -- are solvable by simply remembering basic math everyone was taught (I was going to say "everyone learned" but obviously that's a false statement) in high school.
Anyone who can't subtract 39 from 60 in an instant probably shouldn't be tending bar.
Very university dependent. In top 10 schools, you learn, it’s hyper competitive, and the professors are great. If you’re in a fake subject, that won’t apply, but you’ll still learn about as much as there is to know. Most of those schools are now filled with internationals that smile and nod to SJW stuff but mostly ignore it.
Aren't the top schools the most woke these days?
They try to present themselves that way to get their ranking up, but most undergrads there actually are international or first generation STEM type folks though that don’t actually care or dislike it but don’t say much about it. Gen Z also seems to have more conservatives.
I cannot imagine why critical studies courses aren't being removed because of under-enrollment, unless colleges are including them as part of degree requirements.
I'd bet that the infestation of critical social justice concepts into the humanities--and now even the sciences--is a way to ensure against the removal of SocJus courses. It's being shoehorned in everywhere.
At least in my area I don’t think they’re under enrolled. STEM folks would obviously want to avoid them in most cases, but they do make for an easy A requirement if you just repeat the dogma and need a breadth requirement, and as majors they work well to get the diversity admits and people giving up on harder classes. They are religious in nature, so for them it’s like they get to not take hard classes and get to be closer to God, only in a perverse way. If it were all true or useful it would be compelling to learn in the same way a devout Christian might major in theology.
If that thing has a PhD the title really means nothing anymore.
It hasn't for a long time. PhD mills have been a thing since before most of us were born. It's different in STEM, but the rot is slowly creeping in there as well.
I have a graduate degree in STEM. It's not different in STEM.
Depends on where you go I suppose. I'm pursuing one, and the DIE shit is only starting. I'm hoping to be out before it gets really bad.
STEM has less die stuff, but degrees in STEM are basically worthless. They're just make-work projects to justify credentialism.
Anyone who makes sure you know they're a PhD have nothing else to offer. My grandfather said that off hand one day.
Posting from a handshake for this
I'm in academe and the fact I'm in means it's all bogus. The groypers taking time from their warehouse jobs to write in-depth, cited, substacks about Schmitt or Ellul are the ones that need to be in these ivory towers, not the "academics" we have today. Me included.
Waric du sprack
Please tell me this is satire!!!!
If it isn’t then I would tell students they are better off just going to a library and reading books on math, science, history, etc
Idk, libraries are just as likely to have “inclusive math” and science books
True
The sad thing is that many people can't really learn by themselves. The classroom style evolved because it works for most. You have a teacher in front in a clear hierarchy that helps with listening and peers beside you to meet some primal social baseline. You put people in a library to become self-taught and most will just doodle and make origami.
That’s true. I can now but I wouldn’t have then. My mom made us read books and do math assignments during the summer and it took me forever because I was so focused on other things
Parents who encourage their children to read as early as possible also indirectly encourage them to be autodidacts. We learn to like reading early on and enjoy spending lots of time alone doing it. Libraries become second homes and university libraries hearken back to the days when learning was restricted to monasteries and libraries were like cathedrals.
90% of my time spent pursuing an MA in English was in libraries.
I'm ready for the jokes about choosing English literature as a college major. I took my degree in '93, when the total capitulation of universities to critical social justice was not a fait accompli and I was assigned Friere in one course but was able to ignore it without consequence.
Not everything is nurture. Natural extroverts aren't going to develop like that.
Sure. By "we" I mean autodidacts. I taught myself how to read before going to Headstart. My mother just gave me access to books. I was also pretty extroverted as a kid--I was class clown in 2nd grade--until the public school system nearly bored the humor out of me. Luckily, I discovered LSD as a high school Freshman.
So the NCC means she’s a certified mental health counselor - LPC and CPCS means she’s a “certifier” - EG She’s one who gatekeeps.
Not good. There are two types of psychs. The first just likes to mess with the mind and see how it works. The other one was trying to fix their own problem and then became a counselor. The second is almost always crazy.
The stereotype has a lot of truth to it
She forgot to add Certified Troll.
Phenomenology is the most important word to know you should never read this paper.
they're called employers
What happens when the employers are also like that?
https://insidethemagic.net/2023/07/bob-iger-disney-apple-yard-sale-af1/
https://www.bls.gov/bdm/bdmage.htm
Never thoguht I would see the day where academia needs regulation to force professionalism.
Fellow academics are going to check you.
Oh, wait, never mind, now that clown world reigns supreme, your submission will be rejected if you don't reference a Current Thing.
You ought to hear the current state of college debates. This is rather dated, but I assume the "standards" remain the same: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/how-to-speak-gibberish-win-a-national-debate-title/