Academia in a nutshell
(media.kotakuinaction2.win)
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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.
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.