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Against Higher Education
Townhall.com ^ | May 23, 2018 | John Stossel

Posted on 05/30/2018 5:31:36 AM PDT by Kaslin

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To: poconopundit

I bought a TRS-80 when they first came out.

It had 8K (I believe it was K vs MB) of main memory.

The computer came with a book explaining Basic.

I’d write small programs and save them to audio tape.

You had to load your program each time you turned on the computer.

I learned how to program in basic. I then learned how to program in Mumps, Mis, or today M.

I haven’t dabbled in other languages, but I don’t think it would be that difficult. Once you understand the concepts in programming, it should be pretty straight forward.

You learn the commands and use them to achieve the same results you did in other languages. Of course the other languages would be more robust/complex.

The point is, you don’t necessarily need a teach hanging over your head.

I literally hated sitting in a classroom and listening to a teacher prattle on and on and on and on...

Give me a book and a machine and I’ll learn at my own pace, and frankly a lot faster. It didn’t take me months to learn how to program. It took me days. I believe more complex languages would have taken me weeks, but I wouldn’t have had to spend hour after hour in a classroom bored to death. I wouldn’t have had to spend years getting a degree. I wouldn’t have had to go broke in the process.


41 posted on 05/31/2018 11:22:27 AM PDT by DoughtyOne (01/26/18 DJIA 30 stocks $26,616.71 48.794% > open 11/07/16 215.71 from 50% increase 1.2183 yrs..)
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To: DoughtyOne

And you know what? Programming is awful fun!

Don’t know why it is, but writing some code and seeing a result of your thinking seemed cool. Even today is does.

I remember those days with the double floppy disks. Kids today have no idea what that was. Audio tape? Well, that was before my time on PCs.

The other thing I discovered is that computing became more fun when you had a “practical application” for your coding.

I created a PC-based website management system which I regularly use in my journalist/industry analyst work. In creating that, it forced me to learn more about HTML and CSS.

But then, when I got on Free Republic, I had to go back to the older generation of HTML when you had no style sheets. LOL!

But it was fun trying new things with that. So I guess the human mind enjoys a challenge. Much better use of time than playing cards on-line.


42 posted on 05/31/2018 5:52:00 PM PDT by poconopundit (MAGA... Get the Spirit. Grow your community. Focus on your Life's Work. Empower the Young.)
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To: Grampa Dave

Dave, you are blessed with a hardworking and intelligent life partner. Great to read your story. I am also blessed with a wonderful wife who has stayed with me in all my failings and dumb moves in life.

I have not seen any recent FR stories about Nassim Taleb. But if you have not heard it yet, the best YouTube/podcast I have heard with Taleb is this one with Daniel Kahneman.

Check it out. Great insight and also a lot of fun and jokes interspersed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMBclvY_EMA

Cheers


43 posted on 05/31/2018 6:06:59 PM PDT by poconopundit (MAGA... Get the Spirit. Grow your community. Focus on your Life's Work. Empower the Young.)
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To: poconopundit

Still to this day I appreciate the programs I wrote and used at work.

I was accomplishing things nobody else was in the day, because my programs were very very helpful.

In Southern California there was nobody doing what I was in my line of work. Folks were asking how I was doing that. LOL

Yes, it was a real pleasure to watch my programs crunch.

I use spread sheets a lot today.

One of the most enjoyable things I ever programmed was an Excel spreadsheet that would take a date a file and re-organize it it.

By hand it would take about 30-45 minutes to do. I wrote a Macro to handle the whole process once per month. It would accomplish the task in about thirty seconds.

Watching the Macro crunch and reformat the information on the screen was one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever created and then watched.

I’d run the program a number of times just to enjoy it again.

LOL


44 posted on 05/31/2018 9:09:20 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (01/26/18 DJIA 30 stocks $26,616.71 48.794% > open 11/07/16 215.71 from 50% increase 1.2183 yrs..)
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To: DoughtyOne

You know, once you get to a certain level of proficiency in Excel or other programming, it’s hard to instruct someone else to do the same thing. But there’s a good reason for that.

This is one of the advantages of your average American new collar worker. Familiarity with the machines you work with leads to great productivity: you are bridging your own knowledge of the particular business with the machine.

The danger is that a big software company comes along and automates processes, but doesn’t fully grasp all the business. And in that case you are dumbing down the business to shave headcount.

That’s when big failures occurs as it did with Lehmann Brothers.


45 posted on 06/01/2018 5:33:52 AM PDT by poconopundit (MAGA... Get the Spirit. Grow your community. Focus on your Life's Work. Empower the Young.)
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To: poconopundit

“Dave, you are blessed with a hardworking and intelligent life partner. Great to read your story. I am also blessed with a wonderful wife who has stayed with me in all my failings and dumb moves in life.”

Amen! We are heading into 57 years of marriage. She is one of the most intelligent people I have ever met. That has been passed on to our adult children and grand kids. She started working a teenager doing all types of jobs to save money to help her parents put her through nursing school.

We both have different mental and physical skill sets and lot of good overlap. That has meant that between the two of we do great problem solving and followup to handle problems or opportunities.

That means when one of us is uncomfortable with something new or someone new in our life. We often listen to the other saying, “I have problems with this or this person!” The end result is we back away from endorsing the issue or person. That has save us a lot of misery, time and money.

You and I are both fortunate to have good women in our life.

Thanks for the heads up re Nassim Taleb. I have a few younger relatives and some our age, where I’m introducing them to the Intellectual Yet Idiot reality. It is amazing when their brains click with the reality of the IYI concept.

Thanks again and have a great weekend.


46 posted on 06/01/2018 7:49:19 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (Reality! Deep State owns/controls the DNC/DOJ/FBI/CIA, our media and its fake news/lying mediots!)
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To: DoughtyOne

“Give me a book and a machine and I’ll learn at my own pace, and frankly a lot faster. It didn’t take me months to learn how to program. It took me days. I believe more complex languages would have taken me weeks, but I wouldn’t have had to spend hour after hour in a classroom bored to death. I wouldn’t have had to spend years getting a degree. I wouldn’t have had to go broke in the process.”

People like you, my siblings and younger relatives past the age of 21 are why the brick and mortar 4-? year college programs/degrees are in trouble and will be gone in about a decade.


47 posted on 06/01/2018 7:53:38 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (Reality! Deep State owns/controls the DNC/DOJ/FBI/CIA, our media and its fake news/lying mediots!)
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To: Lou L
Yes, perhaps that's true. It may have "always been done this way," and while not ideal, that's the way it is.

Much of this is fallout from the Griggs vs. Duke Power decision. Companies used to be able to sit someone down and give them an aptitude test for the job for which they were applying. If one did well on the test it was evidence that they were qualified for the job. The court decision said that aptitude tests that had a 'disparate impact' on different groups were unconstitutional. So the hiring folks had to try something else to determine who was qualified to do a job. The college diploma was chosen as a substitute indicator of suitability.

48 posted on 06/01/2018 8:08:12 AM PDT by 17th Miss Regt
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To: poconopundit

I have observed the dynamic you speak of.

I’ve seen poorly written programs provided to people who had nothing at all, and then pushed on people who had much better programs, simply because so many of those who had nothing at all had jumped on board.

Of course the adoption of the inferior product was proof to some leaders who didn’t have a clue what was going on.


49 posted on 06/01/2018 10:29:25 AM PDT by DoughtyOne (01/26/18 DJIA 30 stocks $26,616.71 48.794% > open 11/07/16 215.71 from 50% increase 1.2183 yrs..)
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To: Grampa Dave

Once again, I agree with someone. Your right IMO.

I’ve been a big supporter of the idea apprenticeship would be far better at educating workers than college would be.

Even if you have a four or more year degree, what’s the first thing they do when you go to work? Why they train you of course.

Some fields require the additional years of knowledge, but many don’t.


50 posted on 06/01/2018 10:45:33 AM PDT by DoughtyOne (01/26/18 DJIA 30 stocks $26,616.71 48.794% > open 11/07/16 215.71 from 50% increase 1.2183 yrs..)
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To: Grampa Dave
Regarding Intellectual Yet Idiot, you may be interested in reading a vanity I wrote during the 2016 campaign entitled:

H. L. Mencken Predicted Donald Trump, the Enlightened Rabble-Rouser

Here's the fun part of this essay written in 1922.

Now, I Don't Deny that People can Learn Things... The great masses of men can take in certain sorts of knowledge, at least within narrow limits:

The Progress of Enlightenment Doesn't Reach the Great Masses of People

The Human Race is actually split into Two Distinct Species...


51 posted on 06/01/2018 5:07:11 PM PDT by poconopundit (MAGA... Get the Spirit. Grow your community. Focus on your Life's Work. Empower the Young.)
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To: poconopundit

Thanks for sharing. I would add another dimension to your first species!

The Human Race is actually split into Two Distinct Species...

The one species is characterized by an incurable thirst for knowledge, and an extraordinary capacity for recognizing and taking in facts and evidences.

This species uses that thirst and energy to constantly evaluate what is right and could stand some minor adjustments.

Also, their BS sensors are on alert 24/7. This enables them to detect and shun the BS sent down from the Intellectual Yet Idiots from DC to their state capitols, to local government BSers.


52 posted on 06/01/2018 8:46:56 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (Trump does what is good for Americans. Then, the world gets their pants in a knot, too bad!)
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To: Kaslin

The most hated company in America, Walmart, is facing this problem in so called upper education.

What Walmart will be doing might be the beginning of the end of of our Intellectual Yet Idiots produced by our so called elite universities.

Walmart’s New Education Benefit Puts Cap and Gown Within Reach for Associates

- Greg Foran, CEO of Walmart U.S.
Highlights of the program include:

AFFORDABLE:

Under the program, the associate contribution toward a college degree would be just $1 a day. Walmart will subsidize the cost of tuition, books and fees, eliminating the need for student loan debt and addressing one the biggest hurdles that keep people from returning to college.

In addition, associates can jump start their path to completion by earning college credit for paid training at Walmart Academies. Hundreds of thousands of associates have already undergone skills training equivalent to more than $210 million in college credits. This will save associates both time and money in completing their degree.

RELEVANT:
Walmart selected universities with a specialized focus on serving working adult learners and top outcomes for the working adult demographic. In addition, Walmart is collaborating with these universities to tailor curriculum to relevant skills for jobs and advancement across industries for today and in the future.

ACCESSIBLE:
Working with three universities that include both selective and open-access programs, Walmart provides all associates a place to start. The goal is for all associates who apply for admission to be accepted. These universities have a programmatic dedication to high graduation rates for their students.

SUPPORTED:
From day one, associates will receive support from a Guild Education coach on everything from the application and enrollment process to selecting the appropriate degree. This kind of academic counseling has been shown to help students complete their degree.

Excerpted, go to link below for full story!

https://news.walmart.com/2018/05/30/walmarts-new-education-benefit-puts-cap-and-gown-within-reach-for-associates


53 posted on 06/01/2018 8:56:54 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (Trump does what is good for Americans. Then, the world gets their pants in a knot, too bad!)
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