I have been thinking a great deal about how school is not making my life happy. I have come to a conclusion that I feel is brilliant. Here it is: School has an inverse relationship with my happiness. I really am hoping that my conclusion is only correct in the short run. Ideally I would like to have my happiness be directly correlated from school (at least in part).
I can't put my finger directly on the reason for this semester being the worst one yet, or how I can be so sure that the next will be even more vexing than ever. Just this previous week I was so incredibly downtrodden about my situation that I nearly lied on the grass for hours instead of going to class. I have digressed.
Back to the point. Many of you that religiously read this blog have been the unfortunate soles to hear me gripe about how I have not been learning anything that I believe will be applicable to real life, however, I will prove that I have indeed learned things that are probably not likely to be applicable.
I know about the law of diminishing returns. It is a sad law indeed. As I take more classes I will receive less knowledge. I will essentially be spending a great deal of time and money in my final semester on few new concepts. This being the case, I will value these few new concepts more than any of the prior that I have locked in the time lock safe at my knowledge bank.
In conclusion I will just say that I don't care for school. I have thought on the margin and believe that it would be beneficial to continue school. I know what you are all thinking right now.... "But you are forgetting that your schooling so far is a sunk cost now." What you are thinking is correct, and you are quite brilliant for bringing up said argument. I commend you on this. But you are wrong. I did think about that. WRONG.
24 comments:
After reading your blog I have decided that you have learned a lot in school. Sorry it stinks so bad to have to go but just think how much happier you will be when you are done.
Schooling is not a sunk cost at all. I would never think that.
Heather, I don't think you know what a sunk cost is.
Robert, you talk econ talk more than anyone I know. You're definitely learning things. Whether or not they'll be relevant in your future job is uncertain though. At least you can sound like a super nerd when you talk.
I never knew I was thinking on the margin before, but that is exactly what I have been doing. Thank you for adding words to my vocabulary. I love learning new words.
School is for tools.
I am too dumb to understand what you are talking about. Perhaps school was worthless for me. I learned more from your links than I can remember of what I learned in school.
What you are failing to take into consideration, is the applications learned, not just the content. What you learn in 4 years of school, is how to put up with something you dislike for 4 years because of a higher goal. It is a very important thing to learn at college, the lesson that doing something seemingly worthless for someone else(homework for professors) can end up being beneficial to you in a round about way.
So the return on your investment is the only thing to look at(the bottom line). Your investment not only being your tuition costs,(which are sunk) but also your opportunity costs and forgone profits.
It is like buying a house(a real fixer upper) in today's market. Not only do you have the cost of the house, the cost of the repairs, but also the complete crap of having to put up with fixing this old junker every free minute you have.
But once you've got the house, you can either continue the difficult and tedious task of fixing it, or you can can fed up and sell it as is in a poor market.
Selling it as is may get you your money back, but it isn't likely that you'll make any money. Not only that, but depending on your loan and how long you had it, you probably lost money in interest paid.
But continuing through the house fixing and selling it in 2-3 years when the housing market is back on its feet, you could make a handsome profit and it would all seem worthwhile.
The biggest fear is simply that the market won't turn around, or in your case that going to school won't really entitle you to make more money than you would have made had you not attended school in the first place.
As for the things you learn being applicable to real life, I have to agree with you that there are quite a few things i've had to do in college so far that I find very little correlation with the day to day dealings of my future life. And I'd also like to add that whatever your future job may be, though they'll expect you to have an average understanding of what you are to do, they'll explain how to do most everything you'll be asked to accomplish. So, the only thing you are really learning in some of your classes is how to learn information from an authority figure adequately to be tested on. But I also feel that I've learned more than I realize, especially from my business courses and from the examples our professors give.
This all being said, I freaking hate school most of the time.. But if I were to choose between lying on the grass and attending class, the business man inside of me knows that it is a lose-lose to lie in the grass and a win-lose to go to class. By comparison, it is better to attend class
So what's to stop me from learning everything you learn in college for free online?
Nothing is stopping you. The only difference between the two is that you wouldn't get a degree from the University of Utah. That is it.
the other thing that is stopping you is that you won't be asked to do things you won't like. Which is what I meant by saying a lot of the things you learn in college are how to do crap you don't want to do. If you pick and choose what you want to study(which we'd all do if it were economically attractive enough) then you learn what you want, but not always what you need..
I'm not saying it is impossible to learn online the things necessary for employment, since as I stated earlier that your employer will teach you most of your responsibilities once you have the job. The diploma merely gets you in the door in most cases.
You have to have that mix of an education to be "attractive" to a lot of businesses. Though too much education can also be a negative, ask all of those chinese students that have doctorates and can't find work.
But success is not dependent on any schooling whatsoever. My advice is merely to those who want to seek conventional employment in the conventional way.
I don't like reading or studying but I love the results so I do it.
But the difference in that and school, is that most people in school don't care for the results in the fields they are learning.. (at least in part) But like I said, the only real benefit to school is to make oneself more attractive when it comes to searching for a job. We are in essence selling ourselves to the highest bidder, hoping we are sought after by many different companies..
School is affirmative action for lazy people.
Considering how most people go to school and work, (the ones who don't I admit are lazy) I wouldn't really pick lazy as the descriptive word. Since both lazy and unlazy people go to school. I'd probably say that they are superficial, in that they are trying to make themselves as pretty as they can by adding things to the pile. The more degrees next to my name(or the more impressive) equates to the more makeup we put on(or the more expensive). So just as most women wear makeup, there are still pretty girls and ugly girls. Some ugly girls are made marginally better looking by slabbing on some makeup, some are still ugly. Some pretty girls put too much makeup on, and end up losing their God-given attractiveness in the process. Some girls use no makeup, and once again some are pretty while some are ugly. The pretty ones w/out makeup are just as well-off as the pretty ones with makeup, even slightly better off since they put forth less effort and didn't have to pay for cosmetics. But makeup or no makeup, some people are pretty and some are ugly. The key is to find out where you are and take the necessary steps. Since most people are confidently insecure, we think we're average looking w/out makeup and stunning when we apply it.
How this relates to us(if it isn't obvious already) is that most of us believe that we're qualified and intelligent people who would do well at whatever job we attempt. We aren't so confident that we can pick up these companies at the bar(back to analogy) so we get the necessary degree to help our chances and give us that extra edge.
The biggest problem with the whole makeup situation, is that many people have decided that applying layer upon layer of makeup(like a whore) is actually better looking than pretty. These people are those who fit the phrase, 'educated beyond intelligence' or the people who believe that their quantity of education is more qualifying than actual knowledge, logic and reason. This is the state of most bureaucrats, and is in theory like saying that Jace Burgess would be hotter than Jessica Alba if Jace wore enough makeup.
All of the problems with this seem to stem from the belief that people are equal no matter what, which just isn't true. So, while an impressive education could improve your level of attractiveness in some cases,(at least highlight the features you were born with) no amount of makeup could make an ugly girl better than an actual pretty girl.
Realistically, school can only enhance what we already have. And I'd agree that naturally pretty people would be just as well off if they didn't go to school.(this is in theory since a lot of jobs actually require certain degrees. But even though it is theory, practical application of this fact is all over the place) But most of us just want a touch of eyeliner to draw attention to our already sexy eyes.
Now, this makeup analogy was not meant to be sexist or mean, (and I don't think it is either, but just to cover my bases) it was just the best example I could think of.
By the way Robert ...........just kidding.
Could you repeat that in something I have the time to read Burgess?
I went to college, I learned, I got a job doing what I went to college to do, I learned things that are useful to me in my career. The end.
haha.. oh buddy.. Some ideas, while simple in theory, need to be painted on a large canvas in order to be fully explained..
Be that as it may, I refuse to read more than a paragraph in a comment section.
It is that mentality that keeps a firm understanding of economics out of Congress. haha
Robert,
How many comments are required before you will post something new?
People don't read the extremely long comments on obscure blogs authored by non-authorities?
Are you saying Rob isn't THE authority on such topics?
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