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wedrifid comments on Open Thread: November 2009 - Less Wrong
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So, I'm having one of those I-don't-want-to-go-to-school moments again. I'm in my first year at a university, and, as often happens, I feel like it's not worth my time.
As far as math goes, I feel like I could learn all the facts my classes teach on Wikipedia in a tenth of the time--though procedural knowledge is another matter, of course. I have had the occasional fun chat with a professor, but the lecture was never it.
As far as other subjects go, I think forces conspired to make me not succeed. I had a single non-math class, though it was twice the length of a normal class and officially two classes. It was about ancient Greece and Rome, and we had to read things like Works and Days and the Iliad. Afterwards, we were supposed to write a paper about depictions of society in the two works or something. I never wrote the paper, and I dropped the class.
Is school worth it for the learning? How about for the little piece of paper I get at the end?
In as much as most people require the motivational structure and then if you consider the material worth learning.
Yes.
Well... that isn't the answer I wanted. I wanted "no".
In general, the answer is:
If you intend to always work for yourself, owning your own companies, being your own boss, then a diploma is a waste of time.
Diplomas are for people who want to work for others.
But if you want to work for others, then get a degree, by all means.
If you work for yourself, your customers are generally going to be moved by most other factors prior to being moved by the owner's formal education.
Bosses and owners, however, are going to be moved by degrees.
Owners like to see their underlings to have degrees because it demonstrates a certain irrational loyalty, and a lack of business savvy. This assures the owner that he will remain in charge - that you won't negotiate too hard for your benefits, or run away with his business plans and start a competitive company, etc.
Bosses like to see their underlings to have degrees because they had to get one as well, so why shouldn't you suffer at least as much.
By getting a degree, you signal your acceptance of your humble status in the pecking order. This is a prerequisite if you want to find your place in the hierarchy, but pointless if you want to be at the top.
There are some people who prefer to work for others, and some who prefer to work for themselves; however, the vast majority of people prefer neither, and for them college is neither a waste of time nor a means to signal: it is a stay of execution.
The correct answer should have been "It depends". Mostly on what you might want to do with that paper. I would mostly say "No". Unless you want a fairly boring, routine job working for someone else.