I’ve got quite the reputation from my Alma Mater for protesting the educational content of my classes, so this one hits me pretty hard. Curious what you guys think. Either way, sounds like a fun remix project 
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I definitely love people questioning those values. And I really wish more people did.
But most people don’t.
Close to all people who decide about jobs, they don’t.
Sure, they take your experience into account. But they still always take the one with a degree, not the one without. 20 years of experience is nothing compared to a master’s degree. That’s the way it works.
I’m not educated in the sense of a university degree. I quit university after years and years and years. Because I thought I can make it without it.
But it turns out I was wrong. My girl adviced me to quit university, too. She was proud of me because I quit. And now? She quit because I can’t get a job. It’s not her fault, but - hey, thanks girl for the advice.
Not everyone is Beckham, or Malcom X, or Ghandi. Not everyone can launch the next youtube, google, facebook, twitter. Obviously, if you are the lucky one pulling off something like this, you gonna make it with or without a degree. But for those who don’t - which is 99.9999 percent - you’re better off with ‘official’ education.
I learn this the hard way each and every day these days.
And I prefectly understand the part about dreams. I still have a lot of dreams, but I can’t eat them. Not even my dog can eat them. (That would help a lot…)
It’s true – there comes a time when you just need to make ends meet. Sorry to hear you’ve had a rough road on that front.
In my case with my current job (in-industry, doing fun stuff that I like), I feel like a degree helped me land the interview, but overall didn’t equip me with any of the tools I needed to excel at my job. I had figured that out on my own. In fact, in order for me to complete my degree, I was required to get a low-level internship … during a time in my life when I was running two of my own businesses, and doing quite well for myself. In taking the internship, also accepted a nearly 75% pay cut.
Generally, I completely agree with you – for most the folks out there, even rote memorization is a better use of their grey matter than they’d otherwise find for themselves.
I hope the future holds pleasant surprises for you, sir.
It is easy for me to agree with this video because I will probably be paying for my college time until I am near retirement age, and in the job-market scheme of things, that time I spent means nothing.
I don’t feel sour grapes over it, though, because during college I spent most of my time around people from other countries, I learned how to address an audience, and I learned how to properly speak and sing into a microphone, which is extremely useful when I became one of the few people in my workplace who doesn’t fear hearing a “funny” accent on the telephone, and ensures that my voice is crystal-clear and easy for others to understand.
To get that chance, I had to wait for a period of time when my workplace is desperate to employ anyone they can, to make sure they’d test me and give me an interview, and when that time came, I made sure I was the best they’d ever seen.
It’s not a great paying job, but it’s a job I do well, it’s sufficient for me, and I’m happy to carry on with it for as long as I’m able.
A degree may give you more chances, but you still have to follow through when you receive that chance. Some degrees don’t really lead to any chances at all, so my version of the advice above is, don’t pay for school for its own sake- go with a plan and know what you want to get out of it. If you don’t have a plan, go ahead and wait a while. University will still be there when you’re ready for it.
Great video, thanks for sharing.
I work in the world of software development. I don’t have a degree from University. I didn’t even go to College to get A levels. In 12 years since I have left school I have moved from a junior developer up to deputy lead, lead, and now moved on to go freelance and build up my own company. As a lead developer I have interviewed plenty of people that have Degrees and other qualifications that haven’t been able to pass a simple test involving some simple questions that any developer should know. Is the reason for this that the people who went to Uni for a degree in computer science did so simply to get a job that they thought would be well paid rather than a love for the subject and a genuine fascination in computers? I suspect that in some cases this is true.
I’d say ‘yes’. I’m in a similar boat: got my bachelors in Software Engineering, with emphasis in Network Security. At least, thats what my degree says. I tested out of all the lower level programming courses such that I never actually completed one. And yet, I have a degree in Software Engineering. Go figure.
Now, imagine all those kids who didn’t test out of XHTML 101, Bash 101, Perl 101, C++ 101.
Thanks mars.
I’m afraid this wasn’t my best day today, sorry. I didn’t wanted to sound bitter, like an old grumpy man, when I like the message after all.
That’s really interesting, It hadn’t occurred to me that was possible.
I definitely relate, there are still days when I feel frustrated. My family avoid the subject around me now because they see how quickly my face gets sour.
I think I teared up a few times watching that, it’s full of emotional content.
I feel the same way, also having been subjected myself to the disease that it is.
I took some courses a couple years ago, and couldn’t believe how the students all just sat there in a daze of bare minimum participation. But, it is alluring to me, the notion of going back to toss more wrenches in the system, it was really quite fun, but just being around all those doped kids on anti-depressants makes me very suicidal. The classroom is an abstraction of the Church, it’s surprising to me most people don’t see this.
Both have splintered as as they found their position on the spectrum from Geist to Amt. Just as you can find freewheeling churches, so can you find classrooms where the teacher is the student, or tradition is otherwise thrown out the window, etc.
Certainly the “straw university” this video props up is not so freewheeling, not so caring, not so interested in education so much as certification. But I get a little tired of the hyperbole, even if I understand the point. As others here have pointed out, there is some risk involved in deciding as an options-limited individual that the general formal educational system is not worth the price of admission.
Typically the recognizance of the Amt in the system begins with the feeling that, as individuals, we are no longer cared for by those in charge. In that sense, you can also say that the various forms of government are an abstraction of the church. You’d be right but the statement is more of a comment on the imperfection of all humans. Taken much more seriously than that, the implication is far too hyperbolic.
I think I can argue that Jesus, Malcolm X, and Mohammad were all teachers. Sure, two of those three also wound up religious figures, but where they not also teachers? Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were definitely teachers.
What is the value of a degree? Just like anything, it is what you make of it. If you want to be a doctor, than you are going to need a degree. Plain and simple. Why? Aristotle and Jesus have been dead for many years, we are just not living in that world anymore. If you want to be the next Steve Jobs, than go ahead and do it… You don’t need a degree.
But what about the next Steven Spielberg? Because now you are starting to draw parallels to industries that do not work in the way they used to. What about the next Miles Davis, ( who dropped out of Juliard. ) Keep in mind we just gave Taylor Swift a Grammy for, “we are never ever, getting back together.”
This guys idea of success, was really only people who had, “made it into the history book.” I am not sure what that says for people who, “want to have a nice house, beautiful wife, lovely children, great backyard, maybe a pool.” That will be much easier with a degree…
Can you honestly expect everybody to be the next Jesus, or Shakespeare? Its not how the world works.
I do not know if the video makes sense, or it is a really nice rap. Sure Beethoven, did not have a modern degree. But he was with music teachers since a very young age. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_van_Beethoven
Beethoven also: did not have a computer, or a vst plugin.
Even if you are the next Steve Jobs, you will need some sort of element of luck. Maybe big, maybe small… But without that proper moment in time, where are all the stars line up for you. What are you going to do?
Because some of us become the next Steve Job, some of die on the hardened fields of war, some of work at a bank, laugh with our wives, and some of us fail as musicians; some of us succeed.
But how is Justin Beiber, Talor Swift, and Lady Gaga not luck? Are they truly brilliant, and talented? They are rich and famous, “not billionaires,” but imho, they still fall into this guys, “definition of success.” Shakespeare was no billionaire, nor was Socrates, and Jesus, lol… Definitely not a billionaire.
I don’t want to sound bitter and jaded, but I did not grow up in a situation that would have primed me for a successful existence no matter how smart I was. I had it rough. Rough that, “eventually I turned 19, and than I had a nervous breakdown.” Hardly the type of story that creates the next, “Apple Computer.” My story is usually the one that ends, “he died, in a gutter, from a crack overdose.” When I was supposed to be, “in college,” I was so fucking wacked out of my head, from what my parents did to me… I used to shake 24 hours a day. Finally I just said, “fuck it,” and I traveled around from state to state, country to country. Survived on my own toughness. I starved in London learning music production. I had a meal every four days, and slept several nights from October to April out on the streets. And the guy in this video is complaining, “mommy didn’t even show up to my graduation. I don’t need a degree, if I am going to be the next Steve Jobs.”
I think I thought the video was moronic. I think the guy mentions a handful of people, and tries to call them, “statistics.” But that is not what a statistic is.
Here is a statistic: People with degrees have an unemployment around 4% - 7%.
Here is not statistic: Steve Jobs was a brilliant guy who was worth 7 billion dollars. ( Actually, $9 billion, but that is beside the point )
Here is a statistic: Children who suffer certain types of abuse are 10 - 13 percent more likely to commit suicide.
Here is not a statistic: Mark Zuckerberg, grew up well to do, wound up at Harvard, had the support of his parents, and every connection possible, and became a tech billionaire.
Here is a statistic: The average salary of a biomedical engineer is $80,000 ( with this kind of money, you can have fun with wife, kids, house, pool, good car )
Here is not statistic: Jesus… What the fuck… He is a religious figure. He may or may not have been the son of God… ( Lets not get too deep into this )
Ok here: I think that the guys mindset is so poor, he will never amount to anything. A stupid Internet meme, and a lot of, “awesome video, you are so right,” comments.
Like anything: A degree is what you make of it. Either you are working and getting paid well, or you are starting your own business… “Like a doctors office, or a software company.” And we all realize, “for software company, you might not need that degree.”
Or with your degree you can go on youtube and complain, “oh I got this great degree at university, but still nobody wants to hire me, cause I’m such a fucking idiot, and I am probably going to be the next steve jobs. btw, I think you should agree with me that degrees are stupid!”
Sorry, I hate to rant… but my life was not so easy like that, “ooh, I’ve got a degree, now I am going to piss all over it. think I can rap and look cool on youtube, and convince myself that I know what a statistic is.”
I wish I was a doctor… Instead I wound up driving taxi’s in a crack town. Ah… I’ve had to fight, for everything I ever got out of life. I didn’t so easily get a degree, that I could piss on all over youtube…
Well, you know… The guy is right, “he’s got a degree, but I don’t think he’s educated, not one bit.” He thinks he’s educated.
Edit = and btw, do not worry about me. I’m alive, working, studying ( that’s why I haven’t been posting so much music lately. ) I’ll just add one more thought below: All that video was, maybe a symbol or sign so I said,
“thank you Lord for thinking about me, I’m alive and doing fine. Signs, signs, everywhere are signs, do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign. Yeah.”
Could you explain Amt? I understand Geist, at least from the Hegelian point of view (and think more general use too) but I do not know and could not find what you are referring to with Amt.
Passion is the magic word here. Do what you like and want and do it the most time if you can. If you are passionate enough about it, you won’t feel the pain of failures too much and instead persistence leads you to progress.
If you have the passion, you have the talk and power of persuasion and that leads to success. That means you might have to go against the stream and keep doing that, but in the end you win because you were the only one heading for the direction the 99.9% didn’t dare to go.
Might always be a risk that you don’t make it, but no pain, no gain.
Steve jobs was an orphan, therefore to be successful be an orphan. Steve Jobs died of cancer, therefore to be successful die of cancer.
“There is more than one way to be an educated man (woman) in this world.”
'Nuff said.
The rest is of that rant is lottery BS.
+1 2 daze j
There is no use in regretting who you are.
You stop going to school when you know better. You don’t ever know better. Otherwise why not drop out when you are 11? Life was pretty good at 11! If I knew then what I know now I would have held on to 11 forever!
Life is school. You graduate when you die.
Realizing university isn’t for you is a lesson learned in the school of life.
Truly internalized enlightenment is not pay per click lip service.
Might as well quote the professor I’m stealing from:
From Leaders to Managers: The Fatal Shift
Nibley is someone who worked within the university model yet labored under no ignorance as to what it was. And it’s not necessarily as bad as he makes it out to be, excepting probably the longer-term view of cultural shift.
Aside from obvious disadvantages such as abject poverty, parental / domestic abuse or being a victim of crime, all you need is curiosity, confidence, humility and (most importantly) persistence.
I note there is no mention of Sean Parker in this over-entitled buffoon’s tirade (quite how an ‘educated’ man can spout off in half-arsed english riddled with poor grammar is beyond me) - Facebook was still a college project until he took an interest, worth a read:
As is this on the subject of self-taught ‘achievers’:
If you seek knowledge it is not hard to find whether this be through academia, the internet or the local library. What you do with it is up to you, but it is not difficult to set up a website or blog to showcase your chosen skillset or abilities and incorporate this into your CV or portfolio. Know that you will not get the first, tenth or hundredth job you apply for but if you keep at it then job application 2,473 could be the starting point of realising your potential - you just have to get past job application 2,472!