Regarding studying the lives of founders and other businessmen and innovators, David Senra, through his Founders Podcast, has done a fantastic job of summarizing biographies and other material (up to nearly 400 episodes now).
As far as college goes, I think it's all too easy for a billionaire like Peter Thiel to say it's unnecessary; he doesn't have any trouble getting people to answer his phone calls. But for the average diligent 18 year old, unless they've got a very focused alternative in mind, college —despite its many problems — is still the best path for career advancement.
My goal with our homeschooling was to train our many children to become leaders, which meant they had to develop confidence and an ability to think for themselves, but they also needed to be exposed to a breadth of material, of the sort you generally get in a college education. Some undergraduate curricula are almost ridiculously broad these days, in fact.
Anyway, we've now succeeded in getting all of them to at least a bachelor's degree, EXCEPT our two most entrepreneurial kids, who like the Thiel fellows, didn't at 18 see the point of college. It was with some difficulty that we at least finally helped them get an Associate's degree; I think our youngest son was influenced by all the problems his oldest sister encountered at times, from not having any degree (she was the last to return to community college and finish an associates). And now both of these entrepreneurial kids are thinking about going back for a bachelors.
So, for average folks, college is still a good idea, in my opinion, because the average person needs some sort of qualification (preferably two or three distinct things) to stand out, though you shouldn't break the bank to get a degree, and you should take it seriously enough to get good grades.
I listened to a series of rapid-fire interviews of startup founders in this year's YCombinator batch (on the TBPN podcast), and a surprising number of them were high school dropouts. They were extremely impressive, and probably a only few months away from graduating, but still I'm shocked they wouldn't finish high school.
"...we aren’t there yet..." in individuals not needing college to succeed. I would say we're not there yet because we still keep peddling the lie that college is a necessity. As the population ages, employees are going to be harder to obtain and retain. College is not needed for the vast amount of work now and into the future. Education and training - yes, but not necessarily college.
Unless one is going to be a lawyer (and heaven knows we have too many of them) or doctor, college is a waste of time and money. I have been advising young people for at least two decades now to work at some job right out of high school. Find out what you're good at. If you need more training to succeed or move to a different field, then get it (which may include college). The vast majority of high school graduates have little clue as to what they should pursue or what they are good at. Parents - who are footing the college bills for the most part - should be heavily involved.
How many of these young people you've been advising have been men? How many have been women?
It's not just doctors and lawyers who need to go to college; it's also engineers and accountants and nurses and actuaries. We desperately need more engineers. While I understand the resentment toward lawyers (and their bureaucratic counterparts, accountants and actuaries), law and accounting are some of the few remaining fields that enable men to establish profitable small businesses performing white collar work. Finally, half the reason our lawyers are so despised is because the conservative establishment is actively discouraging its smart, ambitious, "based" Christian men to go to law school. Instead, the conservative establishment is horrifyingly encouraging them to work like a slave at Panda Express or to go into the trades.
More importantly, this conflation of college with job training is a total historical anomaly created by Silents and Boomers. An education in the spirit of the West is valuable for its own sake, for how it liberates the mind. I went on a date with a woman earlier this year who was a teacher, 25 years old so only a couple years out of college, and she told me she couldn't remember anything she learned in college. I was aghast. I learned calculus and physics and astronomy, and with them I internalized the reach for infinity that Spengler describes in Decline of the West. I studied linear algebra and numerical methods; in them I can now see our civilization's continued progress in the breakdown of said reach for infinity. I studied Romantic poetry under a good professor who put her heart into the material; because of her, I can see beauty. Finally, I studied compilers, and compilers brought me back to the faith I had ceased to care about. Is there another study that so beautifully, passionately exemplifies the *marriage* of the sign and the thing signified than compilers?
A higher education gave me an understanding of reality that made me the man I am today. If I had become a Panda Express worker at 19 instead of going to college, I would forever be at the mercy of the whims of charismatic nondenom evangelicals who focus on Quakerish "pure moral living" utterly disconnected from reality and from the secular world -- the place where things actually happen.
Finally, a comment on the "college experience": in a world where it's getting harder and harder to find spouses, college is the best place to find a spouse. The stakes are low and the potential for victory is high. You're young enough to fall headlong in love; you're mature enough to make relatively smart choices. And the pool of people available to date all have one thing in common: they're all interested in the idea of really doing something with their lives. I think that might really be the most important trait to find in a spouse. Of course, this is to say nothing of the friends you make in college, and the network those friends turn into later in life.
To answer your question, both men and women. There is a great reckoning emerging among the American university/college system. Universities used to be a place as you described but they have drifted away. The mantra of “college for all” has diluted their original purpose. I would submit that most colleges today do not do what you experienced. And with advent and ubiquitousness of distance learning they will continue their move away from it. Add to that government funding has exacerbated cost leaving too many with debt.
While some professions may be better suited for a in resident college, the vast majority are technically oriented and can be served by technical speciality schools with many on line.
The American university/college system is beginning its death throes. I stand by what I said.
Regarding studying the lives of founders and other businessmen and innovators, David Senra, through his Founders Podcast, has done a fantastic job of summarizing biographies and other material (up to nearly 400 episodes now).
As far as college goes, I think it's all too easy for a billionaire like Peter Thiel to say it's unnecessary; he doesn't have any trouble getting people to answer his phone calls. But for the average diligent 18 year old, unless they've got a very focused alternative in mind, college —despite its many problems — is still the best path for career advancement.
My goal with our homeschooling was to train our many children to become leaders, which meant they had to develop confidence and an ability to think for themselves, but they also needed to be exposed to a breadth of material, of the sort you generally get in a college education. Some undergraduate curricula are almost ridiculously broad these days, in fact.
Anyway, we've now succeeded in getting all of them to at least a bachelor's degree, EXCEPT our two most entrepreneurial kids, who like the Thiel fellows, didn't at 18 see the point of college. It was with some difficulty that we at least finally helped them get an Associate's degree; I think our youngest son was influenced by all the problems his oldest sister encountered at times, from not having any degree (she was the last to return to community college and finish an associates). And now both of these entrepreneurial kids are thinking about going back for a bachelors.
So, for average folks, college is still a good idea, in my opinion, because the average person needs some sort of qualification (preferably two or three distinct things) to stand out, though you shouldn't break the bank to get a degree, and you should take it seriously enough to get good grades.
I listened to a series of rapid-fire interviews of startup founders in this year's YCombinator batch (on the TBPN podcast), and a surprising number of them were high school dropouts. They were extremely impressive, and probably a only few months away from graduating, but still I'm shocked they wouldn't finish high school.
"...we aren’t there yet..." in individuals not needing college to succeed. I would say we're not there yet because we still keep peddling the lie that college is a necessity. As the population ages, employees are going to be harder to obtain and retain. College is not needed for the vast amount of work now and into the future. Education and training - yes, but not necessarily college.
Unless one is going to be a lawyer (and heaven knows we have too many of them) or doctor, college is a waste of time and money. I have been advising young people for at least two decades now to work at some job right out of high school. Find out what you're good at. If you need more training to succeed or move to a different field, then get it (which may include college). The vast majority of high school graduates have little clue as to what they should pursue or what they are good at. Parents - who are footing the college bills for the most part - should be heavily involved.
How many of these young people you've been advising have been men? How many have been women?
It's not just doctors and lawyers who need to go to college; it's also engineers and accountants and nurses and actuaries. We desperately need more engineers. While I understand the resentment toward lawyers (and their bureaucratic counterparts, accountants and actuaries), law and accounting are some of the few remaining fields that enable men to establish profitable small businesses performing white collar work. Finally, half the reason our lawyers are so despised is because the conservative establishment is actively discouraging its smart, ambitious, "based" Christian men to go to law school. Instead, the conservative establishment is horrifyingly encouraging them to work like a slave at Panda Express or to go into the trades.
More importantly, this conflation of college with job training is a total historical anomaly created by Silents and Boomers. An education in the spirit of the West is valuable for its own sake, for how it liberates the mind. I went on a date with a woman earlier this year who was a teacher, 25 years old so only a couple years out of college, and she told me she couldn't remember anything she learned in college. I was aghast. I learned calculus and physics and astronomy, and with them I internalized the reach for infinity that Spengler describes in Decline of the West. I studied linear algebra and numerical methods; in them I can now see our civilization's continued progress in the breakdown of said reach for infinity. I studied Romantic poetry under a good professor who put her heart into the material; because of her, I can see beauty. Finally, I studied compilers, and compilers brought me back to the faith I had ceased to care about. Is there another study that so beautifully, passionately exemplifies the *marriage* of the sign and the thing signified than compilers?
A higher education gave me an understanding of reality that made me the man I am today. If I had become a Panda Express worker at 19 instead of going to college, I would forever be at the mercy of the whims of charismatic nondenom evangelicals who focus on Quakerish "pure moral living" utterly disconnected from reality and from the secular world -- the place where things actually happen.
Finally, a comment on the "college experience": in a world where it's getting harder and harder to find spouses, college is the best place to find a spouse. The stakes are low and the potential for victory is high. You're young enough to fall headlong in love; you're mature enough to make relatively smart choices. And the pool of people available to date all have one thing in common: they're all interested in the idea of really doing something with their lives. I think that might really be the most important trait to find in a spouse. Of course, this is to say nothing of the friends you make in college, and the network those friends turn into later in life.
To answer your question, both men and women. There is a great reckoning emerging among the American university/college system. Universities used to be a place as you described but they have drifted away. The mantra of “college for all” has diluted their original purpose. I would submit that most colleges today do not do what you experienced. And with advent and ubiquitousness of distance learning they will continue their move away from it. Add to that government funding has exacerbated cost leaving too many with debt.
While some professions may be better suited for a in resident college, the vast majority are technically oriented and can be served by technical speciality schools with many on line.
The American university/college system is beginning its death throes. I stand by what I said.