You've made a decision to shut yourself off from knowledge and insight that are hard to come by any other way. Spending a few years in college is the easiest, shortest route to some pretty profound insights, and you say, "nah".
I'm not saying that you won't have a fulfilling life, and I'm certainly not saying that going to college could influence its outcome. I'm just saying that you've made your decisions based on some very stupid assumptions. It would have been better to say, "I'm not going to college because I don't feel like it, and I want to see where life takes me". I can actually respect that. But making such a decision, or any decision for that matter, based on false assumptions - actually, criminally negligent and outrageously stupid assumptions - is just... dumb.
Actually, you know what? It probably wouldn't have made a difference. You look at life from such a practical point of view - jobs, "achievements", "lessons" etc. - that it would have been hard for you to really gain much at college, and maybe most people are the same way, even if they do go to college. I can only pity them, because successful as they may become, they lead a pitiful life: the life of the willfully blind.
Spending a few years in college is the easiest, shortest route to some pretty profound insights, and you say, "nah".
I strongly disagree that this is a universal truth. As just one example, I'm finding the Stanford and Udacity courses I'm taking more rewarding than any of the courses I took in college, for a fraction of the time investment.
But making such a decision, or any decision for that matter, based on false assumptions - actually, criminally negligent and outrageously stupid assumptions - is just... dumb.
Really. So college apparently doesn't always effectively teach civility in discourse.
I felt your comment about civility in discourse to be spot on. What would some of the denser communities of highly-educated people look like if this were hammered on for the first two years of university?
Blind to seeing life as more than a series of goals. Blind to seeing the world through the eyes of, say, a medieval christian mystic, a french existentialist, or a crazed 19th century Russian. Blind to seeing how things we've come to view as obvious truths are simply manipulations by the powerful meant to keep them in power.
Now, I realize I may have come across as an arrogant prick in
my previous comment, but it pains me to see that because some aspects of technology have become so easy to pick up, it is programmers, of all people, that start viewing (institutional) education, for all its flaws, as superfluous. I think I wrote a comment on a something Paul Graham said in a conference keynote, that it's become almost obvious that all hackers care mostly about money and "success". I think this is a direct result of looking at the world through "hard data" and "logical conclusions" that's become the norm in this community. Now I see that instead of developing our healthy amount of curiosity, hackers are shutting themselves off from some important avenues of knowledge because they think the have all the "data".
I totally agree with you about the importance of perspective and deep thinking. I hammer on about those, myself.
But that has to be a fire you already have, something you seek on your own, or all the clever, insightful, Robin Williams-Oh Captain My Captain-heavy university classes in the world won't help you. And if you seek it on your own, you don't need the university classes to find it.
If you seek it on your own you may not need university classes to find it, but it sure is the easiest way to start - have someone who's traveled this way before point out some good starting points.
I don't take it lightly. I don't just say "nah", college is a joke. I respect college, and college is filled with brilliant people. Colleges that have decent programs also cost a decent amount. I don't want to graduate with mounds of debt. I know it's possible to work it off while in school, and financial aid, etc. but the fact of the matter is a lot of people have a lot of college debt. WHO KNOWS, I could participate in a new collegey startup in a couple years, I might decide to go in a couple years, but I wanted to make the point that not going to college doesn't mean automatic couch potato with no opportunity.
I see. These are important things to consider. But I think what you've written actually shows some insecurity about your decision. Like you felt a need to say, "see, I'm not a couch potato". Insecurity is good, and I hope you take every opportunity to learn, in college or anywhere else, as much as possible, but not only to improve your "skill set" or your "job prospects", but to make your perspective richer.
If you do decide to go to college, I hope you'll view it as an investment in yourself, not as amounting debt, and make the most out it. It is far from providing everything a person needs to learn, but it's a good enough starting point.
I'm not saying that you won't have a fulfilling life, and I'm certainly not saying that going to college could influence its outcome. I'm just saying that you've made your decisions based on some very stupid assumptions. It would have been better to say, "I'm not going to college because I don't feel like it, and I want to see where life takes me". I can actually respect that. But making such a decision, or any decision for that matter, based on false assumptions - actually, criminally negligent and outrageously stupid assumptions - is just... dumb.
Actually, you know what? It probably wouldn't have made a difference. You look at life from such a practical point of view - jobs, "achievements", "lessons" etc. - that it would have been hard for you to really gain much at college, and maybe most people are the same way, even if they do go to college. I can only pity them, because successful as they may become, they lead a pitiful life: the life of the willfully blind.