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Here's my thought on 💭 DHH IS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING (Again)? - YouTube
Should I go to college? Was my education worth it? Should I keep going. A question that comes in all too often accross most industries that require some level of education. DHH has such great takes on it, some I had never fully thought about. He starts out with should we have people study niche topics (using Russian Poetry as an example). Yes the world deserves people who can make their life works out of something that brings them and many other so much joy, but no you probably shouldn't go 100k's into debt to do it. Should I get a software engineering degree, or become a doctor also have similar answers, it needs to be somewhat justified and not outrageous as has become the norm.
We used to listen in to Dave Ramsey on long car rides and he would have people call in and say, they went half a million dollars into debt to become a dentist, only to discover they did not want to do dentistry. At this point it's too bad, you gotta suck it up and pay that off with something that makes some serious cash, and the only skill you probably got that can bring in that level of cash is ... dentistry.
They dive into the college experience, learning to have adult debates with classmates about which direction a project should go or how to complete it. Great stuff!
Something I had never put thoughts to is how do you feel when class is cancelled or an assignment is removed. Are you excited to "not have to do it"? I'd bet that most people do. That's probably a good sign that you are there for the wrong reasons. What other industry do you pay a f*** ton of money for a product and be like nah ill just take the receipt, you keep the thing.
This all just gets your foot in the door. If you spent none of that time learning it will become apparent really fast and you will not climb the ladder. Yes climbing the corp ladder is cliche, but at some point you probably want paid more and get opportunity to make more decisions. And if it turns out you really suck, you're going to find yourself looking for a new job with no skill and a big pile of student debt sitting behind you.
Student debt is probably one of the biggest issues of our generation that only appears to be getting worse, everything signals your need to go to college, presige is important. It feels like the other side is filled with glory lots of money and you will have all that debt paid off in no time. I get it when you're 18 and you see 50k or 100k in student debt, but 80k or 150k salaries on the other side its like damn I make nothing right now I'll have that paid off in no time. Then you get out and realize everything costs serious money, housing, kids, cars, broken AC units, and you cant pay off 50k in a year and a half making 80k.
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This post was a thought by Waylon Walker see all my thoughts at https://waylonwalker.com/thoughts