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Some weeks, I have time to write a draft of my upcoming blog post on the Friday of the week before I post it. This week is not one of those weeks.
The clock in the menubar of my Mac tells me that it is currently 10:28 pm Pacific Time. I’m already a day late on posting this—the second week that I’ve missed my self-imposed Tuesday morning deadline! It’s been a busy few weeks in the Brake household, a product of several trips and a move. I’m sure I’m not the only one feeling the end-of-year crunch.
Tonight, the choice was whether to skip a week or jot down a few thoughts and ship it. I’m here, Coke Zero in hand, to let it rip. Maybe I’ll regret the Coke in a few hours. We’ll see. I’ll try to keep it brief, for both of our benefits.
There are definitely still limits
The question I’ve been thinking about lately is one that seems to be getting a lot of attention lately, from a variety of corners. One way of distilling it: is it worth going to college anymore?
The latest person to poke me on this is Guillermo Rauch, the founder and CEO of cloud app company Vercel. Over the weekend, he posted a patently absurd tweet that typifies the kind of thinking that starts to seem reasonable when Twitter begins to occupy too much of your mental bandwidth. College, he argues, has never been worth less.
In fairness, his point has some validity, at least if we consider what most people expect out of the college experience. In its current incarnation, higher ed operates for many primarily as a credentialing engine. Of course, students learn things and are shaped by their college experience, but many students (and their parents, future employers, etc.) approach college with a transactional mindset. Money in, degree out. Employers care about what you learn at school, but in many cases, one of the most valuable pieces of your college experience is the name on your diploma, which allows you to trade on the prestige and reputation of the institution.
Mr. Rauch argues that there are no limits anymore, and “anyone can do anything.” (emphasis mine) I’d like to humbly submit that, contrary to his logic, this is a reason that college is more valuable than ever before.
College is about figuring out the why
You see, when the barrier to build goes asymptotically to zero, some challenges disappear, but others quickly take their place. Perhaps it is now trivially easy to build things that once would have required the training that a four-year college degree provides, but now the question shifts from “how do I build it?” to “what ought I build?” and “why should I build it?”
These are exactly the kind of questions that a college education should be designed to help you answer. Yes, college is about teaching you the what and the how, but college should fundamentally be focused on helping you to make sense of the world and your place in it. The what and how should be stepping stones in service of helping us ask the deeper questions of purpose and meaning.
Never mind the fact that there are clearly still limits in plenty of disciplines that matter in our world. Yes, genAI is a general-purpose, horizontal technology that will revolutionize many verticals, but let’s not get too over our skis here. Perhaps the barrier to build a web app on Vercel has gone to zero, but let’s not pretend that the most challenging problems in the world can or will be solved with web apps.
College is not worthless. It is surely in bad shape in many corners, but this is less about college as an idea and more about institutional decay and a lack of focus on the core mission, vision, and values of what college should be about.
College is about creating an environment where you can engage in the deepest questions of the human experience, all while discerning your place in the world and building the skills to live into that calling.
Sorry for being cranky today (blame the sleep deprivation, slight head cold, and late-night caffeine), but thanks for being here to hear my rant.
I’ll step off my soapbox and go to bed now. If you’ve got a comment, please let me know!
The Book Nook
Super enjoying this graphic novel, Hidden Systems, from Dan Nott. It’s a really cool way of explaining some of the systems we use every day but so often ignore (until they are not working the way we expect!).
The Professor Is In
Finishing up fellowship interviews for the IPAI Lab this week and excited to get moving in advance of next semester.
Leisure Line
A mini Christmas tree with taco ornaments at Homestate.
Still Life
Had a meeting with friend of the show Fred Leichter at the Hive yesterday and noticed these cool remnants of the vine that used to be attached to the overhang of the roof. Pretty neat to see the pattern and spacing.
When I went to college in the 80's, it was about leaving home - physically, emotionally, intellectually, financially, and spiritually. Hard to put a price on that!
Man, Josh - this post is all about a t-shaped philosophy, which I love. Reading between the lines, I saw a call for technical skills, connecting to people, and finding real meaning and purpose. I am completely on board with everything you are laying down, even if it is fueled by Coke Zero!