I'm somewhat confused by the author, more so because even as a 'gifted' student, the other 'gifted' students often took to things faster.
Not one gifted student was particularly alike.
Another example: all gifted students in our third grade were put to a chess tournament. Some students fell out fast, while others were more apt to understand the complexities of the various piece interactions. In the end the two top students would be considered 'unlikely to succeed' in the current and following academic years, one with behavioral problems, and the other an ADHD mess.
People can work really hard at doing a crap job. Doing the job right makes more sense to determine positive outcomes. Having some academic shreds to back up the common sense is good too.
Have you heard about the US college admissions scandal? Surely academia must be flawless, pristine in regard for the moral high ground based on your assumption, and surely they don't have all the pitfalls that every other walk of life has.
Homework has been known to be done by others students, or parents even. In higher academia, how many people on a project really lean in to contribute? Maybe 2 out of 5.
Graduate school may be slightly more immune to this, but the barrier to entry is also much much higher monetarily for most.
Exactly this. I think too there's some homage to those who were die-hard Sega fans, and who continue to be, that find this piece of hardware an extraordinary find.
There's a few dedicated communities to hacking on old Sega hardware and walking through the architecture from the time. Pretty cool stuff all things considered, in a community always watching out for the next shiny thing.
Whoa whoa whoa! Revolutionary idea - signed packages?! /s
In all seriousness though, Python's community is so communally fractured, I don't see one standard winning out. When the community revolts against it's own 'benevolent dictator for life' for wanting to better the language specification... It's most likely headed for doom.
Python and PyPi are in a precarious state. They are getting a lot of attention from a lot of people, who may or may not have it's best interest in mind. Previous Python users were using the language out of love for the language and it's facilities...
This issue is the tip of a much deeper iceberg lingering in the Python ecosystem: how is Python being intelligibly managed, if at all?
> When the community revolts against it's own 'benevolent dictator for life' for wanting to better the language specification... It's most likely headed for doom.
That's Python's biggest strength. If you want a bug fixed or feature added to javascript, you need to pay $20M to join ECMA or whatever. If you want the same in Python you just post on the mailing list and argue your case. You might not win, but you're at least guaranteed your day in court. That's the most valuable 'feature' of the Python ecosystem, even if it gets a little heated at times.
Anecdote time. Say Shameless Joe A quit college, got a physical labor job at ok-ish wages, worked his way vigorously through the ranks, and fought each step of the way to secure a better future for his next-of-kin, which in his mind was bypassing the 4-Noon, tough labor conditions he had to endure. He is absolutely going to recommend college, or the military. Others who graduated in his frame of reference got to the six figures quicker.
Say there's Successful Joe B, who graduated from college, got that nice position at the too-big-to-fail company, in a time where the pension and the wrist-watch at 25 years was still a thing. Successful Joe is going to insist Maybe Successful Mark that 'college is the one true way to fulfill all his dreams and desires', despite what those dreams and desires are, because it worked in his frame of reference.
Are both wrong for hypothesizing the rational decision to insist on higher education in this light? No, I don't think so.
But. Now let's look at the money.
Shameless Joe A isn't going to help Most Likely Successful Luke with college. Luke knows this, hopefully. Luke is then forced into figuring out how to make it happen, if it's even possible. Likely Successful Luke is now responsible for funding his education. If he's a white male with parents who make decent enough money, who have some college experience, Luke realizes pretty quickly he is seriously screwed. Luke will likely a) insist / fight on not going to college, b) join the military and have them foot the bill, or c) accept fate, and be smart about his financial choices. Even with help from the state, rising education costs will put Luke in debt at least a bit right out the gates.
Successful Joe B is smart. He set aside a nice fat account for Maybe Successful Mark, and it's grown gradually over the years. Mark is looking at minimal impact to his bottom line given that this fund is huge - books, tuition, and 4 years living-on-campus huge, as long as it's expended through his university account. Mark is flying high as a kite - no debt! Mark after graduating with the same degree as Luke now has options: a) rapidly go into debt to get all the things, or b) see the gift-horse he received for what it is, and attempt to avoid debt at all costs.
At the end of the day there is advice and choice. Developing a sense of scrutiny and critical thinking is the aim of education. If either Luke or Mark don't develop that sense, they've expended resource for nothing, and should've avoided higher education altogether.
You'd be surprised by the lack of understanding of compound interest overall.
When talking about putting away money for a retirement plan, other 20-somethings I work with are deer-in-headlights about the little known fact that the rest of their non-working quality of life starts right where they're at now, not ten years down the road after the university, home ownership, car, and child-rearing costs are taken care of.
In total transparency, my parents taught my sister and I nothing about interest rates, and co-signed a good amount of money between the two of us. One of us is debt free, while the other is still struggling to pay down a 6.x% variable 55k note, has another house note around 150k, and a car note around 35k. We both have technical degrees and work in technical professions, so what went wrong?
