Education Has Failed Us

When I graduated from the university, I completely lacked diplomacy and people skills I will admit. I am slowly gaining them on my own, often the hard way, but I keep wondering why the education system does not help out in that area.

I think part of the problem is that the curriculum tends to come from "research universities" where if you are a big enough research whiz, you don't really need diplomacy skills. As long as your papers earn NobelPrizes, your Idiosyncrasies are forgiven. However, few of us are that lucky, and have to deal with the real world to survive. Now that globalization is making BrainsAsaCheapCommodity, the problem is growing more acute. It is time schools get a clue rather than chase prestige or mirror those that do.

Politics are just as important in academia. How else does one line up research resources? And if one is a big enough sales whiz, s/he doesn't really need diplomacy skills. The notion that schools fail to teach people skills is false. Schools fail to teach the type of people skills necessary in a culture outside of academia. This perception seems to be more a function of CultureShock than anything else.
- Many schools focus on teaching people product skills.. personally I have found self learning to be superior. However, I don't think many people can benefit from self learning unless they are extremely dedicated to learning... i.e. obsessed with it.. having basically a tiny social life if any at all. Consider people like Knuth who openly admit on their websites that they are hermits.. just as people like myself proudly admit to such behavior. Schools force people to learn and GetaLife.. but most extremely smart people are not just taught by schools, but rather self taught too (a combination of some school knowledge and some self taught knowledge is good, but I emphasize on self teaching if possible.. as ultimately you yourself are the only one who can teach yourself, even if someone else facilitates the teaching or catalysts it for you). You yourself are also the only person that can manage your own time... and many people do not manage their learning time. Instead they spend time doing things that don't matter in life. The focus on LifesTooShort means people spend time on airplanes, in cars, in airports, in new places, etc. which isn't required. It's nice, occasionally.. like say once every 20 years to travel... But IMO one has to be extremely dedicated and focused on learning at least 5-14 hours per day.. every day.. in order to get anywhere in this world.. with regards to smarts and knowledge.
- Very few people have the luxury of being hermits. Most advancement options in IT are in management for good or bad, and you don't become a good manager by being a hermit.
- Good, because I do not wish to ever become a manager - if someone becomes a manager, please injure them. Aim instead to invent, create, write. If it involves some management skills then that is fine.. but management itself is nothing. It is a means to an end.
- Management is usually the easier path to money than inventing. Of course, inventing has it's own rewards besides money, although better tasting chickens is not one of them.
- Actually, it is. You just have to find the right restaurant.
- KFC!
- EyesRoll

Waning Physical

Another thing, there seems too much emphasis on continuous math and physics. Mechanical and geometric engineering is going over seas because labor is cheaper there. Descrete math and fuzzy logic may be where the US future is as the US is specializing in marketing, management, and high-risk investments rather than manufacturing and physical processes. It is intellectual and capital processing rather than physical processing. The schools seem slow to make the change. Military applications may be the last holdout.

Father Guido Sarducci on the Five Minute University: http://www.cs.washington.edu/info/videos/asx/5minuteU.asx

http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=ConWebDoc.9662

Quote: "A reductionist, programming mindset does not adapt well to uncertainty, emergent behaviour, the unexpected and the study of the whole."

IMNSHO, teaching only the latest programming tools (languages, applications, OSes) is trade school behavior. You need to have exposure to the theory to understand anything. I have an anecdote about OO and philosophy that is a fine illustration of this. --PeteHardie

I wish there was a decent underlying theory to OO.

There is a decent underlying theory to OO, abstract algebra, studied as an undergraduate mathematics course. --ChuckCottrill

CategoryEducation