[starkfist]

What is the question?

The issue I have with the school-is-useless line of thinking is that the underlying assumption is that the dropout is a Good Will Hunting autodidact whose genius is confined by the educational system, and is shrewd enough to realize his educational ROI would be higher if he taught himself.

In reality, dropouts and people who don't go to school are often just people too stupid, lazy or psychologically messed up to accomplish anything.

The brilliant self-taught definitely exist, but in my experience they almost never spend time posting to online forums about how school is a waste of time.

This is coming from someone who dropped out thinking he was a genius autodidact and then went back to school when he realized he was just being stupid and lazy.

[whopa]

The poster's main issue is not that people who didn't go to school are generally better than people who did, but that people who went to school aren't generally better than people who didn't. I.e., because of grade inflation and the trend to not make students do much work, people who went to school are just as likely to be lazy and stupid as people who didn't. A degree isn't a signal for anything anymore.