[visaals]

After the experience of meeting the Uber driver with an degree in actuarial science unable to apply his education it shattered my rose colored glasses about how education today is "The Great Equalizer" and the solution to all of our problems.

I wanted to share these thoughts to discuss any cool ideas to bridge the gap between an education and effectively increasing opportunity for people as automation take away more and more low-skill jobs

[WhiteOwlEd]

Founder of https://www.whiteowleducation.com here. Undergrad dual major in Actuarial Science and Computer Science (with a MBA a long time after undergrad).

Without additional context, my guess would be that the Uber driver maybe focused on applications of math and statistics to the insurance industry, but maybe focused more on passing actuarial exams and less on using programming in order to implement the models. Some of the actuarial exams cover finance, statistics, and math; it feels like the driver would be suited to do data science work. It would be interesting to hear more about where the driver is located and whether he/she was only targeting the insurance industry or if that person was looking at other jobs in analytics.

EDIT: I started my business on the premise that universities teach a lot of "fundamentals", but that I don't believe higher education does not do as much as they should to teach the practical "day to day" skills (like data visualization or software version control / git) that are needed to get development work done. My thought is that a couple of online courses can quickly help to bridge the gap between theory and practice.

[hervature]

I'm a little more skeptic than you. I don't think an Uber driver would admit that they failed the prerequisite exams required to enter the field. This is just the system working. Barring entry to those who have a degree but didn't actually learn the skills.

[visaals]

I like the idea! Maybe it shouldn't be only college or nothing else but rather a mix of college + an industry specific bootcamp OR more co-op or shadowing programs that could bridge the gap.

I think the solution might lie in teaching people the process of learning what they don't know on their own. Some people are just naturally "scrappy" or want something so bad they'll go out of their way to figure it out without connections. Maybe if we can deconstruct that into a course it could help people chart their own path rather than rely on other people to tell them what to do.

[xwolfi]

Don't be down just because you met one guy - who knows, maybe he cant work a week without insulting a client.

Dont forget that when colleges didnt exist for everyone, say 200 years ago, most people were farmers.

People are selective when it comes to timeframe, but it's just a mean regression - some periods reach peak, some get back lower, but all in all, we're trending up.

[rayiner]

Farming is arguably more complicated and requires more domain knowledge than most service jobs today.

[bluefirebrand]

I don't even know if this is arguable. Most service jobs likely could be trained within a week at most. The most complicated part generally involves learning how to operate a point of sale system. Most of them could be operated by anyone, which is why self checkouts are a thing now.

Farming on the other hand, especially modern farming, must take a lot longer to learn. There is a lot more to learn about your equipment alone, nevermind your crops, fertilizers, rotating fields, weather patterns, etc.

[gumby]

Most farmers in wealthy countries today have Ag Ec degrees and are spreadsheet jockeys, whether they want to be (many do) or not.

[xwolfi]

My point was that there was no choice but to break your back to pay the Dime tax to your local church, but ofc I couldn't farm a potato if my life depended on it.

Do you still miss the time where we were all farmers ?

[visaals]

He seemed like a genuinely nice dude who came from humble background who tried to improve his life situation but failed to do so, but at the same time you're right there could be something I'm missing from only having a ~20 minute chat with him.

I agree that we're trending up which should feel AMAZING, but we're human so people's individual stories are what make us feel the most ;)

Also at my high school the metric for our school's success was 99%+ of the graduating class going to college, and it felt like pure vanity because it meant more likely than not tons of people going into debt and getting nothing out of it for the sake of "education"

[xwolfi]

Well I can give me my case then, I was raised in Normandy by a familly of small shop owners, went to the local college paid by taxes and now work in an investment bank in Hong Kong.

I feel the problem is not that college is useless even if massively used, but maybe the american pricing of education is not aligned with expected returns, as you pointed out. It's far from mandatory in the countries I know to take a big loan for studies. Usually it's even more everyone else struggling to pay taxes for you to go.

[visaals]

Agreed! This dilemma could be solved if college was much cheaper. Another commenter mentioned his annual tuition in Italy was about 2k euros which is unheard of here in the states... It's hard to have a negative ROI at that point.

[mettamage]

> The story that hit me the hardest was when I was chatting with an Uber driver

This sentence implies that he didn’t meet “one guy”

[ip26]

I enjoyed your writing. It looks like you haven't written much since; life get in the way? Readership low? etc?

[visaals]

Wow that's the first time someone has said that (other than my immediate friends and family lol), so thank you!

Mind if I ask what in particular you liked? I am interested about certain topics like education + improving access to opportunity + building cool stuff with tech + thinking about economic systems and incentives to drive success, but I also don't to come off as someone who just yells into the void about my opinions.

[ip26]

Rather than specific topic, I just enjoyed hearing your perspective, experience, and reflection on those things. Your 'writing voice' is relatable.