[Altern4tiveAcc]

> You go to a university because you are deeply interested in understanding the subject that you study.

I don't think I've met anyone who fits that description. The ones deeply interested in the subject would likely skip college anyway if not for future economic prospects.

[bdavisx]

>The ones deeply interested in the subject would likely skip college anyway

Spoken like a true software engineer ;), there are jobs where you have to have a degree to get the job. "Real" engineers with sign-off responsibilities, Medical Doctors, etc.

[aleph_minus_one]

> The ones deeply interested in the subject would likely skip college anyway if not for future economic prospects.

There exist a lot of things that are much "easier" or even (currently) only possible to learn by attending a university because, for example,

- for the access to various devices and experts,

- you walk a much more "established" and "time-tested" hike for getting good in the subject,

etc.

[etiam]

Then you either really haven't tried very hard to notice them or have been in an academic environment with severe defects.

Does college even work for future economic prospects, by the way?

[Altern4tiveAcc]

> Then you either really haven't tried very hard to notice them or have been in an academic environment with severe defects.

Sure. (?)

> Does college even work for future economic prospects, by the way?

Where I live, a college degree is a legal requirement for a lot of professions that pay more than entry level jobs (although not all of them). So, people go to college to get a better paying job in a few years than they could get by immediately entering the workforce.

[etiam]

> Sure. (?)

Most of the universities I've been in have had well above the occasional one. I'm certainly not saying that has to be true everywhere, but for academic level studies it's pretty sad if the fraction is zero.

> Where I live, a college degree is a legal requirement for a lot of professions that pay more than entry level jobs (although not all of them). So, people go to college to get a better paying job in a few years than they could get by immediately entering the workforce.

Fair enough, and I guess we have that here too, with a hard requirement for certain jobs as a proper lawyer or psychotherapist, and soft but compelling requirement for stuff like real estate agent or investment banker. Most college degrees are a dead loss economically compared to starting work immediately in a craft profession with high demand, such as plumber or welder, which is the reason I question the motivation. But not everyone has the capacity for learning skills like that I guess, and it's nice if there are still places that are still willing to pay well for academics.

[Altern4tiveAcc]

> Most college degrees are a dead loss economically compared to starting work immediately in a craft profession with high demand, such as plumber or welder, which is the reason I question the motivation.

I think then the core difference could be in the places we live. Here, it's common for government jobs to require a college degree. Some of those do not require a specific degree, as the position itself doesn't need it, but you still need a degree to apply.

It's also common for pay grades to be tied to how far one went academically (graduate, masters, doctors, etc.). Again, speaking strictly about government jobs, which are a non-trivial part of the economy here.

> Most of the universities I've been in have had well above the occasional one. I'm certainly not saying that has to be true everywhere, but for academic level studies it's pretty sad if the fraction is zero.

That's fair and I believe you. I worded my post in the first person to make it clear I was talking about people I met, and others' experiences may be different.

[etiam]

Thanks for the insights.

I'd say there are a fair bit of elements of that sort of gating for government jobs here as well actually, but here that's not so important for earning prospects since they're mostly not all that well paid (exception for C-suite and equivalents, but my impression is those are almosts always awarded more on the basis of contacts and CV achievements).

Sorry if my objection came across as overly antagonistic, but what I was trying get across is precisely that while your experiences are unassailable as your experience, it may not be very representative of what's out there.

I wonder whether the guy who botted the profitability question (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48428763) could do genuine interest too, or is that inaccessible for examination over the Internet...

[Altern4tiveAcc]

> Sorry if my objection came across as overly antagonistic

Apologies accepted, no worries.

> while your experiences are unassailable as your experience, it may not be very representative of what's out there.

Of course. I try to speak in the first person when talking about my experiences, as a way to make that point (that they may not be representative of what's out there) more explicit.