On 10/13/2015 8:21 AM, Justan Olphart wrote:



You don't understand the college experience. It's not just "the
information," and, no, I am not referring to fraternity parties.


You want to learn esoteric facts for self worth, pay for that
education.
If the rest of society is paying the bills, they should get a
return on
those investments. I take classes these days for fun and to learn
something new. But why should the taxpayers pick up 80% of the
cost of me
taking a guitar class? And way to much overhead in
universities these
days, as well as the primary schools. Some university had
Mexican Food Day
in e cafeteria, been doing it for years. Two students
complained, as was
degrading to Mexicans. So the "Associate executive Vice
President for
Student Affairs" apologized. First, tell the complainers to
suck it up.
And if you have to have titles like that VP, you have way too many
administrators!



"Esoteric facts for self worth..."

Hehehe.

Gotta love rec.bloats.


And what I s wrong about not having the public pay for someone's
desire the
learn some great Trivial Pursuit answers, while we end up paying
them
welfare when they can not find a job playing Trivial Pursuit
after they
graduate?



Hey, Bilious, if you think the answer is Trivial Pursuit, then you
don't
understand the questions. Gotta love rec.bloats.


Nope, I got an Engineering degree. Yours is the Trivial Pursuit path.


Posit: a degree in electrical engineering is obsolete the day it is
issued. A degree in mechanical engineering, however, is not.


Actually mine is an Electro-mechanical discipline. And is never
obsolete..
May need some continuing education, which I did. But other than faster,
and smaller, most notably is still appropriate. Actually, they big want
these days, is for old analog engineers.

Ohm's Law hasn't changed. As you point out, everything an EE learns
in school still applies, just with different packaging for the most
part. When our main design engineer graduated, DSP's didn't exist.
Now our product is loaded with them, and he designs the circuits and
writes the code. The rest of the circuitry is exactly what was taught
in school.

The writer's posit is wrong.

There are no known uses for Harry's skills and training.


Harry reminds me very much of someone else I know who is just about
the same age as Harry.

He majored in college in English with a minor in journalism.
Following graduation he entered the Army. I think he was drafted
because he only served for two years as a second lieutenant which
included a short tour of duty in Vietnam as an Army journalist/photographer.

Today, 40 something years later, in social gatherings he invariably
ends up talking about his time in the Army and the fact that he's a vet.
He has "Vietnam Vet" tags on his car and wears the typical "Vietnam Vet"
geezer ball cap wherever he goes. He's proud of his service but after
a while the constant references to his service starts to become
repetitious and obnoxious in a way, especially to other vets like me
who spent many more years on active duty but rarely talk about it or
even think about it. It was a period of time for most of us .. a
chapter in our lives ... and we all moved on.

I was talking to my wife about him after he visited us a while back and
mentioned that he seemed to be living in the past all the time. Then it
dawned on me why. The time he spent in the Army writing news stories
was the highlight of his entire working career. He never really did
much else of any consequence. He wrote for various local and small town
newspapers or periodicals as a free-lance contributor from time to time
but that was about it. His wife worked full time for a major company
for over 20 years while he did various odd-jobs, more as a "handyman"
with the occasional writing for the local paper.

I've met and known hundreds of engineers and physicists over the years.
None spend much time talking about their degrees, how many they hold or
even where they went to school. It really doesn't matter in the real
world, other than getting the job opportunity in the first place.

Harry reminds me of the guy I described. Based on his countless posts
about his education, his multiple degrees and his sense that the
education, types of degrees and work experience can't possibly compare
to his capability of "abstract thinking" (which, BTW, is part of *any*
college level ... heck .. even high school level course of study) makes
me think the highlight of *his* career was going to school and that's
about it, much like the other guy who's highlight was his two year stint
in the Army .... 40 something years ago.