BoatBanter.com - View Single Post

Califbill

wrote:
On Tue, 13 Oct 2015 15:34:49 -0400, Keyser Söze
wrote:

I'm fairly certain you are not in charge of deciding what comprises
"useful skills. We also differ on the purpose of education. You and most
others here have the trade school concept...you get educated in order to
get and hold a job. I think the purpose of education is to instill a
desire to learn, and to teach students how to use their minds, and where
to go to acquire the facts they need in order to make intelligent
decisions.

Most "useful" skills come from things I learned on my own and
experience. I think "useful" is the ability to take care of everything
around me. (house, car, boat etc) without having to call anyone.

Things I do just for esoterica are "hobbies" like reading statutes and
SCOTUS decisions. Again it was "useful" when I was trying to buy the
house next door in a tax deed sale and later a foreclosure auction. I
did hire a real lawyer but I was a little disappointed when his title
search looked exactly like mine, his advice looked exactly like the
notes I had already made and the last straw was when I pointed out to
him a little known blurb in the Florida law that allows a mortgage to
be un enforcible if the holder does not service it for a period of
time. He had the gall to call me a day later and tell me about it,
like I had not just given him the exact statute number and line number
the day before.

I will never have a law degree but it doesn't mean I can't read the
law with a pretty good degree of understanding.

I dabble in astrophysics. I will never be Neil Degrasse Tyson but I
think I could have a decent conversation with him.

I like history but I will never be a degreed historian. That doesn't
keep me from reading about it. Perhaps without listening to lectures
that are loaded with opinion, I am actually free to have one of my
own.
At that point, who is the person with independent thought?

I thought of Harry this morning.
http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine