On Tue, 19 Mar 2013 15:20:40 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:



"F.O.A.D." wrote in message
...


Just love the disdain shown here so often for academic achievement.

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I don't notice any disdain for academic achievement here. What I
*do* notice is disdain exhibited by some for those who haven't pursued
a college degree for whatever reasons they may have. I've also
noticed that the more formal education some people have, the more they
are of the opinion that the acquisition of degrees and titles
automatically qualifies them as successful or somehow makes them
"superior".

You know I've been around a while, and I have a college degree, and I
don't look down on a plumber or a mechanic. I'm just glad I had the
opportunity to get my degree and not have to fix toilets. Just about
every laborer I've met wants to send their kids to college so they
don't have to fix toilets or cars.


I've known some people with enough advanced technical degrees and
titles to saturate
their business cards with ink but they were worthless in terms of
accomplishing much of anything.

And, I've know plenty of mechanics who couldn't change a tire without
getting someone to read the manual to them. Well, ok, they were just
incopentent and didn't fix whatever they were supposed to fix.

Many of them simply became "professional paper givers" because they
spent most of their careers attending technical conventions and
seminars, giving papers on their latest research or brainfart. Some
of this was valuable and served a purpose within the technical
community but the real work of implementing the information or data
for a useful purpose was left to the grunt engineers and technicians.

Conversely, I've known people who barely made it out of high school
apply themselves in work endeavors with tenacity, making themselves
very valuable employees in the process.

I've know professors who were highly competent and could tear down
anything mechanical, repair it and get it together, same goes with
electronics and programming. I've known some I wouldn't trust to open
a door without hitting htemselves in the head. I've also know people
without even a hs edu that had incredible street sense and good
troubleshooting skills, but almost to a person they wished they'd
stayed in school.

Not knocking college. It's a valuable key to one's career, but it's
not the only key.

Is anyone claiming that?? I didn't read it.