Experience is the Most Important Thing in Life
Credentials Are Losing Their Value
I know some people who are perpetually studying. Well into their 30s, they pursue yet another academic degree. I was aware of such people while growing up, but it wasn’t until quite recently that I understood why people do this.
When we grow up, we’re put on a predictable path:
First, you go to school from six until eighteen years old. Then, if you’re smart enough, you go to university for four more years. Finally, it’s up to you. There’s no fixed path for the rest of your life.
What happens next is totally up to you. You can do whatever you want. Assuming you have some access to money, you can decide to go backpacking in South America. You can teach English in Asia. You can open a business in a middle income country. Or, you could do nothing.
Nobody is forcing you. Nobody is pushing you. You are free. You are free to fail. That scares a lot of people.
I spent my entire childhood fantasizing about how great my life will be when I’m finally done with school. Now that I’m eight years away from high school and four years away from my undergrad, I’m struggling.
Sure, I’ve done a lot of what I wanted to do, and much of my struggles are my own doing (moving from the United States to a developing country). These struggles, these feelings of uncertainty, they make you think; how can I avoid these feelings? If only there was a way I could avoid facing the discomfort of life.
More school!
So, you’re getting a graduate degree, not because it will teach you skills directly related to your field (that’s not the issue), but because it allows you to kick the can down the road for two more years.
Once you finish your graduate degree, you realize that you must finally face your uncomfortable emotions. Time for a doctorate!
Life Experience is Extremely Important
The problem is, university is now being pushed on everyone regardless of ability, which is a grave mistake, both for society and for the individuals who accrue debt for what sometimes amounts to nothing.
For those who are academically inclined, one alternative path is to never leave the academic environment, one whose rules are already well understood and whose path is well trodden.
They get a Master’s degree only to find that, in most cases, they are not much more employable than their peers who went to work after their undergraduate degree.
Of course, I’m not referring to people who have a graduate degree in a technical field that trains them for a very specific task – depending on the job market at the time, that may be a great decision.
I am primarily talking about people who decide to continue their humanities education, getting a graduate degree in 14th century Frankish literature, for example.
Often once the graduate degree is completed, a PhD is in order. Again, if you have a PhD in mathematics, you are very employable. Most people do not have the cognitive profile for such an education.
University has become a big business, particularly in the United States, but in many other countries as well. Universities are perfectly happy taking people’s money to give them a qualification even if there are far fewer roles requiring such a qualification.
Most people who dream of becoming a professor, for example, are in for a rough awakening once they get their PhD. Unemployment in academia is extremely high despite record university attendance.
Life experience is extremely important and culturally undervalued. I think we should stop telling young people that university degree with guarantee stability. This was true when a tiny proportion of the public went to university, but when half of the population has an undergraduate degree, it no longer confers a competitive advantage.
Your competitive advantage is no longer your credential but your experience. We should spend 25% of our time on theory and the rest on practice, not the other way around, which is the case in many educational schemes.
There’s a reason junior doctors are supervised for many years, sometimes longer than they were in medical school itself. You have to actually see patients and go through the process (I’m not talking about medical degrees in this rant; the theoretical training is absolutely necessary, and the earnings are all but guaranteed).
We need sensory input in order to remember. A hand motion, a smell, a horrible sight. We need to engage our emotions in order to truly learn.
I don’t see the point in being conspiratorial – there are plenty of at least somewhat-crazy people on the internet who will tell you that the government wants to keep the public as debt slaves and so on.
I don’t think most governments are competent enough to socially engineer the public to such a great extent.
The reality is that a lot of what our parents, teachers and government officials promised us is a bad deal, not because they have malicious intent, but because stability isn’t something you can guarantee anywhere, even in the United States.
Anybody can get sick or get into an accident. A rogue state can declare war. Everybody eventually dies. Stability is an illusion, and the sooner we embrace that, the sooner we can start living more meaningful lives.
I think that means having close ties with a few people, trying new things, taking risks, and most importantly, not worrying too much.
Let’s be realistic about what we can control and let go of what we can’t.