The truth about degrees
Education is vital, but the obsession we have with where we get it from is very unhealthy. It’s exclusionary, it’s elitist and it goes against the fundamental reason education should exist: To build collective knowledge for mutual benefit.
The truth about most degrees is that we don’t really need them to do the actual work – except for a few, think medicine, dentistry, engineering – the remainder of business, design and economic degree skills can be learned informally.
The biggest change the web has brought us is access. Access to people, access to information, access to research, access to innovation. Much of this access has circumvented the formal education channels simply because it moves too quick for them. In addition to this, we now also have the tools available to us to become an expert in almost any field. A $500 laptop and broad band cable and the rest is up to us. We can do this because we have forums where the world leading thinkers publishing all their thoughts – as they happen. We too can publish our thoughts and prove evidence of industry. That is, personal effort to obtain the expertise – and then share our earned expertise to gain reputation..
If we are waiting for ‘acceptance‘ into a forum (Ivy League School) to deliver what we know we are capable of, then we are ignoring the revolution. The revolution says that it is all here if we are prepared to prove ourselves. The barriers are gone in nearly every economic and intellectual arena – lack of formal education these days, is just an excuse.
All good points. I think we are entering a new era of information navigation rather than accumulation. e.g. the google generation vs 4 years spent reading dusty books in a library that you had to pay to get access to.
Accounting and legal prime examples. Accountants in the past provided interface to complicated taxation systems. Knowledge they acquired through years of reading. Currently any small business can navigate the ATO website and keyword search through all the docs to find the very same information that the accountants are using.
Navigation versus accumulation is a great point Ryan.
Steve.
I love it and can’t agree more – if you know what you want you’ll get it with / without degree.
Spoken like a true first-worlder. Don’t try it across the rest of Asia Pac though
Yes – this is definitely written from a first world perspective. And there is no doubt that less developed and more conservative cultures wont role this way…
Although, if ones goal is to be ‘disruptive’ then access to info and data is a more important ingredient than a qualification, regardless of where one lives.
Steve.