<p>You know, living your life the way you want to instead of following society's rules of high school -> college -> grad school -> slaving away for someone else (job) -> spouse -> kids -> house -> die. It just seems like the majority of kids on CC have already imprinted their lives with society's cookie cutter. They never question it. As strange as it may sound, this cookie cutter life is not set in stone. It's your life, you can live it however you want to.</p>
<p>For me, at least, the cookie cutter life doesn't sound so appealing. </p>
<p>Jobs are for suckers. Find a way to make money without selling your soul to a boss who doesn't care about you.</p>
<p>Looking back, I can see the pros of not going to college.</p>
<p>I think learning a trade is just as useful. Especially when you consider the general nature of degrees (mostly Liberal Arts) and job opportunities. I think learning to be an electrician, carpenter or plumber should be just as a viable option.</p>
<p>I mean, how many Political Science majors does the world really need?</p>
<p>But, the world will always need plumbers and electricians. Plus, the salary discrepency isn’t what it use to be. I have a buddy that is an electrician (independent) and pulls in over $100,000 per year.</p>
<p>Military is another great option. Join up for 4 years, save up your money - not a bad way to start your life off.</p>
<p>I would hardly consider college to be the “cookie cutter” routine for americans. Less than a third of americans actually have a college degree of some form.
([America</a> The Uneducated](<a href=“Bloomberg - Are you a robot?”>Bloomberg - Are you a robot?))</p>
<p>No, college is not for everyone. And yes, some degrees pretty much exist just to get you in the door (ie there are a ton of jobs that just ask for a b.a. or b.s., and don’t care about the major), but there are some college degrees that point you in a specific direction (ie engineering).</p>
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… There are a ton of college degrees that will keep you away from that.</p>
<p>My sister didn’t go what you call “the traditional route” (she went to a trade school), and her soul may as well be owned by her boss and barely makes enough to get by on. (you’d think in such an in-demand field it would be easier; she’s a nurse).</p>
<p>Yeah, I considered joining the military after high school but peer pressure kinda put me off on it. I went to a very preppy private school, I can’t recall the last time a person in recent history joined the military after graduating (a few go to one of the service academies every once in a while, but that’s it). Plus my parents would not have had any of it.</p>
<p>Still considering it though. I think I’m disqualified from joining anyway, which kinda sucks.</p>
<p>By “cookie cutter” I mean the path that society pressures kids to follow, not the path they actually follow. Your statistic is irrelevent. The fact is that society pressures kids to go to college to get a good job to get a good wife to get a good house, etc.</p>
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<p>This is a huge problem.</p>
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<p>That’s fine. If you want to be a doctor, lawyer, engineer, or enter into any field that requires a degree (excluding the previously mentioned jobs that just require a B.A. or B.S. as a screening tool), go to college.</p>
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<p>Like what? All college degrees will get you is a job. Most people prefer to work for themselves rather than for somebody else. You don’t need a college degree to start a business.</p>
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<p>Your sister screwed up big time. Not only does she have a job where she works for somebody else, it’s a crappy job. At least college graduates have jobs that are more interesting and pay better. Don’t go to trade school to work for someone else, go to trade school to start your own business with your skills.</p>
<p>The ultimate goal is to work for yourself making a decent amount of money doing something you like.</p>
<p>If I wasn’t interested in engineering, I’m not sure what I’d do. (I can’t see asking my parents to pay as much as they do for my education if I was majoring in underwater basket weaving).</p>
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Actually, you do need a college degree to start some businesses. Starting up a biotech business, for example. If you don’t have the education, there’s no way anyone would invest in you. (Mind you, I’d rather join the circus than go that route. It’s just an example).</p>
<p>From how I understand it, the reason why there are “filler” jobs (jobs that just want some degree) is to decrease the number of potential applicants to a job. With an increasing number of students going to college as compared to a few decades ago, jobs that used to only require a high school diploma need something more.
Not saying that it’s ‘right,’ but employers like to see that you could make it through a b.a./b.s.</p>
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Hardly. She loves a lot about her job. And it’s always changing. </p>
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Yes, it is relevant. It’s not “society” specifically- it’s middle and upper class society that is pressuring kids to go to college. In my city, we’ve been hit hard by some disasters, which hit the economy… I’d say fewer than a 20% of high school graduates go to a 4 year college (and I’m probably seriously over-exaggerating that number). I was the odd one out in my youth group for going away to school (but everyone in my high school went to college, simply because it was a prep school).</p>
<p>This is true, and an excellent reason to get a college degree. If you want to start up a high tech business, get a degree. But the fact is, most kids aren’t going to college so they can start a business in the field they’re studying. They go to college to work for someone else. </p>
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<p>You said her boss owns her and she makes barely enough to get by. That doesn’t sound nice. She may enjoy some aspects of her job, but she’s not working for herself. </p>
Pavlina is arguing for the value of a scalable career. However, he ignores the incredible risk involved in dedicating oneself to a scalable occupation. By definition, a small number of people do exceedingly well but most fail utterly. You might as well by a lottery ticket.
Quite apart from the fact that no sources are cited, the argument here is entirely contingent on Pavlina’s main thesis being correct. You can’t justify self-employment based on the idea that working for someone else gives you no experience useful in self-employment.
This point uses lots of colorful language and exaggeration, but doesn’t actually offer any logical support. Why is it inherently bad to follow instructions? Does this mean that we should all move to Somalia to avoid legal enforcement mechanisms?
This only works if you can generate an equal amount of real value without employment. We are given no reason to assume that this is the case.
Unless a risk-free unemployed approach is presented, these harms are present in either scenario. They may be mitigated by targeting stable employers and industries.
Yet more illogical rhetoric. Pavlina is dependent on internet traffic from the online masses, arguably the most revolting and undeserving group of masters imaginable.
Nobody is “free to decide how much [they] get paid”. Pavlina’s model is contingent on many more factors than a traditional employment model.
So, don’t have an inbred social life. This may be a pretty good piece of advice, but it isn’t contingent on an unemployed lifestyle.
Crossapply my points on #3.
So, don’t become a coward. There’s no evidence supporting Pavlina’s conclusions.</p>
<p>I’m in school at the moment, and for the most part, it’s a waste of time. I’m not one of those technical majors, so I’m planning on taking time off after next semester to start a small business or figure out what makes sense.</p>
<p>Don’t bother trying to convince anyone here though. The vast majority of CC posters will miss the forest for the trees – nitpicking logical details of a blog post instead of realising the greater point of the message.</p>
<p>I wish I had waited to go to school until I could apply for financial aid independently. There was really no rush with the kind of work I want to do. I could go to straight to work and make 20-30k a year, or I could go to college, take on 50k in debt, and make 20-30k-- and if I’d waited I could have gotten the degree without nearly as much debt. In hindsight going straight to college wasn’t a practical decision, but nobody ever suggests that to an 18 year old.</p>
<p>I have seriously considered becoming an electrician or carpenter. I may yet, depending on whether or not I decide I want to do grad school after getting my degree.</p>
<p>All I know is I really enjoy woodworking, and it’d be nice to have a job that gets me moving instead of sitting at a desk.</p>
<p>I think education is necessary whether it’s to get a good job or only to learn. The best way to get educated is by going to school and experience from only living life without school will only give you a narrow perspective of the world. </p>
<p>You see working and having a job too much as a negative. Some people actually love what they do and have a good time working at their job and others just really enjoy the money they get from that job, which otherwise they wouldn’t have. </p>
<p>My life plan goes as high school–>College–>law school–>getting a job that i like–> living a great life. Probably get married at some point after I’ve achieved all that but it’s not on the to do list and kids is a complete NO for me.</p>
Spoken like someone who’s lived a insular life. Some of the smartest men who ever lived were terrible in school. Hint: they didn’t “have a narrow perspective of the world”. </p>
<p>Fun fact: I’ve learned more about the world from Wikipedia than from any $1500 300-person anthropology course.</p>
My mom has actually tried to convince several of her friends that they should not be paying 30-50 k a year for their kids to go to school if they weren’t even motivated in high school (this is for the kids not even going to a top 100 school, but just a really expensive private college). (She has a PhD in psychology, specifically dealing in adolescents)
Typically, the parents don’t listen. Of them, at least half of the kids fail out within a year or two.</p>