a lot is going on in science and also in applied science and actual invention, not just nifty articles in Atlantic. On net, this means you should spend more time consuming YouTube videos (try this one on protein folding). They tend to be current, and to explain difficult matters in visual and also in fairly memorable terms. There will be such videos for virtually every new advance. You should read fewer normal books, more vertigo-inducing books, and spend less time on social media. You should read more Wikipedia articles, and when you read books you should select more from the history of science and times of turmoil. You should read this blog more often too.
I think that the way you acquire “higher education” may be changing. College may be less all-encompassing and instead more transactional.
Why would you want to go to college these days? I am not just talking about COVID issues–assume the virus restrictions go away.
When I went to college, almost every course was serious. Even “Physics for Poets” was intended to convey important knowledge. Now if you want a rigorous education you have to select courses carefully. And if you want a mentor, you should pick someone like Tyler or someone like me.
When I went to college, there was no substitute for a good professor. Now, there are many more books on academic subjects written for a popular audience. Plus YouTube. [I wrote those two sentences before I saw Tyler’s post.]
When I went to college, high school graduates were ready to experience independence, and the institutions respected that. Today, they have administrators and counselors hovering over you. They’re worse than parents! Telling you what you can and cannot say. Giving you detailed restrictions regarding sexual conduct.
And while we’re on that subject, when I went to college it was a unique opportunity for finding potential mates. Many people my age found their spouses at college. Today, there’s an app for that. These days, by far the number one way spouses meet is through online dating services.
What to do instead of going to college right away? The old-fashioned options include getting a job or backpacking abroad, and I would not argue with either of those.
But I recommend asking for funding from your parents to take a road trip with a friend. Find a friend who is neither more nor less adventurous than you are. (If one of you wants to smoke pot and the other one doesn’t, it’s not a good match.) Get a reasonably reliable car.
Tour the United States. Read ahead of time about national parks, interesting small towns, and what to see in major cities. Save notes either on paper or in electronic format.
Pack a tent, some clothes, some electronics, some food coolers. . .Sleep mostly in the tent, usually at a campground. Every ten days or so try to get a bed and laundry facilities for a night. One approach would be to query your social network to find somebody’s friend or relative who lives in the state where you happen to be driving.
Don’t go with an unlimited data plan on your smart phone. Don’t rely on it for entertainment. Minimize your use of GPS. You can ask people for directions.
Introduce yourselves to people everywhere you go. Spend several days in one place if you find it particularly friendly.
Going to college right away will reinforce your fears and insecurities. Taking a road trip instead will help you approach grown-up life with more assurance.
Do a stint in the military.
+1
(or learn a trade like auto mechanics)
Trade in 1 statist ideology (University) for another (Military).
Or a stint in Americorps. Somewhere far from home that offers free housing. There are a couple of free group homes for such “volunteers” on Cape Cod, for example, I believe. You won’t get as good education benefits as through military, but you will get employment preference with federal government that might be parlayed into a student intern that might ease some of the financial burden of purchasing credentials.
Maybe don’t use the GPS and mapping just to find the most efficient way to get from A to B. That’s boring, and you miss a lot. But DO use the GPS to explore back roads and back-country trails with confidence. Track your route so you can always go back the way you came. With GPS and electronic trail maps, you won’t get lost in the wilderness and won’t bite off more than you can chew by under-estimating distances and times. There have been a number of occasions when I’ve been stopped on the trail by people asking “Are we almost to x?”, when the answer is, “No, and there’s no way you’re going to make it there and back before it gets dark”. And they all had phones in their pockets that could have told them exactly that if they’d bothered to use them.
“These days, by far the number one way spouses meet is through online dating services.“
Which might lock you into a local area and culture. Consider meeting foreign women. You may not discover that your true nationality is other than the one assigned at birth until you get out and spend time with other people elsewhere.
Doing the farm labor “backpacker” gig in Australia might still be viable. There are international networks for working on organic farms and the like. Foreign internships are also available. In my day people would get temp jobs in Ireland. Closer to home, try a summer lifeguard gig or working a job at the shore were there are many temp workers from overseas. Make friends and then go visit them in their home country. Liberate your love life from online control and earn money and gain experience while doing it.
“Pack a tent, some clothes, some electronics, some food coolers. . .Sleep mostly in the tent, usually at a campground. ”
I think Kling needs to re-watch some 70s teen horror movies.
8% of people in relationships met their partner through an online service according to this recent survey
https://www.reportlinker.com/insight/finding-love-online.html
This might not be a great survey, I found it after a quick search, but I suspect Kling’s claim is not at all true. Economists are normally good about checking their impressions against actual data and evidence.
And secondly, even when people meet online, I suspect college is still important an important factor. Many online daters look to college background as an important criteria and college is still the dominant social institution for assigning peer groups of 18-22 year olds.
His comment on online dating is clueless, but the general point that nobody gets married in college anymore is true. If your high IQ enough to get a college degree you probably aren’t going to marry anyone you date before age 25.
https://www.statista.com/chart/20822/way-of-meeting-partner-heterosexual-us-couples
How are we defining “partner/couple” here?
A lot of people date a lot of people before they get married, and many of the people they meet online through a site like Tinder are not…marriage material.
I can only go by my own observation, but online coupling seems to be significantly more transient and less likely to lead to successful long term marriage then more traditional means of introduction.
Yeah, I think the *only* real value of college these days is assortative mating. Far fewer lawyers marrying their secretaries even on their second or third marriage.
In general, and speaking as a high school teacher who doesn’t overvalue college, I’m unimpressed with this advice. I would actively oppose it.
The opportunity cost of building work experience or getting an education is never lower than it is at 18. To waste that time on a road trip is something only the rich should even consider.
In the culture that middle-class 18-year-olds inhabit today, I would prioritize getting a sense of being able to handle different situations and engage with Americans who are different from yourself way more than furthering their education. My fear is that college these days encourages a form of “learned helplessness” in the face of manipulation/indoctrination.
” I would prioritize getting a sense of being able to handle different situations and engage with Americans who are different from yourself way more than furthering their education”
A job will do that nicely.
How much do you charge for mentoring services? I have a few children that will need one in the next couple of years.
My kids attended a collection of Enormous State Universities and top 10 private schools for undergrad and graduate schools. They were all science majors; neurobiology, biochem, bio. I never heard any of this victimhood stuff.
Is this sort of thing confined to private schools lower down the list? Or non-science/tech majors?
And, they all travel just as Dr. Kling advises. Long hikes. Sleeping in tents. Cross country road trips.
Can’t say I taught them anything; not science, not travel and not camping.