And then we invented LLMs.

And if you are really good at what you do, awesome - no problems. I will note that a degree isn't always the path to those extra zero's. In my own case, I didn't work in my actual field until after I retired and was offered a job I couldn't refuse.

Can you do a dissertation on how say, a Gender Studies degree is worth the same amount as say, an EE degree?

Been my experiences that the Opinion degrees tend to not be as monetarily rewarding as those that take some serious study and application. Not for nothing, not everyone has the ability to be an electrical engineer, and certainly renumeration in ones career is likewise not a universal metric. Some people do things just for the love of it.

But some degrees offer one career path - you replace the professor or instructor. So if 300 people are trying to replace just a few, the employment prospect in the field are going to leave a lot of people having to be employed elsewhere. And a few degrees are even considered a bit toxic today.

There is a point to that. It is a mix of things. Having self esteem driven into them without having any real accomplishments, being told that having a degree - any degree - made them ubermenchen. Social expectations delivered to them that they had no boundaries, and Pop culture expectations that took a few young successful people, led many to believe that was the norm, that they deserved to have a big paycheck at their introductory level job, and have a meteoric rise to leadership positions almost immediately.

As well as having a really rough time trying to understand that. I have long been on record that these young people have been really shortchanged by us, their parents. Yet if I mention anything that might be considered mild criticism, I am set upon like a wildebeest by crocodiles. Every so often you have to take a telling.

My experience is mostly with Millennials, and perhaps the latest demographic might have it worse.

But the millennials where I was came in thinking that anyone around their parents age was there to support them. They would go around barking orders to much more senior people. I watched them sort of freak out when they discovered the old dude was much more knowledgable than them.

We had things like the young lady who started playing manager with me - one of the things I did was take overload from the illustrators. She was assigning work to me. I found out she was spending the time on Facebook - back before old people took over FB.

A woman who took over 6 months time off in one year to travel, and mental health days.

A guy who started yelling at me because I pointed at his laptop screen. "Don't you EVER, EVER touch my computer!" Told him I didn't touch it. "I said DONT!" I sent him packing

The guy who ignored my phone calls, then told me he only does text messages. I told him he would answer my phone calls, or I would visit him personally, along with the Director. You don't come in and dictate the rules on your first hire.

Interesting, two of the best employees I ever worked with were millennials, They left too, but not for job problems. One wanted to get an MBA, but the Dean insisted she be full time, so she moved back with her family in a city where she could work and pursue her degree. The other was offered a masters to Doctorates free ride at another university. Point is, the basic rules haven't changed. Start your new first career job, have some humility, do really good work, and move up the ladder at a pace the ladder allows. Save money, invest wisely, live within your means, and you'll hit your goals in a more realistic time than "immediately". I didn't become so called "wealthy" until I was in my late 40's, and yes, wealth begets wealth.

I didn't make the rules.

I can write an entire OS from scratch, do they call me a code monkey? No, they do not. But you fuck one toaster. Say hi to your mom.

I don't see a rash of bans, but I do see the same abusers of moderation given all the mod points they can use every day.

If I were to hazard a guess, I'll note that in my place of employment for the past 30 plus years, there were groups like HR that would employ some of the more esoteric Liberal art majors, degreed people.

Today, there are perhaps more candidates than positions, and yes, some majors are considered a bit toxic.

We have created this problem by making available loans that allowed people who perhaps didn't have much business being in college to spend 4 years or more of their life living and going to school and having "the college experience", then, to borrow a phrase, having the "Surprised Pikachu Face" when reality hit that they were going to have to obtain employment and actually pay off that loan. Some have debts amounting to a modest house's value.

In reality, there is a difference between degrees that have gainful employment prospects, and those that do not. As well, I'm a little suspicious of the monovariant analysis that has been quite popular regarding employment renumeration, especially when dealing with large groups.

You can thank student loans for that. Earlier generations got their schooling subsidized, but now people have to get loans to pay for it themselves instead. Colleges therefore could raise tuition. Then a bipartisan effort in Congress was launched to make sure we couldn't discharge those loans through bankruptcy like you can gambling or other personal debts, which was led by Joseph R Biden. I think we know how that turned out, forgiveness for a few of the worst abused players, and blaming inability to keep his campaign promises related to partial forgiveness for all buyers blamed on Congress while he went around them to fund genocide in Gaza.

I thought of that, but I dump cookies on exit. So unless they've found a new place to sneak them onto my machine, that probably isn't it.

Then they are happy, and I am happy for them - they have found their solution. Ten again - If you as a business have zero options. than A Microsoft product, if the very success is predicated on Office 365, without which it all falls apart - you've created a monoculture.

There are two parts to this Culture and education. No doubt I'll anger some people, but here we go.

Colleges played an integral part in the incredible lack of connection he decries.

Because right now, they are pretty darn toxic.

He speaks of a "Loneliness epidemic". It certainly is true, there is one. But that atmosphere that has been created doesn't help a bit. As the female to male ratio has been increasing, there are less men available, and the ease with which a man can be destroyed plays some part in young college age males avoiding relationships.

I get Cleary reports as required by law. I get maybe one a year now. That colleges have been an unqualified success in reducing sexcrime, real or interpreted is beyond argument. They have also caused many young men to avoid young women completely as a protective mechanism.

And many of these young ladies understandably hate the results.

Whereas once upon a time, you would see many men and women in obvious relationships or just friends around the campus, today maybe 10 percent of the people I see are interacting with the opposite sex. Guys hanging out together, gals the same. So many more woman than men, and the males don't seem to be affected much by the situation. No question that this is not a good situation.

Can this change? It will require a huge culture shift. I do note that a lot of women are changing their approach. In the past year, I've seen a lot of women have lost the "College scowl" that was so popular since around 2005. More women actually smile and speak to me without prompting, and without the "whatever" attitude. I believe that the loneliness epidemic affects women more than men.

Point is, the College culture has to change - a lot. And those who created the present culture are going to resist, mightily.

Now Education

Sure - education for many of these kids was a colossal waste of money. Loans that they lived on before getting a worthless degree, graduating in big debt and finding out they have less employment opportunities than the guy who quit high school in 10th grade. They might have had fun living their best life and having that sweet College Experience, but really - didn't they check on the post graduation employment prospects?

Meanwhile those in majors that had good employment prospects have been able to secure jobs that pay well, and have paid down their loans.

We really do need a lot of revamping of academia. But it's going to take a miracle to change the present culture, which is the polar opposite of Genuine human community, but rather a deconstruction of human community. I suspect it will have to completely fall apart, then rebuilt with a more even handed paradigm.

Um... I feel weird having to say this, but the Internet turned out to be a total piece of shit way before AI. I'm not sure how anyone can genuinely look at its evolution through user owned content, music sharing, something awful, eyebleach, consolidation and centralization, absolute shit tier advertising that makes "this station does not endorse and isn't responsible for this paid promotional content" 5am buy gold ads look good, social media propaganda, 4chan, gamer gates, short form video algorithmic brain rot pc master race tech bro culture and come away with ... Cursor, Kiro, Copilot, THEY were the real downfall.

What fucking Internet have you been on the past twenty years? Just how out of touch with BOTH the Internet and meatspace do you have to be, to see coding tools, or Bigfoot AI slop as the problem in all this.

It's worth *something*, but the price has been outpacing inflation by a wide margin for years and years.

So we have value, but the price has been running away...

Maybe it is just synchronicity, or maybe these mega corporations like Google and Faceplant share way too much of our data.

I was using tent heater reviews on Youtube, lo and behold, the very brand I was gravitating towards on YT, shows up in my FB feed. Other times, similar things happen.

I don't consider it a huge invasion of privacy, but the creepy level goes up to 11 that I'd much rather not have. I hate to see how much of that happens with a computer that isn't battened down hard.

I've run along for years using one or the other Open Office applications. Right now, I'm using Libre Office and their spreadsheet app. It's ahem... better. It will open documents 365 won't, and it is cross platform compatible.

If people want to spend money on something they can get for free - you know what they say about fools and their money.