I forget the name of the class in business school but it was something about financial markets, the entire class was just advanced calculus it had literally nothing to do with financial markets. If we want to talk about how foolish some subjects are taught, that’s a whole other can of worms.
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I took a programming for social science class and it was basically the ta or a friend sitting by my computer telling me what to do 
When you get to the real world and don’t have a ta talking you want to do, you’ll always have Google and stack exchange for that lol
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These two have solved more problems for me than anything.
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Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Einstein (he of the Albert persuasion) have to work with mathematicians at times? To paraphrase Will Rogers, there isn’t one of us who’s smarter than all of us.
Good topic and convo, by the way 
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I don’t blame people for this. Stats is easily the worst taught subject.
"Alright class, today we are going to learn about the The cumulative distribution function. The cumulative distribution function is defined as Pr(X < K) = Sigma[I=0,K](P^i(1-p)^(n-i) where K is the floor under k or the greatest integer less than or equal to k.
Everyone got that? Great now our example: There is an apple tree with 100 seeds…"
What did I just hear?
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Agree … I didn’t have a good grasp until I started doing my own analyses IRL and having to give presentations / reports on my results
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I had a programming/database class in my masters program today should have been just showing us how to Google and use stack exchange bc I learned more applicable things from then than that fucking class
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Our programming prof actually used the last class for this
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So I’m one of the few non-IT guys in my company that knows SQL / how to program and am teaching some coworkers … in my deck one if the first things I show is how to use stack exchange and give examples of how to search for SQL/programming solutions in Google using some examples I’ve used in the past
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The structure of the course is that prof does a 10min lecture then we do in class “lab”
The last lab, he showed a few slides on stack exchange and Google and the lab was to “find a dataset and do something we haven’t covered in class”
In my field I’m leaning towards no, at least from a financial perspective.
I work as a physical therapist assistant, starting pay typically somewhere around 35-45k a year. That starting amount bumps to 60-80k a year as a PT but would require 3 additional years of school and over 100k in additional student loan debt.
My buddy is an electrician apprentice and his company is paying for him to go to school to be a journeyman with the condition he works for them 1-2 years after he’s finished. Would be nice if that was more commonplace for other careers.
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Some general musings about higher-ed down below.
It’s better being an engineering major that an econ one. As an engineer you’ll be able to do econ stuff that requires application of mathematical tools - financial/risk modeling, econometric modeling and so on - but as an econ major you won’t be able to construct/build stuff.
“I make more money as a plumber/contractor that a college graduate. Glad that I didn’t saddle myself with all that student debt” is a perfectly fine sentiment, but make sure you find a scalable revenue stream that is not directly correlated to hours put in as the years go by. Getting up at 6am to install bathtubs for 12 hours straight is different in your twenties than in your forties. Applicable for all blue collar jobs that pay well.
Learn to code. You don’t have to be good at it, just understand that if you’re working a white collar job in the office the ability to write twenty lines of code or modify someone else’s code (Substack or elsewhere, even if it’s just an Excel macro) will set you apart from your colleagues. Especially pertinent for SQL.
Don’t worry too much about what you’ll do in ten or fifteen years time if you have basic technical knowledge down, you’re proactive and open minded. I founded my company at 35 for a engineering niche that I didn’t even know existed until I was 29 and stumbled upon it by accident in a major engineering company.
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I’m not suggesting that only people that are good at math can be gainfully employed. It’s just that jobs for people that aren’t good at math often don’t require a university education (although they frequently require a university credential).
The system is broken and badly so. It’s unlikely to be fixed easily because many of the people who control it benefit from it being broken. At a minimum, most of the influential people in the world have university degrees and so they are often fine with a system that keeps other people out.
Thaler, Sunstein and Loewenstein have actually changed their views quite considerably.
They’re coming out with a new version of Nudge where they roll back on some of their ideas of “irrationality”. IN addition they’re more skeptical about some of their original recommendations
Loewenstein’s views have shifted significantly. He’s much more on the “paternalistic” side now. Honestly, his behavioural economics and public policy course felt like a semester long criticism of the US and attempts at behavioural interventions. I distinctly remember being surprised how even the lecture on government survellience (which I thought would be a sharp criticism of China) turned into a criticism of the US. We talked about China for a bit, but the conversation was mostly positive and framed as cultural differences in the need for privacy
I’m surprised you haven’t mentioned Talebs IYI archetype, unless you’re avoiding it for the sake of civility.
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I try not to appear to straddle Taleb’s nuts, especially on his more critical opinions.
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An engineer here, and echoing the sentiments of many others on this thread, I’m glad i knuckled down for the four years to have the degree. Still in engineering over 20yrs later (consulting, civil general).
The fewer people undertaking STEM degrees, the more demand there will be for those of us with such qualifications (at least here in Australia anyway).
This speaks to me so much…
But overall if you can align a career with some part of your passion or interests that’ll help a lot.
From an engineering perspective, after you have that degree, you may not be using much maths (for example) at all, as you may move into project management, people management, etc.
I’d suggest any degree that is being undertaken nowadays needs to allow one to be flexible, as many of the careers kids will have may not have even been discovered yet. For me, STEM degrees will always be required for a society to function.
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Sort of on topic:
I think that the point Jordan Peterson sort of touches on here, but also somewhat glosses over is that liberal arts and similar soft skills are a type of amplifier for other skills. If you have technical skills, or money (as he mentions), or a particular business idea, having the communication and interpersonal skills to leverage those other skills is very valuable. If you don’t have technical skills, money, or ideas, a liberal arts degree is likely to make you an overqualified barista. Of course, there is also an avenue to become a lawyer or professor or similar, but that requires more schooling.
In general, I think the point here is that you need to think of it in terms of a skill stack. A technically sound engineer who can’t communicate well is going to struggle in the same way that a good communicator without much substance is going to struggle. You need a variety of skills to be successful. In my experience, most colleges aren’t particularly successful at teaching skills. You have to think about them in terms of credentials. The skills you will need to develop on your own.