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Summary
part 1 of a 3 part podcast
Paul is with Alan Booker, Mike Haasl and Alexandra Malecki; their subjects are AI and college.
The question is: should people go to college right now? People want better paid jobs and think about going back to college to achieve that. Paul thinks this is not a good idea at this time and thinks that a humble home and a large garden will solve almost everything.
Paul now asks what advice the other contributors have for someone asking them the question.
Alan says there's a whole narrative of go to school, go to college, get a good job - which is widespread but it's getting outdated. He says people need to assess the return on the investment both in cash and time as the ROI on most undergrad degrees now is negative, and there may be better options. If you can do college without paying for it, it's a different story.
Mike agrees with much of what Alan says. Things have changed a lot in the last couple decades, college costs have multiplied. Other alternatives such as trades and even plain retail jobs, and after 4-5 years you'd have some money rather than being $100k in debt
Alexandra thinks she won't advise college for her kids when they are old enough, even though it's still sort-of expected. The likelihood of children doing better than their parents is dropping. Just going to college because it's what people do isn't wise.
Samantha joins in: If you have a career path which requires a college degree, it's OK. Going to college on the assumption that there are good jobs out there is risky.
AI is getting bigger and in some cases is increasing productivity, thus reducing the number of jobs.
Alan comments that you get out of AI what has been put into it, so it's not always reliable. In response to Alexandra he says there's strong evidence that young people relying on AI have reduced cognitive ability.
Paul has a theory that 98% of kids are whiny and this is because they've not been taught integrity. However, Alan has been working with indigenous people all over the world, and says that their whininess is much less overall.
Relevant Threads
AI Based Agroecology Tools and AI Safety
Internships & Apprenticeships forum
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This podcast was made possible thanks to:
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Sasquatch
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