Posts by BenWilson
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Danielle,
Indeed, and it's good to see that you can take the argument of the economic worthlessness of humanities head on sometimes. It is, after all, total fucking bullshit, as evidenced by the massive tax return reaped from hundreds of thousands of humanities graduates working in NZ today in many roles, from technical to ... whatever they feel like really. Given that NZ is quite small, highly technically trained people are the very first to just fuck off to greener pastures, since there are few positions for them here. I did it myself, and so did Danyl. The money sitting in my super fund in Australia would have paid for all the time I spent at university comfortably - now it's just making Ozzie fund managers rich, and has contributed to Australia riding out the Global Financial Crisis virtually unscathed. Let alone the other 47.5% of my income there that they just took to pay for the amazing place that Australia is. NZ missed out on all of that.
-
Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to DCBCauchi,
It's telling that the usual academic freedom arguments haven't been used here, just an unhelpful 'bollocks' and the argument that a general humanities education makes you a more productive worker.
Take that line and run, I'm curious to see how much you can milk out of it. Certainly it's an important angle, although the actual question was about students, not the researchers, whose importance Danyl never questioned. He framed his enquiry into the actual economic value of humanities, with a backdrop of withdrawing funding for them as a very real threat, and it's very much worth noting that it's not an instant win for technical monocultures.
Indeed, my Mum, who lectures at Manukau Institute of Technology (I'd say MIT, but you might get confused) in communication studies has pointed out for decades to me that there is a constant complaint from heads of business about the graduates that they produce not being well rounded enough, lacking in communication and general interests, and any real interest in learning. The very existence of her department was the Tech's response, and it's a required subject for most of the other degrees. Of course she's had decades of kids complaining that they can't see any use in it. But they're fucken kids. They don't know what's of use yet, and they certainly aren't aware of the big picture of years of pressure from a particular clique of ideologues running this country, to make them think that all the really need in life is their fucking sheet metal working certificate.
-
I'd like to point out that my natural bent was never towards a subject like Philosophy. I learned programming when I was 10, and was a computer/mathematical geek, and very likely to specialize more and more into said geekery as time passed if left to my own devices. But my parents are both involved in education and basically wouldn't allow it. My Dad forced me into playing team sports and my Mum made me do Artish subjects. Both calls were long-run wins. I played representative level waterpolo and have enduring friendships all around the world from that. And without Mum I'd never have discovered Classics, by which I discovered Philosophy. But my computing was all me. Well, actually, if they'd never got me a computer when I was 10, I don't know.
Of course I don't know how I might otherwise have been either. Perhaps it would have been really fulfilling to become a super computer/math geek. I nearly didn't study computing at all at University, but was talked around to it by an old (well, he was 29) Niuean guy who I played club waterpolo with. I told him I wasn't doing it because I didn't want to become the nerdy dorky kind of guy that the business seemed to encourage, that I'd done that when I was younger and it didn't make me happy. His response was the pure wisdom of experience - he said that there was no rule that said you had to go all super nerdy, that you could do general and specific studies, that the world needed both, that if I had a talent in computing I should develop it too. It was one of those funny turning points in life, you'd blink and miss it, two guys coming home from training and the pub, having one of those conversations that spans multiple car trips.
-
Does allowing items from Christchurch in my TradeMe searches help? There's lots of bargains there, one of the only booming businesses is selling off superfluous items. Give some leeway on the time for settlement, if you have a heart.
-
Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Danyl Mclauchlan,
there's been a huge amount of mission creep in which the subjects that were supposed to supplement an education become the purpose of (some peoples) education
If anything, the mission creep is the other way, subjects that are merely technical and can mostly be learned on the job have ended up being the only things a lot of kids have got out of their time at University. Those people would have been better off never going, and just working their way up in some firm. I usually feel a bit sorry for them because they seem to hit the glass ceiling fastest.
-
Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Danyl Mclauchlan,
Sounds rather like mine. Was my purpose in life really to help fatten up J B Were so it could be sold off to Goldman Sachs, during which they made my wife redundant when she got pregnant?
-
Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Danyl Mclauchlan,
I didn't find myself quoting the original text of the Iliad in my subsequent IT career. It was not a brilliant investment of the taxpayers money.
It's colored your blog though, which I would suggest is actually a more important thing to New Zealand than your IT career, which is only useful to you.
-
Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
Is that the system that bangs out Federated Farmers pronouncements on why they should be free to abuse livestock and pollute waterways?
LOL no, I worked with milk collection, automation thereof. Yes, this had to be sold to the farmers even harder than it had to be sold to management (which was a doddle - bean counters are so fucken easy to sell technology to).
-
Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Danyl Mclauchlan,
If only there were some other venue for discussion and debate about, well - subjects like this! - other than a university classroom.
So where are all the kids then?
-
Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to richard,
Ben, I am amused to see another person whose current profession likely qualifies them for public support in Danyl's world putting their hand up for the direct and personal benefits they obtained from the formal study of philosophy
Like I said before, I'm not entirely sure if Danyl's heart is really in this discussion, considering what a widely educated person he is himself. Philosophy used to be the only subject taught at University, and that was when it was something only the most gifted or wealthy people were allowed to do. There was a reason it entrenched privilege - it was extremely useful training for public life for those people. That it is not restricted only to the wealthy is one of the best things that's happened in the education, ever.
I will say this for his point though (and I'm wary of speaking for Danyl, he's a big boy), that if I had studied nothing but Philosophy, I might wholeheartedly agree with him. But just as Science faculties require general studies, so the Arts faculties also allow study outside the faculty, and there are many new streams that specialize in various combined branches. I'd have been bloody stoked if the streamed options existed when I was studying, that let one study both Artificial Intelligence AND Philosophy as complementary disciplines. I'm envious of the options kids have, and sure they will surpass me in every way. At least I hope so, and I want a wide variety of available funded education to be available to maximize the chances of it.
anticipating that the person from Federated Farmers on the panel might give me a bit of a hard time.
I'd rate one of the best outcomes of a general degree was that I was able to explain and sell Artificial Intelligence solutions to farmers. Never underestimate what the common person can understand, if you can only take the time to put it in their words. Also, I've never been so schooled in my own arrogance as by what I learned from the amazing people who used to drive trucks, and then learned to schedule them.
Those poor people, reading Rowling on the bus instead of paying for a Professor to teach them how to analyse it within a critical framework.
OK, now I know you're just taking the piss.
Good point. I learned to argue by ... arguing with people.
And you're ironically the very person Danyl is describing, the self taught savant. Fantastic when it happens, but aren't you rather unusual? Danyl has already admitted to not practicing what he preaches.
Last ←Newer Page 1 … 609 610 611 612 613 … 1066 Older→ First