There are two competing objectives to education. One is to grow as a person. The other is to gain things of material value. Material value includes both pieces of paper and money making skills. The trade-off between these two values takes many forms. e.g:
- Taking a course in an area you are good at VS taking a course in an area you are bad at. You get a better grade in the former but learn more in the latter.
- Taking a course in a subject which is intrinsically valuable vs taking a course which will help you make money after university
- Taking a degree in a more prestigious but worse at teaching university vs a less known but better at teaching one
It’s important to understand that this trade-off exists and to make it consciously. When I was in the education most people didn’t. Most people optimized for grades. Even those who didn’t spend a great deal of time studying spent at least 10 times more time reading and writing for their courses than for their own interest. It’s a shame.
Similar kinds of tradeoff’s exist in many domains in life. Trade-off’s between the short and long-term. It’s hard to give general advice about which side to lean towards. I’ve done both at different points in my career and I think the decision is highly context dependent. Still, I notice the short term seems to be addictive or something most people do too much. I wonder why that is. A few ideas:
- Addictive feedback loops. You do well. You get to a good uni. You want to keep doing well. You get a good job. You want to do well in it. Your life passes you by.
- People mostly don’t have their own goals. They adopt the goals of whatever structure they’re in.
Dissent 