How important is university and/or college?

[museumoftrees]

You can get very educated without academia, and ultimately you'll have to transcend it. However, Leo still went to college if I'm not mistaken, and it is an important stepping stone to intellectual development.

[Basman]

6 hours ago, Jacob Morres said:

@Basman wait just to clarify i wasnt pointing out their skin color as the issue, but that the lack of education was such a major commonality among a dangerous group of ppl, as common as something basic like skin color

Not race, but class. University is largely an upper-middle class thing, even when it's free. 

6 hours ago, Jacob Morres said:

 

If we had universal free college, would we even have maga?

Yes. Maga is part of an authoritarian backlash against technocratic centrism, which is a global phenomenon. Like Reform in the UK and AfD in Germany. 

It's class problem. You can't educate away grievances with how society is run.

Edited Wednesday at 09:58 PM by Basman

[Basman]

I think it depends on your personality and goals wether or not university will grow you. It's basically just a more adult school. It's no universal solution to growth. Graduating doesn't make you intelligent or developed.

The main reason to go to university is because it alligns with a specific goal in my opinion. 

[Jacob Morres]

@Basman i think class only explains why someone doesnt get education (bc lack of finances or culturally not appropriate) but not the education deficiency itself 

Its def not a silver bullet and is flawed but systems of education are soo important. But i think I'm talking moreso on a macro scale 

On an individual level it is a lot of debt and you need to be intelligent abt it

Edited 11 hours ago by Jacob Morres

[WonderSeeker]

On 9/3/2026 at 6:23 AM, enchanted said:

How important was college/university to your intellectual or personal development? Do you think you could have achieved the same level of without it? 

Leo always bashes academia (for obvious reasons) but considering it is something he attended, is it something that can be avoided or should one attend post secondary education? 

For me it wasn't my college major in particular that was important.

Just having a bachelor's degree in general opens the door to all kinds of work worldwide. It's why I was able to move to South Korea and then China with relative ease.

Also, college teaches you a lot of things that have nothing to do with the classes themselves that are worth the value in my opinion.

Even though the debt has been a problem for me, I wouldn't have achieved the level I am at now because I basically lived/mastered my academic mind to the point where I only exercise it when needed instead of overusing it all of the time.

Those are my thoughts.

[Basman]

9 hours ago, Jacob Morres said:

@Basman i think class only explains why someone doesnt get education (bc lack of finances or culturally not appropriate) but not the education deficiency itself 

Its def not a silver bullet and is flawed but systems of education are soo important. But i think I'm talking moreso on a macro scale 

On an individual level it is a lot of debt and you need to be intelligent abt it

My issue is more so with how non-specialized work is gatekept behind degrees. It's an elitist system that barely gets acknowledged. It has turned into a rat race of depreciating returns. You need more and more education, from bachelor to masters to PHD, just to be treated like a high school graduate. 

And it's not good for the academics either. The institution is being bastardized by business motives at the cost of developing knowledge. No one really goes to college anymore to learn anything beside the freaks. 80% of the value of a degree is signaling. That's huge.

And there's a subtle arrogance to how we treat intellectual development as the only valid form of intelligence. College does not suit all life paths, but we look down on construction workers despite contributing more to society than the average office worker. It's terribly elitist.