Is someone at university better than I am?

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I seem to think if someone has gone to university to study for example: history, that they are better than me? when I am into history and read and studied a lot about it, in terms of writing my own history book and I went to university, not for history but art and design and I never finished and graduated. I do get these feelings of envy about other people at uni and doing better than I did and get their dream job and career afterwards. I bet there are things they don't know that I know.

I went to university and got a degree in English literature and philosophy... basically by doing nothing. A few years after I left I got heavily into Italian renaissance art and architecture. I started reading the easy books, then worked up to serious academic tomes. I did it for years and I'm sure I was at least up to degree level by the end. Now I'm doing similar with history... English history between Hastings and Bosworth Field and American civil war.

Also... since leaving University, I've studied more literature than I ever did in my three year sojourn... especially my mega obsession, Sir Thomas Wyatt.

Don't even think about what people are doing at university... find something that you're really interested in and get stuck in. Having a degree certificate is impressive, but communicating a subject with enthusiasm is also impressive.

Envy is a waste of energy.

Correct, but nobody knows everything

Everyone knows something

Some precious lil "people" act like they know things they could not possibly know

confidence not proportional to competence

There are things you know, that they don't know

Knowing more things does not make someone morally superior

Many of the things they think they know, they do not know

Many of the things they know, are useless or counterproductive



College is overrated


College is not a mystery, magic, special, awesome, panacea



Jealousy is not tabboo

But in your case, it seems, to me, jealousy is out of proportion


Please worry about yourself more and someone else less


But I am a hypocrite for saying that





Yes I am jealous of skinny smart handsome cisgender neurotypical white man





Jealousy is not bad


But too much jealousy stops you from functioning at "life"


Not to say that I, otherwise would have functioned at "life"



Besides, history, is not, by far, the highest paying college major

Computer science and electrical engineering


Of course they know things I don't know


But they do not know as much, as they act like they know



The homophobic dipshit mister redelings had a PhD

And I don't

So what?

His IQ is much higher than mine


But he does not know my gender identity


He doesn't know he is ignorant

So what?


Everyone is ignorant

You can receive a wonderful education on your own by researching and exploring the things you are interested in.

A professor once told me that her job as an educator was to push us to do things we wouldn’t normally do on our own. Most people wouldn’t be motivated enough to explore a complex topic unless there was a required test or paper looming in the near future.

My brother has grown so much in the range and depth of his knowledge through personal study that it’s hard for me to keep up with him even though I’ve been to college and he has not.

From my perspective, the university taught me How to Learn. Facts you can find anywhere, but the Mysteries of Life must be learned elsewhere. And the university gave me those tools.

But I will say one more thing in general. The universities of 50 years ago are not the universities of today. They are failing their students. In many cases the universities of today, even the ones of renown, do not teach people how to think independently. They have become indoctrination centers, a place of group-think.

Someone who graduates is considered more employable.

But, many people that dropped out of school have gone on to great success in life.

That wasn’t my experience.

Someone probably is, but not everyone. I'm a high school dropout who has lectured to engineering grads and gotten applause. One time, I was helping a guy with his project and said something sarcastic about "education." My host warned me to be careful - I was in a 2-PhD household, so I was also insulting his wife. "Aww, thass' awright." I replied "I'm not prejudice." They had to laugh.
When it comes to engineering, I am appalled at the inefficiency and waste taught even now, fifty years after I decided to study on my own or not at all. Employers are too dull to recognize talent, so they depend on pieces of paper sold by institutions with their own agenda. The courses are bloated to keep staff on a payroll and students out of the workforce as long as possible. If you are debt-free, you are smarter and much more independent than most recent grads.