Keeping up Appearances

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Getting a degree is only gambling if they pick a really stupid subject that limits their job opportunities.

Nurses and doctors are always needed. Teachers are usually okay. IT is usually okay if you’re good at it. B com is usually okay.

A degree on the history of world war 2 tanks, or philosophy you’ll most likely end up working at Mc donalds.

Civil engineering surprises me. But from my experience, you can’t just apply for jobs. You need to cold call. 95% of jobs aren’t advertised.

I know I should never stop striving to improve myself but if I can never stop it feels like a race without a finish line.

Is it a virtue to never be satisfied with oneself? When will I be good enough that I can stop?

It just depends. All a college degree really proves is that you were good in school. We’re not all destined to be university profs, so what’s the point?

I use school as a way to do things I’d never otherwise have the chance for. I still take online courses, and that’s after a master’s degree in music composition. Having a degree is a big accomplishment, yes, but that’s not an indicator of job or career success.

For me it boils down to doing what I love, keep an entrepreneurial mindset, and just see what the need is out there. Church music has really worked well for me. I’ve always taught music on some level, and I may be going back into education full time. I just discovered how to use PureData, which would have been helpful to me back in the late 90’s when I was looking to transition from education to electronic music composition and a generative or interactive system would have really given me an academic edge. Oh, well...better late than never.

The main thing to consider is not whether your degree is bad but rather are you the kind of determined, tenacious person who can make cool things happen and keep it going for the long haul. I’m basically destitute, but the little money I earn is the difference between our kids attending a safe school and becoming institutionalized in the public school system. We’re keeping ourselves alive, we have a home that’s paid for, transportation, running water, electricity, and cell phones. For a musician barely making it, I’d say we’re doing ok.

I’ve known MBA grads who ended up living in mom’s basement. So all things considered, we’re doing better than we deserve.

^ I know what you mean about the public school system.

I was texting with Ting Li and she said "In China, almost everyone has a bachelor degree, so a bachelor degree has no advantage when looking for a job. People study further to get better opportunities." That probably explains why her dad told her she has to get a master's degree. She's in the second year of her master's degree.

I suspect a master's degree is becoming the norm in China. A bachelor degree isn't good enough anymore. Yet I don't even have a bachelor degree!! God I'm far behind! If I went to China and they all had master's degrees and I told them I don't even have a bachelor degree they'd probably think I'm ret*d or maybe they'd just think I'm lazy.

This made me feel really depressed for the rest of the night. The thought I'm not only not good enough but not even close. I'm really kicking myself for not having gone to university like a normal person. It makes me substandard.

My education pales in comparison to hers. She told me about her schooling in China. She used to do 4 hours of homework per night as a 7 year old. By high school her school day was 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM. 12 hours at school. Then after she got home she would do homework for 6 hours before going to bed. That's an 18 hour day.

I've done 12 hour days and by the time I got home I was exhausted. I can't even imagine doing a 12 hour day and then studying for another 6 hours. She was sleeping 5 hours per night.

I couldn't handle half of that. I'm so much less than them. I'm so much weaker than the average Chinese person. I was doing normal Australian high school, which isn't nearly as hard yet got major burnout until I switched to part time high school. So my school was half as hard as hers and I had to halve it again.

She says in China they say for a happy family the husband should make three times more than the wife. She's studying finance. In Australia the average accountant's salary is $55,000 per year. She said she wants me to make three times that. That's $165,000 per year.

Most people don't make that much. Her father does. He's a lawyer. No wonder she thinks it's normal for a man to make that much! It's hard for me to live up to that standard. I'll probably never get paid as much as her father.

The GPD per capita for China is about $8,000 so most Chinese people don't make that much yet I get the impression that most Chinese people think they can make that much is they just try harder. I think the Chinese are suffering from the temporally inconvenience millionaire syndrome. They all think they're going to be the next Elon Musk. One or two of the will be but the majority won't. The one or two who make it rich will probably take advantage of the Chinese work ethic.

They all think if they work hard enough they can make themselves rich. The truth is if they work hard enough they can make their boss rich.

Now I feel so conflicted. There's a part of me that wants to work harder, get promoted and live up to Ting Li's standard of the ideal man. Yet there's a part of me that feels like I would just be falling for the scam where I work harder to make someone else rich.

I mean, how did we get a culture in which it's bad to do something you enjoy yet it's virtuous to do something that gives you stress (in my case IT work). And the more hours you do it per day the better. 8 hours per day is merely adequate. 12 hours per day is better and 16 or more hours is the most virtuous.

Am I right or is it just my lazy side talking? There's a part of me that thinks 8 hour days aren't good enough and that I should study every night after work and there's a part of me that misses the days when I didn't have a job. Which part is correct?

Gender ratio imbalance in China is the reason for such expectations.

@Closet Genius a big reason for differences between US and European high schools is lack of early tracking. Usually everybody in a community attends the same High School. Not everyone in Europe gets a Baccalaureate, Matura, Abitur, or whatever it is called in Sweden. One result is that that it takes way longer (and much more money) to train as a professional e.g. physician, lawyer in the US.

Check this out: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/20 ... -students/


So that's how they are getting on the top ranks in STEM education.

^^ It's the same here for the public university.

Private universities tho, some do just require money to get in - and not to be complete idiot.

Weak students usually can't pass the first year tho.