[OT] destroy all software (was Programming language WATs)

[Nick Sabalausky]

"Jonathan M Davis" <jmdavisProg at gmx.com> wrote in message 
news:mailman.672.1327198345.16222.digitalmars-d at puremagic.com...
>
> The main problem is getting past HR. Sure, if you could get into a real
> interview with real programmers, you could show that you know what you're
> talking about, but without a degree and/or a lot of experience on your 
> resume,
> there are many companies where HR will filter you out before you get far 
> enough
> along to prove that you know anything (and in some companies, the lack of 
> a
> degree is probably still enough for HR to filter out your resume, even if 
> you
> have quite a few years of professional experience). So beyond whatever you 
> get
> in terms of education, the degree often makes it possible to get past HR 
> so
> that you can actually interview and possibly get the job.
>

Meh, companies like that deserve to go under as a result of gross 
incompetence anyway. I'm not normally an "invisible hand" guy, but I say let 
the those companies run themselves out of business instead of bending over 
backwards to help their idiocy work out. We'll all be better off for it.

> Now, I totally dispute that college is a waste of time. You're going to 
> learn
> a lot at college - at least if you go to a college that's worth anything -
> especially if you _want_ to learn rather than just trying to pass the 
> exams.
> There's a lot to be gotten out of college whether it's required for a job 
> or
> not. The issue IMHO is whether what you get is worth the cost, not whether
> it's actually valuable.
>

I won't deny that you can learn things in college. Hell, I'll even admit 
that I learned things there. I just don't think you can learn nearly as 
much, nearly as well, or nearly as inexpensively as you can via other means.

I've had a *lot* of people tell me "You get out of college what you put into 
it", but even that's patently false: What you get out of it is 
*proportional* to what you put in, yes, but it's a miniscule fraction. 
There's one hell of an enormous overhead involved.

To slightly modify an old quote: "If you want a plush cubicle hell and debt, 
get a degree. If you want an education, get a library card."

> But I don't really want to argue the issue,

Sorry...I couldn't help replying. :/  Don't mean to try to drag you into it.