No. 10: The ROI of college, breadth vs. depth, understanding your value
Breaking down the 5 values of college | The case for generalist over specialist | What can you get for dad's car?
First, some numbers…
50% - Half of Apple’s hires in 2018 lacked a formal four-year college degree 1
175 - Colleges and universities offer officially recognized varsity esports teams 2
8 million - Unique creators are streaming each month on Twitch 3
Breaking down the 5 values of college
With the cost of a college tuition skyrocketing, people are being a little more discerning about what it is exactly that they’re getting for their money.
I’d break it down as follows:
An academic education - I took some very nice courses in college about Philosophy, the historical development of Asian Economics and Music History. I very much enjoyed them and found them to be intellectually stimulating.
A professional education - Learning to code, run financial spreadsheets, how to design on CAD programs or about the anatomy for pre-med—not to mention career direction itself and a path to a job.
Social development or “Campus life” - Parties! Basketball! Ultimate frisbee!
The network - Unfettered access to everyone else who made the same sucker bet that you did and also hates their job.
Brand - Because you went to Harvard.
You can get any of those things across three basic price tiers of schools—lower cost public schools, middle tier private schools and elite schools. I’ll hold aside any judgement of quality for the moment.
How good is each tier at delivering on the five things we listed?
Read the 5 breakdowns at Why Colleges and Universities Should Be Scared of the On Deck Fellowship by Charlie O’Donnell
Making the case for breadth over depth
Maybe David Epstein’s Range has been on your list and you haven’t gotten around to it? Enjoy this summary from Nathan Lozeron of Productivity Game.
Further learning:
How Harvard’s Dark Horse Project is Shattering Old Beliefs about Success
David Epstein’s TED Talk - Why specializing early down’t always mean career success
A lesson from selling dad’s old car
A father told his daughter, "Congrats on your graduation. I bought you a car a while back. I want you to have it now."
Before I give it to you, take it to a car dealer in the city and sell it. See how much they offer.”
The girl came back to her father and said: "They offered me $10,000 dollars because it looks very old"
Father said: "Ok, now take it to the pawn shop".
The girl returns to her father and said: "The pawn shop offered $1,000 dollars because it's a very old car and a lot of work done".
The father told her to join a passionate car club with experts and show them the car. The girl drove to the passionate car club. She returned to her father after a few hours and told him, “Some people in the club offered me $100,000 dollars because it’s a rare car that's in good condition.”
Then the father said, "I wanted to let you know that you are not worth anything if you are not in the right place. If you are not appreciated, do not be angry, that means you are in the wrong place. "Don't stay in a place where no one sees your value."
Know your worth and know where you are valued.
A diamond doesn't shine on the bottom of a cave.
Till next time…
https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/03/06/half-of-new-apples-us-hires-in-2018-lacked-4-year-college-degrees-cook-says
https://www.ncsasports.org/college-esports-scholarships/varsity-esports#:~:text=College%20esports%20leagues&text=175%20colleges%20and%20universities%20are,officially%20recognized%20varsity%20esports%20programs.
https://twitchtracker.com/statistics
Image via Steve Shreve