Thread by @hughhowey

THREAD about my personal higher education experiences that you really don't need to read:

Not everyone should go to college. I'm one of those people. I learned a lot in college, but not more than I would've learned during those same years elsewhere.

I've been to 4 different schools since graduating high school: I went to UNC Charlotte for a semester, went to a computer science trade school for a year, went to the College of Charleston for 3 years. And took classes at Appalachian State while working there in the bookstore.

I never got a degree. Not that it mattered. In fact, graduating with a degree would've been bad for me. And going to an Ivy League school, or even a prestigious in-state school like UNC Chapel Hill or Duke, would've been terrible for me.

My dream jobs are all jobs that required zero college education. I spent a decade working on boats. I worked in bookstores. I wrote novels. My years spent in college saddled me with debt. They also robbed me of years of experience and working my way toward promotions.

After I got out of yachting, I worked in the trades while supporting my girlfriend. I pulled wire and installed AV systems in custom homes, and I spent two years roofing. These were some of the happiest years of my life, and I made great money.

The yachting profession was very good to me. If I had to do it all over again, I would've dropped out of highshcool at age 15 or 16, got my GRE, and gotten out on the water immediately. By the time I was 20, I could've been making six figures on yachts as an engineer.

As it went I was 25 by the time I was making six figures working on yachts with a certification that took me 2 weeks to get. 5 years doesn't sound like a massive amount of time, but it is. 5 years is about how long my writing career lasted. 5 years and I'll sail around the world.

It's not just years that unnecessary schooling cost me -- there were literal costs as well. I was paying off my school loans until I was 35. And I was lucky. I worked while in school and took as little debt as I could, but those payments were tough at times.

I grew up in an echo chamber of the necessity of going to college. But no one knew what I wanted to do with my life. I didn't even know, because I hadn't spent any time out there sampling life to see what was possible. Gap years are critical.

After working in the yachting industry, and now that I travel a lot and meet young backpackers who are seeing the world on the cheap while they decide what they want to do, who they will be, where they might live, it all seems so much clearer to me.

We can learn a lot more in a lot less time and for a lot less money if we allow young adults to follow their passions. I learned so much about publishing by working in bookstores. I learned so much about boats by living on one while in school.

Higher education is absolutely necessary in a handful of fields, like medicine and law. But by attaching so much value to a college education, we stigmatize other careers and learning pathways. You don't need college to learn to code, for example. And roofing is a noble job.

To counter the wasteful and onerous bias towards college, we have to start celebrating alternative routes. We should encourage kids to save up for a gap year of traveling abroad before choosing a career. The trades should be lauded. Self-guided learning should be applauded.

We should kill the myth that a college degree equals a steady income. The future marketplace will be dynamic, and knowing how to pivot and self-teach will be critical. Work ethic and social skills will be highly rewarded. Worldliness will be required.

A gap year spent traveling teaches these things, and it also teaches frugality. It lets you know what's out there for work, what you're good at, before you choose a school (or choose not to go to school).

Most importantly, we should stop ignoring the sunk time costs of college: 4-6 years is a forever in a career. Starting from the bottom in many jobs/trades/careers with ambition, work ethic, and social skills, a motivated person can get far in 4-6 years. A big head start.

Couple that head start with 4-6 years of MAKING money instead of taking on six figures in debt, and I don't see the rationale for college for most people. Yes, we went and learned stuff. We had a good time. But that time and money could've been spent more wisely.

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