Hell no. In fact California ought to sue the FDA for not banning these dangerous foods. And residents should sue the state of California for not suing the NDA sooner. Then the FDA can sue universities for not doing timely research on this, and the universities can sue the food manufacturers. It's lawsuits all the way down.

This is on the dog owner since they were breaking the city's strict six-foot leash law. Seems to me they owe Waymo for damage to the car due to their obvious negligence.

San Francisco has a strict six-foot leash law for dogs, right? How is this Waymo's fault? Are they supposed to defy physics when someone's mutt jumps into traffic?

Cronyism in tech is rampant, but I saw the same in other businesses in my youth. I was quoting a common proverb: it's not a conspiracy but rather human nature.

My 41-year career has mostly been the opposite.

I haven't had a job interview since 1991 or so, nor have I asked/applied for employment since then. I just know the right people. They know what I can do and invite me to tackle whatever-it-is as an employee, consultant, or co-founder. Sometimes I'm interested, sometimes I'm not or I have too many other commitments. We help each other out regardless of formal involvement. I know a bunch of other people with similar stories. I'm presently trying to retire "early" (it doesn't feel early!), but now a friend and I are backing our sons in a new venture. It's fulfilling to pass the torch.

Wishful thinking.

It ain't what you know, it's who you know.

Quoting Dogbert:

"If you combine 'con' and 'insult', you get 'consult'."

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ianchadwick.com%2Fblog%2520pics%2F2016%2Fdilbert%2Fdogbert_01.jpg

Albert Einstein was a dropout too. Are you happy now, or do we need to go back to the invention of the wheel?

Physical science is gatekept via its tight association with academia. You don't get to play with the toys unless you've punched the right tickets.

Hiring practices were such that a degree was required even for stupid HR jobs until somewhat recently, so your experience is likely more of a product of institutional inertia wherever you've worked. A quick look at NVIDIA's open positions shows quite a few chip-level design jobs that don't require a degree, for instance. Qualcomm seems to focus on degrees more, but I also found hardware engineering jobs there that don't require a degree. Twenty years ago that would have been unthinkable.

I personally know patent-holding dropouts who got rich, but you've never heard of them. The person I responded to made some near-absolute statements that were readily disproved with the easily verified list I presented.

I said I was an EE dropout, but the work in question was mostly in software and one of the things that turned into a multi-billion dollar staple of an industry you surely deal with was more in the nature of digital audio theory applied to economics. The reason(s) I didn't get rich from it were in various news media for a while, it was a sordid tale.

There are a lot of unsung people out there who are brighter than me. I've met some of them.

Not sure why you think I'm holding anything up as a pathway to success. The point is that a degree is wasted on most jobs. The university time would be better spent in the field of interest and the money would be better either unspent or put into a house.

You're drifting. You said:

I assert a degree has little bearing on whether one has to "take crap" or not. Now you've changed to stating the obvious, namely that a degree has certain unnamed benefits that one could take advantage of. Sure, there are exclusionary fields that require a degree (mainly because the guilds running these fields want to protect their members), but what does that have to do with your original assertion about "taking crap"?

Good lord.

You think Jobs ripped off Woz? He did, but Steve Wozniak is a dropout himself--and he dropped out after being expelled from somewhere else.

Bill Gates took advantage of Paul Allen? Yup, but Allen was also a dropout.

I could keep going but I have made my point.

You keep missing the point. I mean people in general and what they make in the real world. The fact that you think someone making $60k (it's more just a year later, as I pointed out) is in poverty says it all.

You could just go look at a compensation chart and find out that Dallas Independent School District starts at $65,000/year and can go up to $100k under the "Teacher Excellence Initiave" aka merit pay program. ( See page 10 )

My wife isn't remotely an outlier. $120k in Southern California works out to less than $100k in Dallas. We laugh when anyone suggests teacher pay is bad. The job is rough and most people aren't cut out for it, but the pay and bennies are very good. Retiring with full pension at 62 doesn't suck, either.

Your suppositions about plumbers is in line with your information about teachers.

Do you work in tech? If so, your ideas about what people make is probably skewed. Experienced plumbers can make a lot of money.

Back when I worked on cars, I knew plenty of mechanics who cleaned up. I presently know a machinist that has a ridiculous house and what must be a quarter million dollars' worth of classic motorcycles (cool ones, not stupid Harleys). Lots of these people go on to self-employment or starting a business and do very, very well. I've known and worked for several men and women who were like this.

I'm not angry in the least, just calling attention to things you're missing.

I make the argument elsewhere that people attribute to credentials what they ought to be attributing to character (and luck, as you point out--and some talent, of course). My unprovable claim is that someone who is going to succeed probably doesn't need a degree or a university to do it.

I emphasize character here because it is my observation that this is the #1 reason people succeed or fail. It's not about being smart, though that can help with some things (and presents obstacles in other respects). I drilled this into my now-grown kids, one of whom is fairly smart but with other strong talents and the other who is probably even smarter than me: all that talent doesn't mean anything if you don't apply yourself with integrity and energy. I've had successful business owner bosses who were a lot "dumber" than me but whose work ethics, self-discipline, and wisdom put younger me to shame. I learned from them and succeeded in turn.

It's also worth pointing out that what a lot of people end up doing with their lives makes the financial and especially the opportunity costs of 4 years at a university a colossal waste. We see their collective opinion in the survey in TFA: nearly half don't think it was worth it, which is a truly terrible commentary.