[Info-vax] IBM Layoffs (quite a bit off topic)

[Bill Gunshannon]

In article <mabpnb$vgm$1 at dont-email.me>,
	David Froble <davef at tsoft-inc.com> writes:
> brendan welch wrote:
>> This may sound strange coming from a former school teacher,
>> but I see a relation here.
>> 
>> We are constantly politically assailed about the necessity
>> of (high priced) education,  but please note:
> 
> Knowledge and education is not a bad thing.

Knowledge and education are also  not synonymous.

> 
>> 1) There are simply too many educated people.  Thousands
>> laid off from IBM (and previously especially from the
>> financial community) are competing with kids who will
>> be paid much less.
>> 
>> 2) My recent experience, maybe just local to me, has been
>> that many or most graduates end up in an entirely different
>> field than what they studied in.  Why?
> 
> A story.  When my son was getting ready to go to college, he asked, what 
> am I studying to learn to do?  For what kind of job?  My reply was "You 
> are not going to college to learn any job.  You are going to learn 
> things you don't yet know about the world you live in."  

You are unique.

>                                                          After a half 
> dozen changes in majors, he finally found something that captured his 
> attention.  He really liked studying paleontology.  Looking at old 
> fossels and such.

How many years did he spend in college?

Trust me, most of our students come from very affluent families (this
place ain't cheap!) and they expect the kid to get out of here in 4 years.
Our program requires 4 years in our program.  CS courses start first
semester of your freshman year and you take at least 2for all 8 semesters.

> 
> What's he doing now?  He's a reactor operator at a nuclear power station.

To each his own.

> 
> Two things I've learned.
> 
> 1) There aren't always jobs doing what we enjoy.

That's true, as I already pointed out.  :-)

> 2) Don't make your hobby a job, you'll lose it as something you like.

Strange concept.  Ignoring work I did in fatories just to earn a living
(like paper mills), my two major careers have also been hobbies.

I was interested in radio from a very early year.  I was repairing
radios and TV's when I was 8.  I designed and built my first super-het
receiver at 9.  I am a ham radio operator.  My first job that counted
as a career was as a radio teletype operator in the Army.  Care to try
a guess at my favorite mode of operatin in ham radio?  And then, I saw
the writting on the wall and realized that technology was going to make
being a radio operator kind of a dead end job.  I visited another Army
radio operator when I was stationed in Germany and his hobby was computers.
Now, this was mid to late 70's so it wasn't computers like we think of
them today.  I got interested and took it up as a hobby (I still did
ham radio, and still do.  One can have more than one hobby. :-).  And
guess what, when my Army tour was ending I re-enlisted for re-training
in, you guessed it, computer programming.  And I turned that into a
rather successful career both in and out of the Army.  And, it's still
a hobby along with ham radio.  And now, woodworking.  But that one isn't
going to lead to a new career.  Computers will be last one.

But, kinda shoots down that last bullet of yours.  :-)

And aren't aircraft both your hobby and your business?

> 
>> 3) Repeating what was mentioned earlier,  the price !!!
>> I am overwhelmed to hear that the amount of student debt
>> in this country exceeds the general debt on credit cards.
>> 
>> 
> 
> That is one of the things that is hurting the country.  It's my 
> understanding that in many European countries people can proceed with as 
> much education as they can handle.  It's paid for by the government as 
> an investment in the country's future.  Sure sounds smart to me.  Maybe 
> too smart for some to embrace.

And you would be mistaken.  While the government will pay for it, they
also decide who gets it.  And that decision is made rather early in a
persons educational background with very little liklihood that you will
be able to convince them otherwise later. (First hand experience from
my many years living in Germany and having college age frienxds in
Belgium, Holland and England as well.)

> 
> It's all the same.  Either pay for everyone's education now with higher 
> taxes, which all will repay through their taxes when they are employed, 
> or, they pay back the banks (with profits for the bailed out banks) 
> later.  My opinion, screw the banks.

People here live in a very strange world that does not seem to fit
reality very well at all.  And, y'all put way too much credence in
what you hear from fourth estate.

bill

-- 
Bill Gunshannon          |  de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n.  Three wolves
billg999 at cs.scranton.edu |  and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton   |
Scranton, Pennsylvania   |         #include <std.disclaimer.h>