Godin listed the skills he felt couldn’t be outsourced.
analysis
insight
surprise
responsibility
humor
creativity
guts
respect
charisma
vision
calm
love
Did you learn any of those in a classroom? The only way I’ve found them is to surround yourself with people that already have them. To absorb them through iteration and imitation until they become dispositional. Books are only a mediocre substitute. The key though is to avoid the academic pressures that push you away from those skills and towards sycophantry, cautiousness, repetition, tradition, jealousy and shortsightedness. Because once you tattoo yourself with those any of these viewpoints, the scars never go away.
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I just had to say you’re my favorite writer. Don’t stop.
I just had to say you’re my favorite writer. Don’t stop.
Good shit, man. Started reading a few posts ago, and the whole philosophy you have has gripped me. It’s really interesting.
Keep writing.
These are also skills that cannot be faked.
Do you think there are ANY merits to the classroom? I mean, other than the obvious social benefits of going to grade, middle and high school. Do you think school in general is totally pointless or simply that its importance is overstated?
No, I love it. It could just be a lot better.
bought and read The Dip twice now. Fantastic. What’s your favorite Godin book?
Very true.
But I also have to say something in defense of the classrooms; at least where I live, it depends a lot on what you make of it. Whether you take the easiest path or a more challenging one, whether you use your creativity to deliver work above average, whether you try to get deep into the problem and thoroughly unterstand it or just consume given solutions, wether you respect the teacher because you know he has something you want, and yet have to work for, as knowledge or skills. It’s all up to you, basically.
eva
Unfortunately, a lot of teachers suck. Standards to be admitted to teachers college are almost as low as the salaries that come with the job. Both should be rectified. Because you always will remember those handful of teachers who made a difference, but with that, you had to suffer through the incompetent, awkward and/or creeps who just wanted the summers off.
My experience with teachers is unfortunate, because there are those who genuinely care, and are in their position to make the students around them that much better. But these teachers are a distinct minority.
The majority of the teachers I encountered in elementary, middle and high schools drank apathy for breakfast.
It’s sad.