{"id":1257,"date":"2009-03-11T06:23:40","date_gmt":"2009-03-11T11:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/?p=1257"},"modified":"2009-03-11T06:23:40","modified_gmt":"2009-03-11T11:23:40","slug":"best-readdelaying-adulthoodchris-blattmans-blog-beware-graduate-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/2009\/03\/11\/best-readdelaying-adulthoodchris-blattmans-blog-beware-graduate-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Read:Delaying Adulthood:Chris Blattman's Blog: Beware graduate school?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Cover<\/a><\/dt>\n
Cover of Born Yesterday<\/a><\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

From Chris Blattman’s blog post on Penelope Trunks post on avoiding grad school here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These arguments seem to better reflect people who get a PhD<\/a> when they have little chance of getting a faculty position (sorry, humanities) and professional school<\/a> for the sake of professional school. But sometimes professional school gives you technical skills needed for a job (accounting, tropical medicine, law…) and PhDs are a must for professional researchers. Without those caveats, the advice reads more like a rant.
\nBesides, who says delaying adulthood is pointless?<\/strong>
\nChris Blattman’s Blog: Beware graduate school?<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Both post have their points but I’d like to focus on Chris’s last point( The one I emphasized) which is incidentally Penelope’s first point. The thing is that most people I meet outside of hobby groups\/programming user groups\/clubs tend to have less time (if at all) to study and learn new stuff. Its like you have to ram something through their throats before they learn it. I think this stems from the fact that studying for a lot of people becomes chore like, not a lot of people study for fun (I remember a friend who actually reads TC7[The Calculus 7th Edition by Leithold] while he eats and he looks like he is having fun), Or another friend who seems to have so much time to create creative stuff that really amaze me both for how time consuming they are and for how much he seems to get done, Or another friend who seems to write academic paper with ease in between teaching full loads and managing an indie rock<\/a> band<\/a>. Suffice to say they aren’t the norm.
\nThe norm is half baked blog post(ehem ehem). Dozens of friendster\/facebook\/multiply comments. Probably 2-4 non-fiction book a year if at all.
\nIf I had to pick one attribute to take out of school with me it is the capability to learn stuff, but the capability is simply potential if not applied. A lot of people who go to school do not go to school to learn or at least to learn how to learn (loved writing this sentence).
\nThat’s why I think getting an MS and delaying adulthood is good for a lot of people.\u00a0 I remember the remake of Born Yesterday<\/a> starring Melanie Griffith<\/a> and her character is a small town gal that is being tutored by a professor<\/a> so she would no longer embarass her husband. Don Johnson<\/a> say: Howd you know a mink fur is good? Melani Griffith says because I used to wear rabbit fur. (I watch this film more than 10 years ago forgive me if I’ve forgotten the words , the gist is that the professor was asking how did she know what was good\u00a0 and she in essence said because I had worse.)
\nIf you watched that scene (personally I found the remake more of a gimmick when compared to the original film, I love old films and used to watch fox classic movies more than hbo) it showed two things. It is a triumph to surpass ourselves (that was the dignity of Melanie’s reply) while we know how well we have done only if we know it in relation to the whole or at least to a bigger sample (what don jonson was doing was somewhat trying to shame melanie into submission whilst her reaction showed she got what he was saying but also declaring that “you may look down on me but What I did was no easy matter”).
\nThat being said 25 is the new 18 (Probably saying this because I’m 25) and if we try to stay healthy we could live as long as our parents and probably be more productive (if we try to stay fit, the world is beginning to be more accommodating to old people). When do we take charge of our lives? it easy to make mistakes early on, but whose mistake do we want to commit our own mistakes or the misconceptions our elders have of this world. Call me naive but my actions prove my resolve. I’d rather make my own mistakes than walk the same old tired paths.\u00a0 I don’t know , but doing this is hard but this is something I’d probably not change my mind about. Just as Chris Blattman said “who says delaying adulthood is pointless?”<\/strong>
\nJohn Mayer<\/a>‘s Stop This Train from here<\/a><\/p>\n

no i’m not color blind
\ni know the world is black and white
\ni try to keep an open mind
\nbut i just can’t sleep on this tonight
\nstop this train i want to get off and go home again
\ni can’t take the speed it’s moving in
\ni know i can’t
\nbut honestly, won’t someone stop this train
\ndon’t know how else to say it,
\ni don’t want to see my parents go
\none generation’s length away
\nfrom fighting life out on my own
\nstop this train
\ni want to get off and go home again
\ni can’t take the speed it’s moving in
\ni know i can’t
\nbut honestly won’t someone stop this train
\nso scared of getting older
\ni’m only good at being young
\nso i play the numbers game<\/a>
\nto find away to say that life has just begun<\/strong>
\nhad a talk with my old man
\nsaid “help me understand”
\nhe said “turn sixty-eight”
\n“you’ll renegotiate”
\n“don’t stop this train
\ndon’t for a minute change the place you’re in
\nand don’t think i couldn’t ever understand
\ni tried my hand
\njohn, honestly we’ll never stop this train”
\nonce in a while, when it’s good
\nit’ll feel like it should
\nwhen you’re all still around
\nand you’re still safe and sound
\nand you don’t miss a thing
\ntill you cry when you’re driving away in the dark.
\nsinging stop this train i want to get out and go home again
\ni can’t take this speed it’s moving in
\ni know i can’t
\ncause now i see i’ll never stop this train
\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Reblog<\/a>