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Comment by warrenm | Hacker News Reader

It's not "infantilizing" to note that a 21-year-old can't know as much as a 31-year-old can

It's basic physics

(a 31-year-old may not know as much as a 21-year-old, but that's not [usually] because they can't know more)

That a true but fairly pointless statement. Humans rarely optimize for learning to the extent that you would hit that hypothetical. It's really quite easy for a 21-year old to know the things the OP is talking about. But A) they don't care to know and B) our education system babies kids.

We could be teaching all this stuff at a far younger age, and many countries do.

You can teach [almost] anything at a younger age

But you can't teach it all

Again - this is basic physics

In the real world, this may not hold for niche knowledge streams (eg theoretical CS). 21-year-olds growing up in the 21st century can optimise far better than 31-year-olds, with far better availability of specialist knowledge from a much earlier age

...presuming they know they want to ... maybe :)

Yes, but that's not what the OP said.

For decades, the standard line has been “you go to college to learn how to learn.” And high school and education leading up to it has been seen as preparation for college.

Not to mention “college isn’t a trade school”, “if you want your CS program to teach you how to program, go to a boot camp”, and so on.

That's a very US-centric view, which really points out how terrible US schools really are.

It also points out how the tech industry, and perhaps other private sectors, has completely abdicated its responsibility in the proper training of its new workers. Which it used to do decades ago, but now has outsourced it to universities.

The "standard line" has been, "go to college so you can get a job"

And that's what's chured out record levels of student debt, pointless degrees, and infantilized "adults"

That's the standard line from society of how college works in practice. But the colleges, nay universities, themselves have always been hesitant to become job-creation factories. They are not vocational schools.

Meanwhile, vocational schools and community colleges in the U.S. are considered low-prestige by both industry employers and American society itself, despite less likely to result in high student debt and perhaps fewer pointless degrees.

Just complete lack of coordination from different segments of society, and misaligned incentives across the board.

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