{"id":10180,"date":"2012-12-06T16:44:59","date_gmt":"2012-12-06T08:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/?p=5994"},"modified":"2025-03-06T16:23:48","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T16:23:48","slug":"university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/2012\/12\/06\/university\/","title":{"rendered":"No, I Won’t Be Going To University [2012]"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wrote this in December 2012.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I have been thinking about the University question for some time, and I decided to get some input from my Facebook friends to figure it out. I decided to ask everyone, why should I go to University? I got a bunch of great answers, most of them falling within the following categories.<\/p>\n

1: DELAY GROWING UP.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don’t want to do this. I want to face the world on my own two feet as soon as I can. The longer I delay this, the more uncomfortable I feel.<\/p>\n

2: GIRLS.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’ve already found the girl of my dreams.<\/p>\n

3: FUN.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I can think of a lot of other things I’d rather be doing which I would find a lot more fun, at far less cost!<\/p>\n

4: UNIQUE EXPERIENCE.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are all sorts of unique experiences to be had in the world if you keep your eyes open. If you think about it, University is quickly becoming one of the more common shared experiences that everybody has. Conscientiously not<\/strong><\/em> going to University will be an even more unique experience.<\/p>\n

5: TRAVEL.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Good point. I’m going to make sure I travel as much as possible. I will document this process.<\/p>\n

6: NETWORKING:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lots of people have told me that passionate University professors are amazing to hang out with. Here’s a challenge I’m hereby setting for myself. I’m going to befriend and hang out with said University professors, without matriculating<\/em>.<\/strong> I’m going to interview them and have nice long conversations with them, and I’m going to blog about it.<\/p>\n

7: CERTIFICATION:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some people tell me that degrees are increasingly required to even apply for a job. My stance is- if you’re even applying for a job by looking through job listings, you’re going about things the wrong way. I believe that the usefulness of certification as a signal of value is rapidly diminishing because the job market is being flooded with degrees. I believe that the best way to get a job is to create something of value, and then have your employers come to you, rather than the other way around. I will put my money (and my life) where my mouth is.<\/p>\n

8: LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES +\u00a0<\/strong>KNOWLEDGE:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Challenge: To learn and acquire knowledge without going to University. I will document this process.<\/p>\n

9:\u00a0LIFE SKILLS:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Challenge: To learn life skills without going to University. I believe I will learn them from being in a committed relationship, having productive discourse with others, running a business, running a blog and other things. I will chronicle them.<\/p>\n

10: INSPIRATION:
\n<\/strong>
\nI don’t need this.\u00a0<\/strong>I’m fairly certain that I already know what I want to do, even though I can’t quite express it completely in a soundbite. It is this innate knowledge that makes me feel edgy at the very idea of going to University at this stage in my life.<\/p>\n

MAKE YOUR PARENTS PROUD:<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Charles Darwin was 16, his father took him aside and said,\u00a0“You care for nothing but shooting, dogs, and rat-catching, and you will be a disgrace to yourself and all your family.”<\/em><\/p>\n

I will make my parents proud, but I will not be taking the path that they might have planned for me.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

My favourite response came from my friend Caleb, and I will be incorporating his perspective into my own. Thanks man.<\/p>\n

Insure yourself against selective exposure.<\/strong>\u00a0If you’re not careful, you’ll cherry-pick only what is convenient. It is important to force yourself to be exposed to ideas and schools of thought beyond your comfort zone and conscious interests.<\/p>\n

Use external pressure to force you mentally into optimal performance.\u00a0<\/strong>I think the best way for me to do this is to openly declare that I will not be going to University. I am now very publicly challenged to develop myself vis-\u00e0-vis\u00a0everybody else who is going to University. It will be visible, it will be visceral. I will use social pressure and gamification to force me mentally into optimal performance.<\/p>\n

Use a qualitative pre-established standard for intellectual discipline.\u00a0<\/strong>What gets measured gets managed. Make sure you measure things properly. Develop a yardstick.<\/p>\n

Acquire direct physical access to accomplished intellectual minds.\u00a0<\/strong>I will seek out these minds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wrote this in December 2012. I have been thinking about the University question for some time, and I decided to get some input from my Facebook friends to figure it out. I decided to ask everyone, why should I go to University? I got a bunch of great answers,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[830],"tags":[343,580,870],"class_list":["post-10180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","tag-past-projections","tag-status-update","tag-what-is-school-for"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5gxNz-2Ec","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10180"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14609,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10180\/revisions\/14609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}