Re: Commitment

[Anonymous]

@KrazyKat I took physics in college for the same reason. As it turned out, it was a great decision. A lot of my friends are now successful entrepreneurs and business people. Physics gave them (and me) a broad understanding of the universe and the confidence to question things other people take for granted. You cannot study modern physics without developing a healthy disrespect for the opinions of experts. (One of my favorite physicists, Richard Feynman, used to say “science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.”) You can’t change the world if you accept it as it is.

I agree that there’s too much pressure for teenagers to decide what they want to be when they’re 40. I’m 37, and all I can come up with is “alive and employed.” I think it’s the farmer’s mentality. They want to know how many accountants, bankers, car mechanics and English Lit majors they’ve planted, so they can plan an orderly harvest. We hunters just want to build a skill set so we are able to go out and slay whatever dragon comes over the next hill.

If you ask me, college should be about that–building a base of knowledge and skills so you can tackle the unknown, not putting yourself in a neat little box for a census taker. Nobody picks “iPhone inventor” as a major in college. The Renaissance wasn’t the product of narrowly tailored job descriptions. But we’re the ones they call disordered.

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