patrick.net

CaptainShuddup says

Then how do you explain smart people who were raised by third world immigrants with only a 6th grade education education, they got back home in the missionary school?

Either raised by these people as a parent that managed to get here and have kids, or are the Nanny for people who are well off. But never home enough to say they raised the kid.

Don't confuse education with intelligence. To put it in terms you can understand: the fastest computer in the world does nothing without an operating system, and then, if it has one, it's still dependent on its programming. Would you argue that an IBM 386 is just as good as a dual core modern machine? Without programming (education), both are just paperweights.
Just as important as intelligence is motivation and desire. A person with a hard working personality who likes to accomplish things is going to do much better than a smarter person with little motivation or drive. Most self made millionaires are only slightly above average intelligence. They just work harder and reach further.

P N Dr Lo R says

What a concept! It's always presented that people who loose their jobs or can't find a job are doing something wrong when in fact the fault is not theirs. It would be like saying all the people in those lines in the black and white photos of 1931-1933 are just a bunch of lazy loafers who aren't doing enough to get a job.

If they are willing to work for $22,400 per year, they can work for a regional airline as a pilot:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-0303-travel-briefcase-20140303,0,6097149.story

Quigley says

Don't confuse education with intelligence.

Genetics will only tell you that you're going to be fat, and have no hair by time you're 30.

When was the last time you ever saw a Son live up to a legend, or a Legend who had Parents who were above average at what they do?

Not just what their parents scored in school, but what did they achieve in life?

You say one creates the other, yet they don't always align to your belief.

Now in the scheme of things, I don't consider my self necessarily great or anything. But those who have known me all my life, really really really I mean fucking "Really?" hard to believe what I do for a living, from my humble beginnings. I actually get tired of hearing it. I kinda relate to Neil deGrasse Tyson's interview on NPR last week. Where he was talking about his racial victimization by White guys, who hold him as some exception because he's "black guy" who became an Astrophysicist and not a Basketball player. Or the reaction he got when he would tell adults when he was young what he wanted to be when he grew up.

Or the reaction he gets now.
"Really you're an Astrophysicist?"

But really drive is determined, by the limit of crap one reaches doing it the muddling along approach. Eventually you grow up and need more than what you are capable of providing at some point.
For some, they just want a more of a Simple life others want to live large. What they invest their time and energy into the form a passion into, they will be rewarded as a master of that endeavour.

Many people never get that drive, it's not that they are incapable of being driven. They never catch their muse, that inspires them to want more. Or perhaps they aspire for less in a simple life.

Some people are born driven, but it doesn't make them better or smarter, it makes them the exception.

Judging by founding fathers, looks like neither George Washington nor Thomas Paine had any children.

Prominent examples of a lineage of a talented father & son, like Oliver Wendall Holmes Senior & Junior, are not as often as you might think.

The fact that both Franklin and Adams had disowned their kids, hints at me, that I'm making the right decision.

Is it ok if I disown my American Taliban parents?

bgamall4 says

Everybody was robbed by the bankers. Everybody on the face of the earth pays more for whatever they buy because of bankers.

That's my point of view: http://smaulgld.com/millennials-not-part-of-the-club-yet/

So you must know this parasitic system feeds on sucking the marrow from your bones. It will put you in a compromised position, expecting you to push back, and when you do, harvest the fruits of your efforts. What,you won't play along? Well fuck you, then, and rot.

This is damning evidence....

FortWayne says

Debate it all you want, but without a thriving economy young adults, or older folks, we are all screwed. So you liberals, tell Obama to focus on economy instead of Gays, Ukraine, stray dogs, Marijuana, or whatever else liberal priorities are these days.

CaptainShuddup says

Then how do you explain smart people who were raised by third world immigrants with only a 6th grade education education, they got back home in the missionary school?

Either raised by these people as a parent that managed to get here and have kids, or are the Nanny for people who are well off. But never home enough to say they raised the kid.

TV?

My (now 36 year-old) view? My very comfortable, non-degreed parents just stare at me in disbelief when I mention that we won't be able to buy a home in SoCal. It simply doesn't compute, yet these are not people who pushed me to succeed in any particular arena.

They just figured if you could work somewhere for a few decades things would work themselves out and you'd sock some cash away while doing so. Maybe have a few kids and a boat or two along the way. No biggie. Now, where are those grandkids?

I say this because I see the same mentality in some comments here; I don't believe I'm lazy (nor my wife) but even with a full decade of experience under my belt it is still a soul-crushing job market out there. I can't even imagine what it like when you have *zero* experience because I'm already working at half my normal rate (albeit with some nice benefits) because of a dual income. And now you're competing with me, the guy with no debt.

I haven't figured out the solution, but there has been a definite shift over the last fifteen years that doesn't benefit anyone, it's just our own perception/bias that gets in the way of an accord. Boomers hold the key to a lock that doesn't exist anymore, but that's not to say that it can't open something..

sbh says

thinks you're this loser:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/04/justice/student-sues-parents-new-jersey/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Last night, my childless colleagues and I had a huge laugh out of that story.

Yup, that's a typical teenage suburbanite princess. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if she becomes my niece's inspiration down the road.

It is always amusing to listen to some folks who believe they have prevailed against almost insurmountable challenging circumstances. Quite frequently, they have a very selective memory of events as they construct a story of what happened that does not conflict with their belief system, as a true recounting of actual events is sacrificed in the process. Chest-thumping. A complaint that as I have done it (as the faulty narrative tells), by golly others should, too. Full blown narcissism in denial.

sbh says

We laugh about it, but it's truly agonizing to consider what a person, any person, is doing to themselves when they become devoted to a victim persona. They basically become parasitic and abandon themselves.

Well, to some extent, I do believe that scientists and engineers were screwed over by corporate America.

One of the reason why you don't hear so much about it is that getting through a STEM program, in itself, lacks a victim's profile, so many former STEMers go into business, finance, & even manual careers like electrician or woodwork but seldom, do you see them sit around and do nothing for years at a time.

So one can be 'a victim' or one can be a former victim.

freak80 says

Is it ok if I disown my American Taliban parents?

You do realize the NSA reads PatNet?

My thinking is that the last generation to really "take over" was the Early Baby Boomers.

Like for instance, people who fought WWII. They took over. They made the world theirs. They owned businesses and became the execs and hired each other in GM plants and supermarkets because they had this shared experience.

Same with the early Baby Boomers. They created the whole modern economy of high tech and new media. They had a shared culture of marches, anti-Establishment, that let anyone in the "club" be given entrance.

Everyone since then has been a kind of leech. Note the character of Michael J. Fox in "The Secret to my Success". He does not want to remake the world...he just wants a really good job! This has been the paradigm of almost every teen movie of that sort up until this day of Jonah Hill playing the perennial intern.

"There's not a worse decision a young American can make than attending college sans parental money or massive scholarship," wrote Matthew Saccarro for Salon last month. "You're paying for nothing that you can't get elsewhere for less money or free, save for the piece of paper with a con man's signature on it."

Precisely. College is a con job, but one forced onto people.

Dan8267 says

freak80 says

Is it ok if I disown my American Taliban parents?

You do realize the NSA reads PatNet?

Shh, AF won't like it if you out his day job!

I think to succeed in this very difficult job market you have to have a swagger and a lot of skill at manipulating social situations. The politically astute will prevail while the meek are overlooked. You have to pretend until you become, because people without exp are automatically rejected.
Possibly the best move would be to fake a resume with at least some experience to get an entry level job, then go on the job hunt again maybe two months in, before there's definitive proof that you actually aren't experienced. Land another job based on the current job and switch before the water gets too hot. Rinse, repeat, with increasingly long intervals at jobs, then you have an experience history that looks like boss material!
Winning.

sbh says

qualities employers say they are desperate to find: communication skills and executive presence.

Communication Skills: Blogging on PatNet and/or spending all day on Facebook.

Executive Presence: Fake it till you make it.

What's the problem again?

Grow weed - no college degree needed and you will be producing something beneficial to society rather than another useless widget or financial product designed to suck money from the degree carrying sheeple in their cubicles.

sbh says

New Renter says

sbh says

qualities employers say they are desperate to find: communication skills and executive presence.

Communication Skills: Blogging on PatNet and/or spending all day on Facebook.

Executive Presence: Fake it till you make it.

What's the problem again?

You mean RentingForHalfTheCost is marketable? Your killin' me, dude.

If you don't have him on ignore then yes he is marketable to you.

Moderate Infidel says

Grow weed - no college degree needed and you will be producing something beneficial to society rather than another useless widget or financial product designed to suck money from the degree carrying sheeple in their cubicles.

"How you going to get the kids back on the farm after they've seen the big city?

sbh says

I've yet to put anyone on ignore.......perhaps that's my bad. I like poking him with a stick when I get bored watching the S&P make new highs. Yawn.

To each their own I guess. Personalty I can't abide anyone who just for shits and giggles would intentionally mislead another to make the biggest financial mistake of their life. IMO that kind of behavior should be grounds for a nuking.

They take any repeated tidbit of information in any context as the truth. But they never want to hear the truth.

Moderate Infidel says

Grow weed

What are you, some kind of hippie like George Washington?

Make the most of the Indian hemp seed, and sow it everywhere!

sbh says

I like poking him with a stick

That's what she said.

sbh says

If mommy accompanies you to your job interview, it's a safe bet you've got problems.

Why would anyone believe the lie told about college? After graduation......that's when it all begins. The Ms think after graduation they get a gold watch.

Yep.

So for those on this forum, who choose to go child free ... don't you feel relaxed, when you go to sleep at night? I certainly do.

sbh says

Why would anyone believe the lie told about college? After graduation......that's when it all begins. The Ms think after graduation they get a gold watch.

Most of us believe it for a short time. I sure did - for about a month.

The reason is that colleges, deans, and professors spew the bullshit about how elite and important all members of the college community are, and how lucky society is to have graduates of Xxxx University descend from the heights into the population of citizens every year, with pure silk streaming from their highly-educated asses. Couple this with having to actually work damn hard for the worthless degree, and there is understandable entitlement the day it is received.

What straightened me out was job interviews, and massive rejections. Clearly, society was not impressed by my degree and achievements.

I had the advantage that I could continue to interview, adjust my strategy, and learn to roll with the punches. I learned to speak the language of people who my professors had looked down on as morons: those people, outside academe, who weren't even adjunct lecturers.

The current generation isn't even getting the interviews. Whatever is wrong with them, they have fewer opportunities to fix it.

I once went through a stretch of unemployment where it was difficult to get walk-in interviews. When I got the walk-ins, it was as if I was rusty - the stench of unemployment hung on me. This affects performance.

Everyone is ill-served by college when it comes to entering the job market. But if there is no job market, how does one adjust and learn?

Iosef V HydroCabron says

Couple this with having to actually work damn hard for the worthless degree, and there is understandable entitlement the day it is received.

What straightened me out was job interviews, and massive rejections. Clearly, society was not impressed by my degree and achievements.

Yeah, but didn't you get the feel of the cold, real world, during that 1st CO-OP or internship, during the summers of sophomore or junior year?

Once I'd gained some experience, I knew that the halls of academia were a type of private Idaho.

What surprised me, however, was how lame, industrial R&D was going to be, after graduation.

CMY says

My very comfortable, non-degreed parents just stare at me in disbelief when I mention that we won't be able to buy a home in SoCal.

That's exactly the point.
Boomers are blind in that way. They feel that if you just step out and try hard, it will be enough.

They don't think of this as entitlement, but having such a world around you is the entitlement they had that the millennials don't even expect.

Call it Crazy says

Rin says

So for those on this forum, who choose to go child free ... don't you feel relaxed, when you go to sleep at night? I certainly do.

Hmmm... Does that mean the ones WITH children aren't relaxed when they go to sleep??? I've got three and I sleep like a rock, so I don't get your point??

Well, my sister and brother-in-law drink Amarettos and Whisky, respectively, to get themselves to sleep at night.

All that stress about bills, the child's activities, etc, have really eaten away at their lives.

Call it Crazy says

Hmm.. That's sad.... Makes me wonder who REALLY is in charge in that house...

Well, it's either Johnnie Walker, Jimmy Beam, or Jack Daniels, take your pick?

Regardless, since some of our founding fathers didn't have children, I'm following suit.

The coming generations of American kids will be the dumbest of 'em all.

Core R&D will be done in Asia and places like the USA, Canada, etc, will become money laundering centers for monied powers.

Call it Crazy says

Like I said, chicken!!!

Sticks & Stones, plus, the good General's got my back.

Call it Crazy says

That's a given..... But boy can they text!!!

I suspect that the brighter ones will become cyberpunks, so keep an eye on your credit scores and bank balances at all times.