Look at the massive industry that has built itself around academia as well - all in the hope of gamifying a student's education. They learn to get the highest grade, not by mastering the subject, but by hacking information input. Nuance, comprehension, and critical thinking have no place in this game. And students are pressured to win no matter what.

I’m 81yrs old and don’t have a degree, but you convinced me to pick up a book on stoic philosophy. I’m an avid reader and have been since I was 8 yrs old. Thank you sir💕

Three things struck me as a philosophy undergraduate. First, there was a lack of contact hours. My course only had eight contact hours in total. Four hours were devoted to lectures, and four hours were devoted to seminars. Discussion is an essential part of philosophy, and yet, for each module, we were discussing an important philosophical text for only fifty minutes in a seminar. This was very disappointing. Second, philosophy programmes are not selective enough. Many students on the course did not want to complete the required readings, and many would surf the internet during seminars. Third, in the last and most important year of my studies, graduate students, fresh from completing their Ph.D.s, were leading some of my modules. While I have been taught by some very good graduate students in the past, many lack teaching experience and familiarity with the subject matter. Given the importance of the final year of one’s studies, I was shocked by this.

I totally resonate with what you said. I was an assistant professor at a world top 100 university in the Netherlands - and I got disillusioned and quit my job. I'm now a researcher in Germany. It's a more solitary job and there's no teaching but I feel it's a better and purer use of my time.

I didn't do the readings, or engage with any of my classes when I was at uni paying exorbitantly for it. As soon as I dropped out, I spent hours studying on my own, because it was suddenly easier again. Those 300+ student classes are utterly destructive. If you find something fascinating, there's no-one to talk to about it and ask questions. If you find something difficult, there are thirty students mobbing the lecturer immediately after class. It's easier to just disengage

I’m college educated, but never got into reading as much as I have in the past year. You inspired me to read Ursula Le Guin, and through you I found Harold Bloom and have been so enriched by the western canon. You’re doing good work and it’s reaching people probably on a more personal level through video format! I really appreciate the thoughtfulness of your content!

I have a lot of personal interests that I want to pursue. And I believed that being in academia would provide an avenue for pursuing those interests. But in reality, I have found that being in academia has forced me into a position of providing a service that students don't want (I work in teaching mathematics) and that detracts from my freedom to pursue my personal academic curiosities (applying my philosophical perspective in mathematics and category theory to broader fields beyond undergraduate mathematics) because I MUST teach undergraduate math courses that are accessible to a broad collection of students, so that they can succeed in an environment where mathematics is not their primary interest. The pressure to simplify and water down the material is a pressure from administrators that want to provide degrees as a product students can purchase rather than a measure of how developed and well rounded students have become. It's frustrating and has made me seriously reconsider my purpose and place in modern academia.

Hey Jared. Thanks for your posts. I have been following a lot of your Codex posts, to learn more about literature. I'm 60, retired now for the last 5 years or so and in my retirement have focused my energies on writing and reading and learning about literature. I'm deep into that whole experience and loving it. I have gone to your posts, and a few other podcasting 'Literatos' on the web to get some background on writers I like, and literature movements and the history of literature and language. I had originally hoped to audit some classes in the universities in my town, but found them wanting, or not inviting, unless you've paid up and so I've gone to people like yourself for that learning. Just wanted you to know, you still have students and that this choice to share your knowledge and experience here, has been great for those of us out here, who want it. Hope you're able to continue. Thanks again.

I agree 100% with everything you said. I have a master‘s degree from a swiss university and felt that the education was severely lacking. I also would have loved to go into academia but the people I knew that did that were all unhappy. It’s so sad because academia would be a dream job if it was actually about academia. I also think that education is so elitist and exclusive to those who can afford it and that’s just wrong. Your channel is open to everyone and I‘m glad it exists.

I agree that a lot of students are not being set up for success. A lot of my colleagues believe that our students are lazy and stupid. All of my students work full time outside of school. Many of them speak multiple languages. They're neither lazy nor stupid. They're overwhelmed. Your comments about not being encouraged or challenged to read remind me of a first-year student I taught who told me wanted to be a lawyer and prior to my class he had never once read a book from cover to cover. He didn't have the skills to really analyze what was happening in the books we read because he was learning how to do that in a university course rather than earlier in his life. He really did try! I think he has a lot of potential to improve! But he's starting so far behind because he wasn't challenged earlier.

Thank you for your channel, I would’ve never gotten back into reading and writing if it weren’t for you!

Wow! I never expected to see this much pain/sorrow and (com)passion. I'm Estonian and I have absolutely no personal knowledge of what's going on in universities over there ... but the WAY you talk shows your honesty and even though you stay entirely logical and rational -- I would say, sadness and disappoint. It was a powerful talk. I hope everything will work out for you.

Jared, thank you so much for this video. As someone who is in the process of leaving my doctoral program to pursue my passion as a landscaper, I deeply resonate with your message here. "Leaving academia was the thing that allowed me to pursue what I actually want my vocation to be." This is a quote of yours I'm going to carry with me on my own departure from academia. It's a quote that'll keep me working strong in tripple digit heat for sure. Your departure from academia and your plunge into your current persuits serve as an inspiration to me and I cannot express in words how much this means to me. I'll leave it at "thank you," for now. And I look forward to watching your videos on this channel or on other BookTube channels you're featured on. Take care.

One other thing I noticed is that the classic works in my field were essentially absent from my education. In a history program we never discussed Herodotus, Thucydides, Tacitus, Hobbes, and Gibbon, and barely touched Plutarch and Polybius. I don't think we read any historians with a real impact on the field and it was almost all articles that had been written in the last 30 years. Now I feel like I'm playing catch up even though I already have my degree.

this was phenomenal Jared. Your videos have encouraged me to put Boethius on my soon-to-be-read list. (We were assigned him in college but had a hurricane that cancelled school that week, and I don’t think I did the optional reading…excited to finally go back to it.) thank you!

I agree with you 100% Jared. I've always been somewhat interested in philosophy on a very surface level but when I came across your channel a while back, you got me excited to dig a little deeper into it. I'm still a slow reader mind you, but you've really helped me to not just give up on a text because its a little challenging or it is taking a long time to get through. Keep up the great work! 🙂

When I was in graduate school, my history professor said “I have to dumb down this class because if I taught you the way I learned none of you would pass.” That really made me angry and insulted so after class I went to his office and said “Frankly I’m disappointed and frustrated because I didn’t come here to learn dumbed down material, I came to learn the most that I can. I believe I could learn what you learned.” He turned to me and said “you’re probably right, but nobody else in the class could so I can’t do it.” That’s what I was left with. Grad school still leaves a bad taste in my mouth, that I sacrificed all that time and money and I’m not sure what it got me. Now I’m learning way more on my own than I ever did in school. In part thanks to your videos like you said. Your early videos encouraged me to read hard books outside my field and I’ve been enjoying tackling philosophy and difficult books and learning that my intellect is not limited to my initial field but that I can expand my education beyond that schooling on my own.

I am in the uk and damn lol, I never really saw uni as an experience for me personally. I am not one to really party, uni to me is soley education and getting my degree and seeing where I come out at the other side. I LITERALLY am basically studying ALL the time

Jared, this is an excellent video and I appreciate the integrity and thought behind your work. It’s bold to follow a path like this, and allowing us to see you pursue this “project” has been so enlightening and inspiring. I was a middle school teacher, and I’ve found that institutions get in the way of and prevent unfettered honesty and connection between student and teacher. I also think that watching a thoughtful intellect on KZfaq is less stressful and imposing and more accessible for the average “smart book curious” than university. I’m following your career with great interest and many well wishes. ❤

The quality of content that you put out is incredibly underrated. I was one of those students that struggled with reading, writing, doing math, etc and was told that this was and issue. Because of this everything was brought down a level in my mind until I reached high school. Your channel helped me discover a deep love for writing and reading.This discovery has shown me for the first time what those two subjects have to offer, the challenges that it poses to my mind and the benefit of overcoming those challenges. I appreciate your recent work on youtube and substack that advocates for a system that can better challenge the youth of today and hopefully create a generation great thinkers.

Academia globally has become a business that doesn't foster the life of the mind. You can be a scholar without being an academic.

This is a very interesting topic. I actually question students’ capability these days because the education is so poor before even getting to college. If they are given anything difficult, the level of complaining is nuts, and the professors give in to it instead of maintaining their expectations. I think most students are not there to actually learn, but to just get a degree. As a side note, in all my years of school (middle school, high school, college) I was never required to read a single classic novel.

Another aspect of American academia is that it’s designed for people who can devote all of their time to school, which is an absolute privilege. There’s not as much consideration or support for those who work while attending school. I was certainly not prepared for 500 pages of reading per week when I began my Master’s degree while also working full time.

my experience in US education, both as a student and as a teacher, is that it takes so much agency away from the students, and it makes it easy, and boring and students are smart enough to realize they dont have to try and so they dont. everyone passes, everyone graduates, as long as you show up half the time and sort of do something, it's good enough. i eventually found art, and it was the only type of class where i was allowed to challenge myself, make my own decisions, and succeed or fail based on my own work. no other class i took gave me that agency and engagement, gave me the experience of doing something for myself and seeing the results of my effort. we rob students of ever learning that they can make their own decisions and challenge themselves beyond the outlines of a multiple choice test.

Thank you for your videos. I had stopped reading for some time and was struggling to find something to pursue on my own time. I started purchasing and reading more since watching your channel. You have definitely help me find the passion of reading more meaningful books again.

Me watching this while preparing to go into academia 👁👄👁

Hey, I study chemistry in Germany. It is a lot less expensive to study here but there are also problems. In Germany professors are doing a lot of the teaching, but there also overseeing the PhD.s and connecting with the industry and politics. Thus, they are really overworked and often just set up the material for their course and really rarely actualize it. Also they get no training in teaching at all, it’s just assumed they know how to do it. That and the fact that they are “verbeamtet” (if they don’t do something criminal, they are practically impossible to fire) makes the teaching quality a gamble. Most of them are at least ok though. I was in the student council for many years and making the test easier was discussed frequently. In hindsight I am most shocked about the total uninterested way, they treated the growing gap between expectations and reality of student performance. They never even attempted to collect data. I mean fixing problems is sciences hole deal, right? They never even asked themselves if it might be a structural problem. They just assumed that schools are getting worse (which is true) and that students need to self-organize more. What Jared mentioned in this video - that students are getting to little feedback - is also true here.

Great video, man. Thanks for this honest and very satisfyingly candid video. *Thank you*

Lots of good insights here. I work at a university and am in a grad program there. Thank you for this video.

Kudos for giving a sober analysis! I’m about to return to academia for a phd after teaching at a high school level for the last 15 years. I share your concerns. However, I do think that the only way to make a change is from within. And so, while I respect your opinion and decision, I think there still is hope. Keep up the good work on this channel!

As someone who's taking a break from academia (on the STEM side), I would like to note that a lot of the time when those first two years aren't being taught by grad students, they're being taught by non-tenure track faculty who have very little ability to push back on demands without putting their employment in jeopardy. My experience as NTT at a flagship university was one of high teaching loads, low support, and a desire to streamline everything. Ironically, I felt far greater leeway to challenge students at a two-year school, and the class loads were small enough that I could give students the attention needed. In addition, the students tended to come in not feeling like they'd "made it" by getting into the institution, so there was often more of a drive to challenge oneself. There were often issues with non-education things interfering that took more work, but students with complicated lives deserve good educations too. While I'm not in the humanities, I do agree with you that the move towards testing has led to a disturbing prioritization of shorter passages. I was especially concerned with that for my youngest kid, who spent his last year and a half of high school taking English online -- the state insisted on use of a system that changed what the students did quite dramatically, eliminating major book-related projects. In particular, the English department had one project called "major author " where students read five books by an author chosen from a list, analyzed the books and produced a work that discussed major themes and connections over those five books. The state did away with it during the pandemic. I understand - it's not something you can do easily with standardized testing - but I still grieve the loss.

Thanks Jared. Over the past many months I have been watching and enjoying your videos, you have provided an extra spark in my desire to read philosophy. I have been interested for a few years, but it now is more than just an interest. I believe it is something that can enrich my life in many ways. Last month after I finished reading Meditations for the second time I went straight to Letters From A Stoic. I seem to be reading these works with a different level of awareness. I can't say it is from just watching your videos, but I do believe it has definitely helped. Take care fella.

You have definitely pushed me to try new books and to challenge myself with thinking deeply about the material. Thank you!

23 year old university student here. I agree with your sentiments and observations, and I think the surge of inspiration many people feel when facing a challenge is necessary for education. There is truthfully one class I've taken in my university career where I've felt challenged, and the rest have been a bit below my intellectual capabilities - neither of which are to say I'm a whiz student by any means - but I felt really good doing the work for that one class! Doing the work for the majority of these classes feels dull and honestly more dutiful than it is inspiring or enriching. People like challenges, and we like the assumption that we're capable of more. Thanks for sharing this

Thank you so much for talking about this. Our world has plenty of vices to depress over, but somehow this is one of the top contenders for me. I deeply wish I could go back to my childhood when I passionately studied for endless hours. Now university isn't about education but maxing out the stats in this popularity contest the world has become. Just became a lawyer now, a bit of course work yet to complete but I despise the system. I'm grateful for not being in debt, but can't bear what's happening with my friends who do. I'm rekindling my love for reading from your recommendations. Thank you for everything ❤️

This channel really inspires me to further engage in a lot of my interests, thank you for that

I totally agree with your mission and it inspires me to do something similar, thankyou for sharing! ❤

Nice to find your channel and the others here who share similar experiences and views. I was a philosophy graduate candidate years ago and had similar dreams of reading/writing/teaching philosophy as a career. Ultimately I decided against pursuing it and have occasionally been haunted by "what if" thoughts. (One of my loves was philosophy of language as well btw!) The more I hear professional academics and former professional academics discuss the problems and often downright toxicity in the academic bubble, the more I'm convinced I saved myself a lot of headache and heartache, not to mention money, by not going that direction. Thanks for your channel!

I always get something out of ALL your videos. I am long out of college and university, now retired, but reading is something I love and you are truly an inspiration in so many ways. Thank you.

Love what you said, and hate how correct you are. Expectations, and universities/colleges as we knew them, are for the most part dead and gone. People are coming to you on KZfaq because they've been starved for real, difficult, and meaningful education. Keep up the great work!

Thank you for your perspective! Seeing your videos really coincided with my bachelor's burnout on year 3 out of 4. I'm not from America, but our countries' humanitarian faculties (Theatre studies in my case, but also Humanities in general) are understaffed and underfunded, not rescpeted compared to other sciences, and most graduates are not in demand at all. Also now professors and students can be fired or in extreme cases be legally prosecuted for being against government's policy... Add to that a feeling of inadequacy, and imposter syndrome (or maybe I'm just geniunely a bad fit lol) Your videos as well as of other creators really remind me that I can choose a different vocation while continuing to learn more about life in philosophical and other terms on my own, that I do not neccesarily need a degree to "deserve" to have opinions about the world we live and the life that is happening. Thanks!

Hi. One more person commenting to help your channel. 💪🏻 Your videos definitely helped me, as a middle aged woman, open up to the idea of reading hard books! I’m a former librarian, I love reading and lifelong learning. But somehow I left out the classics and works on Philosophy. 🙏🏻

Great points Jared. Never forget that universities are a business with an educational slant. Tuition is so high simply because the government is backing the student loans, thus admins are increasing the cost knowing that they will get the money. I agree that colleges are heading into trouble, but a lot of them do not even realize it yet.

Great message in this video. Thank you, Sir.

I really appreciate your work and democratization of worthwhile material.

Sir, that is a cool decision! There are significant problems in the selection processes for both learners and universities, as well as in academic management. Considering advancements in technology and the economic and political situations in different countries, there is a tremendous need for change in these processes. Throughout history, philosophers often lived modestly and were not wealthy, which contrasts sharply with today’s focus on economic survival and paying bills. Thanks.

Your channel has been helpful in getting me back to reading books (mostly fiction for now), so thank you for that!

Jared I really enjoy your insights that provoke thoughts thanks

Jared I have watched your videos on and off for a couple of years. I have taught at all levels of education and as a 53 year old man I have found joy in teaching at what you would label Kindergarten level as it fits in with my family commitments here in the UK. I enjoy being at the ‘chalk face’ but I have also become disillusioned by the decay in education and its constant ‘rebranding’. Style over substance. I have turned to your channel in an effort to scratch an intellectual itch. I am revisiting my brief foray into Philosophy from about 25 years ago. I am really enjoying it and with the summer break heading my way - I’m looking forward to being able to commit some time to it. Thank you for your honest and approachable manner - I’m sure academia has made a mistake in allowing you to move on. But then - I’m doing my most enjoyable work after ‘moving’ on from other things. Maybe this is your true calling?

Thank you. Great chat. And also make no mistake Mr. Jared, you are still teaching.

Great video. As someone who graduated a year ago, I have seen and felt the low quality education being given in college. I went to Grand Canyon University. And although I cannot speak for everyone there, the expectation of a tough, rigorous education to sharpen your mind for life is not there. People go there, like you said, for the experience, not the training to better their lives in work, family life and making the world a lovelier place. It is sad, but it is the world we live in. Keep up the videos. You are making a difference.

Man I love this channel!

A year ago, you published 7 Books for Beginners, or something like that. Your video gave me that last nudge to read philosophy. I followed your recommendations and started with Plato's Works, then moved to Philosophical Investigations by Wittgenstein. I also have Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics on my shelf, but I haven't read that one yet. Still, it was all thanks to you.

Nice work sir 👏

It's refreshing to hear someone speak honestly on this topic. I left the adjunct life mostly for selfish reasons because I could see that it was exploitative and there were no opportunities for advancement -- even though I really loved teaching. Now I work in an academic library and I see the problems you discuss becoming worse, particularly with the pandemic-accelerated shift to online learning and now the incursion of AI-generated text, which many students are using as a crutch instead of learning to write and think independently. University leadership responds by willfully ignoring the problem and telling faculty to "embrace it" and "adapt." Colleges and universities are businesses that often put profit before values, unfortunately.

I've sometimes felt intimidated by the harder works of philosophy (I haven't read nearly as much as I would've wanted) but you have definitely inspired me to read more philosophy and you've given us a general understanding of how to approach it, which can be quite daunting even for someone interested in it, let alone any "normal" person. So yes I'd definitely say you've helped me get out of my comfort zone. And in other genres too, I started Book of the New Sun and GGK's books in part because you've recommended them, and I'm very glad. So thank you.

Hey Jares I am one of your past followers during college, I am academia now , and start a KZfaq channel, and I trust your explanations, and may you be one of models I need to be on KZfaq one day. and I wish you best in upcoming work

Today I learned about the result of me failing to get in a local music school, as a college drop out from Europe. The failure of my application to music school forced me to rethink about why I dropped out at the first place and I came across this video. Unlike the States, in Europe the Europeans don't need to pay tuition, however not much luck for the non europeans. Yet the situation is the same, in order for schools to provide "experience" there are a lot of budgets go into the "environment, event' etc proxy. And as a student of science I found it a big headache the school doesn't have the capability to offer us proper intermediate courses nor lab courses, yet always brand themselves as "game changer, world impact, will let you gain the mastery of xxx". It is really frustrating for me that every content I've came across in school lecture could've been learned from the internet, not saying it's thence bad, but really, then what's the value of a school other than selling the prestige?

Great video! And kitty approved-definite winner! 💜🐈‍⬛

Thank you for sharing this

as a student you've raised some very interesting and valid perspectives that i hadnt considered before, thank you!

I'm a full time prof at a JC and a writer. Just wanted to drop in and say thank you for sharing your thoughts on the regular. It's a joy to listen to someone so passionate about the betterment of people's lives through the work of the mind.

Not that I was seeking a career in academia, but I was turned off to any possibility of it after taking part time work for a lab on campus. I watched what the doctoral candidates and post-doctoral researchers had to jump through, as well as the politics. So I do understand some of the frustrations mentioned. Now after retiring from an unsatisfying career, I find myself wanting to learn again. I think it's natural that philosophy be the starting point for that, and I guess that's why the KZfaq algorithms introduced me to this channel. So much of what I know of philosophy actually came from my high school courses. Your channel and suggestions have made it easier for me to rediscover what I have sorely missed.

I absolutely resonate with what you shared (speaking from an engineering student's perspective). I'm a rising junior, and throughout my life college was presented to me as the pinnacle of intellectual inquiry and academic excellence. And although there are certainly aspects of that, in my experience many departments fall short of providing that experience for the majority of students. It's really up to students individually to carve out a path to explore their intellectual interests, it's sad that we can't rely on our institutions to provide that for us and more often than not they can actually get in our way and even inhibit our progress in doing that.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts Man these are some really brutal facts I thought the European school system lacks a lot of good education preparation but wow I didn’t expect it was similar over there

We appreciate your insights. I agree, not all universities are actually as good as they seem to be.

I like to refer back to the rhetoric of Mark Twain about not letting schooling interfere with one's education. But seriously, I often recommend that people seek out training in hard skills such as nursing, mechanical work, IT, etc. (as opposed to soft skills like management, administration, HR, et al.) Hard skillsets are almost always in shortage and their certification route relatively accessible. And most of all: instead of trying to find a job that makes you happy, find something you're good at and find joy in it. Also, don't accept the notion that a junior college is necessarily inferior to the big universities. Junior colleges not only have much more reasonable pricing, class sizes, and scheduling, but the professors are most often retired industry professionals with a career of genuine experience and lots of earned wisdom. University professors (particularly those outside of the hard sciences) have little to no experience outside of the classroom, for better or worse.

Another refugee from academia here . . . I absolutely agree with your position on the “college experience,” the bloated non-education related staff, the internal politics, and the lack of rewards related to solid teaching. I left, and ended up performing evaluation research for a major bank, documenting lending discrimination based on income or race. That research helped major banks develop outreach to “lending wastelands” in their markets. Those years of work was the most fulfilling period of my life. There IS a place for us in the outside world, and occasionally, that can be very rewarding. Bravo for your explanation. ❤

My average class size was around 14 students, and there were no teaching assistants, just professors (Hillsdale)

This is amazing insight.

Very good points. In recent years, the university experience has focused on extras, like gym, cafes, and entertainment/distraction things. Another big issue is the big focus on social justice causes and other political issues. College should be challenging, demanding, even hard...that's why it was so worthwhile in the past.

I am getting into academia as an adjunct at 65 years old. I love it. Not here for the money, but for the mission. You make really good points and I have seen it for myself in the classroom. But it doesn’t mean I can’t set the bar high for student outcomes. You’re going to succeed no matter what you choose to do because you have a great sense of purpose and you’re incredibly intelligent. I can see you leading an Online University, although getting accreditation is likely an impossibility. Unless? What if? Keep doing what you are doing. New sub.

This encouraged me as a stay at home homeschooling mom to continue reading long books and classics with my kids instead of just small excerpts. I want them to feel that they are capable from a young age to finish books and not feel so intimidated. It wasn’t until I stopped going to college and learning on my own that actually have felt the accomplishment of finishing a long book and really analyzing and enjoying the process.

As a fellow ex- academic, I totally agree with what you are describing. I am based in the UK, but the problems are, in my opinion, just the same. I am still processing my decision of leaving academia (it wasn't my choice entirely, burnout decided for me XD), but I think I do not regret either. I wish you all the best for your future plans, love your videos!!

I'm happy that I went to a college that prepares you for university and helps you develop those skills. For example, doing 100 pages of readings. I feel that I did get what I paid for and it helped me realize what I'm interested in. If I had gone to university straight after high school, I wouldn't have done as well because high school work is very different from university work, especially in philosophy. I feel that I developed really good reading and writing skills, especially for essay-like exams. I know academia can be toxic, but it also has its benefits. I can see how it may have failed some students. Even though it costs more money, I do feel that going to college before university would be beneficial.

I did my bachelor in chemistry in Colombia in the 00's. A decade later, I decided to shift gears, I was living in the US and enrolled in a local college. I was baffled, the young students around me were really lazy and getting the same grades I had (doing all the work), they went to the teachers offices crying for better grades, and they got them. I left. I wasn't learning anything I couldn't learn by myself, given the really low standards in those classes.

I am 50+, and almost a year ago I was taking a history university course online. I was surprised that we were assigned to read specific fragments from 3-5 articles and all we had to do is to repeat the same point of view. No analysis, no competing two points of views, no synthesis, just read 20 pages and report. It was driving me insane. No wonder I quit.

Thank you for sharing your real life insights. KZfaq in 10 years is going to take everything by storm. Such as entertainment, informative Podcasts and education of any kind. Perhaps KZfaq already did that, although it is limitless as long as we have content creators. Much more transparent than the traditional media, education and entertainment.

I consider you are helping create a new host of autodidacts. You provide the possibility of education without the skew of contemporary academia.

I think the core problem here is Mission Creep. The term originated with military operations, but it seems to apply to about any organizion or institution, be it education, govt, health care, tech, NGO, etc. I think the root is the human desire for prestige and to have control over as many people as possible thus an ever increasing staff size, coupled with the corporate eternal growth mandate.

I went to CU Boulder (Go Buffs!) in the winter of 2020 just before Covid lockdowns. It's a lovely campus with a rock-climbing wall, a football stadium, a planetarium, and a Vegas style buffet. It was totally geared toward an experience for the fresh-out-of-high-school lot. I was 44 and had never been to university before. It was ok, but I see exactly what you are saying in this video. I ended up not attending my sophomore year as I felt like I already had the skills and experience to get good work.

Having read philosophy books since I left college in 1989, everything you say here is spot on. At first, they seem daunting, but you get used to it and find yourself in a world of wonder. The fact that you prefer to do your own thing here on KZfaq rather than be part of a predatory money-making system that doesn't deliver on its promises is something I admire.

Where i work in Britain i mix amongst a lot of active students and i notice the same thing. I must stress i never went into academia didnt have A levels but i have read a lot of various topics including the classics when i discuss any of this hardly any know what im talking about. I seems education is like the highway code you just need to learn what is necessary to pass thats it you left on your own in the wide world theres no encouragement to carry on learning about anything they just end up doing menial jobs like where i work. But i have notice more youngsters now dont want to go on to further education because of debt but just go out to work. I use to dream about goint to universities prove myself to people but not now i don't regret it i just carry on learning my own way from books and KZfaq videos like you thanks

Great video. I'm an academic philosopher at post-doc level and I love the job. Being able to keep my own hours, work on what I want to work on (within the remits of the projects I'm on), is something I wouldn't trade for anything. That said, I don't teach and frankly, I don't want to for the reasons you are giving. It's no different in the UK. The formal logic module is one that is especially being dumbed down to the point where, at some universities, students spend about half the module learning logical fallacies, rather than logical systems. It's pandering for "student satisfaction" metrics over here, which is the dominant force for what gets universities at the top of the university rankings as opposed to, oh, I don't know, education or research! :P

Terrific video, Jared. I received my undergraduate degree at UW-Madison and for the time, the financial cost (and the quality of the classes) was certainly worth the investment, especially since I mostly had actual tenured professors. Now, I'm guessing the same classes cost 6-8 times with probably less actual professor involvement.

I had a similar path when I started my degree in philosophy-- I wanted to be teach philosophy. However, I began the realize the road ahead was publish or punish in a very political workplace of a public university. I empathize with your decisions to move off that path, Jared. Happy to see your channel grow!

My experience of academia is in STEM, and I would say many of your observations translate over. One additional thought: I've seen established professors push back on the request to make courses easier, but they typically teach upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses. And so what you get is a disconnect between who has the institutional support to push back, and who teaches intro level courses.

I agree with you so much! ❤

I was a tenured professor in STEM. I assure you that exactly the same thing is happening in those classes too. I left for more or less exactly the circumstances you discuss here.

I was trained in high school to read complex philosophical books in a very short amount of time. I was young and did not get everything I was reading. Anyway, it made a difference for me at the university: instead of "philosophical antologies," with short excerpts from various philosophers, I was able to read actual philosophical books. I live in Europe, and in order to do this, I had to follow a study course in English (I am a mother language, Italian and English). But without my double language skills, without the proper education that one single teacher gave me in high school, what would have been of my university education? As a researcher, I still see students struggling to read a whole book and prefer to read various reductions. This is highly discouraging. You can not do research in humanities without having the ability to face complex texts without an appreciation of minor works and a well structured knowledge. I am still in academia, but I understand your position. Things have to change: we have the responsibility of making our future generation independent and professionally competent. Thank you for sharing.

Throughout public schools in the United States, teachers are actively discouraged from requiring students to read full book-length works. The main reason for this is the misuse of standardized tests to evaluate schools and teachers, which makes those tests so high stakes that anything that won't show short-term gains is removed from the curriculum. There are no novels on the SAT, only excerpts, so get rid of novels and teach them how to read excerpts. Of course this backfires, as kids don't build the stamina or sense of accomplishment that comes from reading a book-length work, and hobble into college handicapped.

As an engineering student the expectations part for like the complete reverse. Most the professors are really more interested in their research than teaching, same problem you mentioned about grad students and we're just kind of expected to learn most everything and adapt to new software almost entirely on our own. Like I feel I'm more paying for a structured timeline to do my own learning and a degree that proves I did that. Many of my class mates who end up doing just fine skip most lectures because they're largely useless

Well said. I was struck when you mentioned, in one of your past videos, that you had never read any of Nietzsche's books back when you were in university, that while you hold a phd in philosophy. I know the idea of a phd is to specialize in a given subject, but nevertheless I thought it was striking that one could get that far in his formal philosophical education without ever reading anything from one of the most important - and to me, personally, the greatest - philosophers of all time. I was reminded of you recently when I read an interview with “Bronze Age Pervert”, Costin Alamariu, where he mentions that academics don't even read any of Nietzsche from source, they only get their opinions fed to them by other academics. Maybe my opinion on academics was too high to begin with. Anyway, I'm happy for you! Rooting for your writing career. Waiting for your magnum opus. It's nice that you will be able to use your channel to promote it.

I was an electronics technician at a university in the physics department. Would technical support be considered administration in your statistics? In the early days (80s & early 90s) the professors had free access to my services. As time went by the department charged the professors more and more for my time. Since I mostly built custom electronics and wrote the software to support it, they still gave me things to do. Another tech in our shop specialized in repairing printers. After it became cheaper to just buy a new printer, he was running short of things to do.

Thank you to Jared for the work he's doing. I agree with a lot of what he says here. I'm an adjunct instructor (primarily writing) at three different schools. I have been teaching at them for over 15 years now, so it's not exactly as transitory as Jared described in the video. It's just that none of the three wants to invest in me in a more permanent, supported capacity (which I have to say kind of hurts because it reminds me just of how little value the institutions find in the work that I do). At one of the schools, I get to teach a 300-level class in literature, which on the one hand I love because it's the area of work that I trained in, love, and really care about the most, but at that particular school I have no control over the course content or syllabus. The course I teach most often there is a course on British Poetry, and I find the difficulty level laughably and woefully inadequate. I think it's less challenging than the 100-level Introduction to Poetry class I teach at a different school (where I did create the syllabus). I'm all for enhancing accessibility for people with different abilities, but in an English class being able to read extended works is the primary interface that remains in trying to learn this type of material. I don't mean to be an elitist snob about it, but it actually sort of angers me that these students' academic credit that they're earning in these 300-level courses counts the same as the coursework I took when I know for a fact that it's not even on the same level as my high school English classes. I'd like to see more "freedom to fail" than "guided pathways" in education. Reduce the numbers of classes students are forced to take and allow them to take the classes that they think will be more beneficial to them. (Yes, I realize I'm arguing myself out of a job in not mandating something like freshman composition courses.) What upsets me about the educational system in the U.S. the most is that it's just SO lousy at providing better "pipelines" to move people into professional careers. I don't think schools should just be a very expensive technical/vocational training program, but it really does end up feeling like a glorified Ponzi scheme at some point. (This discussion is reminding me a little of Spinoza, who was offered an academic job at one point, and he's like nah, I'm just going to write the Ethics instead and completely reimagine what God might be like.) The assignment that I think is most important in a freshman composition course is a Rhetorical Analysis because they have not been trained to think of texts AS rhetorical artifacts. Like Jared says, this is not the fault of the students themselves. They have been trained for the purposes of taking standardized test to "identify the main idea" of a reading, so they usually have at least a basic understanding of the content (the "what"), but they have almost no understanding of the "how" of a reading--why it's written in the way that it is. So, I try to focus my energies on rhetorical analysis and critical thinking.

When I was younger I had this romantic view of the academy and what I thought were "professional" or academic philosophers like. I had read Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky and that book left an impression on me, I felt a personal connection with Raskolnikov. Not with his deed, of course, but with his thoughts on greatness and predestination. I got this naive idea that "for sure, everyone that is interested in philosophy is like us". And I was certain that for you to attain a philosophy degree you have to have read from the source material all the classics from antiquity to modernity. "How could you be truly knowledgeable on philosophy knowing any less?"- I thought, naively. I never however put seriously thought on enrolling in a philosophy undergraduate course. I just wanted something that had a more practical application. I wanted to build actual things. Maybe my engineering side was stronger, after all, both of my parents are engineers. When I finally did enroll in an undergrad course, I enrolled in architecture. I remember in one of my first assignments I sketched an eagle, for what would be monument, and explained to the professor, that the meaning of it was symbolic, that it had to do with Nietzsche and Thus Spoke Zarathustra (my favorite book ever). She was surprised and asked If I had studied philosophy. I said "No... I just like reading philosophy out of my own interest". Soon I came to understand that even in academia most people are just not very bright, even academics are disappointingly dull. For the longest time I was sure that had to be because I live in Brazil (I'm Brazilian) and surely, the US universities must have a much higher standard. Thanks for confirming to me that is not the case, that your institutions and academics are just as underwhelming as ours. If you are curious about the end of my academic story: I got my Architecture undergrad degree, then I learned programming by myself and that is what I do now. Thanks for the video.

I was a weird kid in highschool. When I saw how much college cost and the interest rates they charged, my response was "I wish I got that in my savings account!!". Given I was a weirdly financially conscious kid, I never left home. I went to the local community college to get my associates degree, got it transferred to the local 4 year university and completed my bachelors there. The quality of education was pretty disappointing. I see videos online from students at other colleges studying the same degree as me, and they can speak with such depth on topics I haven't even been introduced to. Funnily enough, I still find myself wishing I could've gone to a "real" school. The ones with the fancy libraries, dining halls, dorms, all that. I do sometimes feel like I missed something.

Hey Jared! Some responses: 1) I must disagree with you about students’ reading capacity! My experience in undergrad, at the kind of school Seth Godin likes to call a “famous college,” is that students in humanities majors would take 4 classes per semester, each of which assigned 1 book per week (or the equivalent in essays, etc.). That’s 1200 pages of serious reading per week! Almost nobody did all the reading every week. Some people caught up with all the reading by the end of the semester, but most didn’t - they did their best and had to let some of it go unread. Everyone felt behind all the time. So IME, it’s not that they can’t read a particular whole book - it’s that they’re over capacity in total. But also… 2) Undergrads can also be quite lazy! Mostly because of lack of motivation to take any particular class, or even be in school at all. I’m tempted to wish I took more Philosophy in college, but I’m much better positioned to be able to appreciate it now so no regrets. But happy to have found your channel! And look, no faking having done the reading in seminar each week. 3) My copy of Nicomachean Ethics is en route and I look forward to joining the summer read. Yay! 4) Speaking of group reads: when you’re done leading us through Aristotle, it would be great to do thought-provoking sci-fi like Ursula K. Le Guin. Or N.K. Jemison. Or Neal Stephenson. There’s an endless list of sff on my TBR that I’d much prefer to read in a group, led by a philosophy professor!

I studied history in undergrad. Did ok but just barely good enough that I would be accepted into a grad school. I don’t regret my education and I left with zero debt although I sorta wish I had the whole “college experience.” Tbh, I’m a little jealous of you and your channel. Losing your tech job I’m sure hasn’t been easy, but you’re doing something you enjoy that can pay the bills albeit with little remaining. I have interest in teaching in secondary education. That’s another ballgame from teaching in college. I’ve been told I could be a good teacher but I wish the pay would be better as I ideally would have kids once I’m married and want to afford raising them. At the same time, I think I could be compassionate about preparing kids for adulthood and ultimately college if that’s their plans.

Many decades ago I had an old style Professor. He still remembered what a Colloqium was. It is not a test. It is a full day examination with your fellow students. You have to present the material of the whole course from morning till evening in multiple rounds. We were 12 in this group. So everyone had to do multiple presentations. The professor corrected if something was not fully understood and provided additional insight and explanation. It was more like a workshop with peers. The goal was a better understanding, the score was just a byproduct. This is how university education looked like in the first half of the 20th century. This kind of examination has an additional value and it measures much better your understanding of the matter than any tests. You can claim having a knowledge only if you could also teach it in a proper way. We should get back to the real Colloqium...