The rise of the over-credentialled, under-informed class (popularly known as “academics” and “PhD’s”) would want everyone to believe that without them around, humanity sinks into a cesspool of ignorance.
Contrary to their twaddle, humanity got along pretty well before PhDs were being granted to everyone and their cousins. In the old days, we had real world tests for competence.
People were either competent... or they were dead. In hindsight, it was a pretty good test.
well said
Think of the effect government regulation has on competency. They set some minimal standard that the status quo accepts and then leave it in place. A license or a permit replaces a reputation.
Sums it up better than I ever could. Well said.
Word to that. Growing up in a factory/farm area of the country, a common joke here is that PhD means ‘Piled high and Deep’. Some of the smartest guys I know never had a degree but could design and build marvelous things. Give me real world know how that’s made it happen because they had to or they didn’t eat.
For a wile, I worked in a Geography and Map Library at a state university. Among the things it housed were the thesis of doctoral candidates. Most followed a standard pattern of formatting and most were written on typewriters.
I was surprised at the volume of work students near the turn of the last century had to submit for successful completion of their doctorates. Thesis ran several hundreds of pages and were annotated with charts, graphs, and detailed footnotes. By the 1990's, most thesis couldn't boast even a hundred such type-written pages. Including their supporting notes, charts, and graphs.