Would you consider Boston the "most intellectual" city on the East Coast?! (Cambridge: fit in, best schools)

[bjimmy24]

Originally Posted by jayrandom

An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society. This is what Universities do. Do you think people who do that sort of thing are going to stay employed somewhere else?

And I don't understand why you think that there's evidence to support universities being anti-intellectual. Certainly there's been an increasing focus on job training and real-world skills, but do you think someone who works a real job right out of high school is going to spend more time engaged in critical thinking and research? It's certainly possible, but it's much harder outside of the university.

I agree that intellectual is not (and should not) be confused with intelligent and that neither should be confused with educated, but they're not totally unrelated. At least when I went to high school, the kids who went to college were smarter or worked harder than the kids who didn't (and there was a pretty strong correlation between how good the school was and how smart or hardworking the kids were). Being formally educated doesn't necessarily mean that you're intelligent, but it's a step in the right direction.

Just from my own life, I indeed have learned more on a variety of topics I was never exposed to in college since I left college. I am sure many people have the same experience. Some of the most interesting things I've learned have come after age 25, just on my own in the real world. College is vastly overrated and overvalued.

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

Just from my own life, I indeed have learned more on a variety of topics I was never exposed to in college since I left college. I am sure many people have the same experience. Some of the most interesting things I've learned have come after age 25, just on my own in the real world. College is vastly overrated and overvalued.

I could not disagree more. College was where I, for four years, was allowed to focus almost exclusively (I did need to work some too, just the way it was) on learning and exposing myself to new fields, and it is highly unlikely I will ever be able to do that again. I wish I could do it over and take more advantage of it, but that's my failure, not the failure of colleges.

[chicagoliz]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

Just from my own life, I indeed have learned more on a variety of topics I was never exposed to in college since I left college. I am sure many people have the same experience. Some of the most interesting things I've learned have come after age 25, just on my own in the real world. College is vastly overrated and overvalued.

College can't possibly teach you everything (or even most) of what you learn in your life. What it does is give you the basis for critical thinking and intellectual curiosity, and the basis upon which later interests can form. There are a great many topics about which I have learned significantly more since college than I learned during college. But the exposure to some of those topics and the friends with whom I engaged in conversations about some of those topics were what enabled me to learn much of what I learned since then.

[stanley-88888888]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

...
Additionally, what real intellectual movements or cultural movements have started in Boston? This isn't a snarky sarcastic question, I really am asking. I can think of many out of NYC, DC, Detroit, LA, Chicago, etc.

...

gpl.

also, bostonx, edx
olpc
facebock and reddit
...

what are some for the other cities ?

[bjimmy24]

Originally Posted by timberline742

I could not disagree more. College was where I, for four years, was allowed to focus almost exclusively (I did need to work some too, just the way it was) on learning and exposing myself to new fields, and it is highly unlikely I will ever be able to do that again. I wish I could do it over and take more advantage of it, but that's my failure, not the failure of colleges.

I believe you, but still think it's overvalued for most people.

[bjimmy24]

Originally Posted by stanley-88888888

gpl.

also, bostonx, edx
olpc
facebock and reddit
...

what are some for the other cities ?

So.... websites? Sorry but Boston loses to silicon valley. Hardly a movement. Great mark zuckerberg went to college and then left very quickly to go make his empire. Bostonx? Come on.

Reddit has a founder who was from Boston. But Reddit has zero to do with Boston. Also headquarter in sf.

[alidmc]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

Just from my own life, I indeed have learned more on a variety of topics I was never exposed to in college since I left college. I am sure many people have the same experience. Some of the most interesting things I've learned have come after age 25, just on my own in the real world. College is vastly overrated and overvalued.

I can see how you feel that way, but I think you vastly underestimate the foundation that college has provided you with. Some of my strongest skills- writing, communicating, and analytical thinking among them- were incubated in college. I had to continue to work on developing them after college, of course. Without my degree, I don't know that I would have developed these skills to the extent I have.

As for intellectual movements, there aren't any as big as transcendentalism was back in the day. However, there are tons of free lectures at the universities and even public libraries where you can learn and discuss almost anything. Intellectualism isn't necessarily organized around a larger movement. Rather, the groups are smaller and would never refer to themselves as anything so pretentious sounding as an "intellectual."

[bjimmy24]

Originally Posted by alidmc

I can see how you feel that way, but I think you vastly underestimate the foundation that college has provided you with. Some of my strongest skills- writing, communicating, and analytical thinking among them- were incubated in college. I had to continue to work on developing them after college, of course. Without my degree, I don't know that I would have developed these skills to the extent I have.

As for intellectual movements, there aren't any as big as transcendentalism was back in the day. However, there are tons of free lectures at the universities and even public libraries where you can learn and discuss almost anything. Intellectualism isn't necessarily organized around a larger movement. Rather, the groups are smaller and would never refer to themselves as anything so pretentious sounding as an "intellectual."

These groups exist in virtually all medium sized major cities.

Transedentalism was one of the things that poe actually hated about new England, interesting to note. With good reason.

[timberline742]

Trascendentalism > Dark Romanticism


All day, all night, every century


Poe just had a complex with his betters (Hawthorne) etc, nothing more, nothing less.

[BostonMike7]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

Just from my own life, I indeed have learned more on a variety of topics I was never exposed to in college since I left college. I am sure many people have the same experience. Some of the most interesting things I've learned have come after age 25, just on my own in the real world. College is vastly overrated and overvalued.

I both agree, and disagree with you, if that makes any sense.


I disagree in the sense that it exposed me to certain thinking/subjects that I probably never would have tried to explore on my own. Looking back on it, I have a better appreciation for such things as art, and literature. I also feel it was an exercise in critical thinking that gave me a foundation to begin to think analytically with regards to future problems I'd face in the workforce. Could I have picked this up later on? Who knows.


I agree, in the sense that more of the practical job experience that I learned came after school when I finally got into a field and began learning how to do the things I needed to do. I've mentored a handful of interns by now, and each has told me that they learned more during a semester of interning than they did in class. It was interested, kept them engaged, and they learned new skills. We've even hired some of these interns once they graduated (from Ulowell, which is an underrated engineering school IMHO).


I almost wish there was a way to simply do a 2-yr or 4-yr internship in lieu of college. No massive student loan debt, you get paid (we pay our interns pretty well) and when you complete your internship, you have 2-4 years of experience and a better footing to get in the door either at that company or somewhere else. Downside to that idea though is the first paragraph. What's that worth to you?