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go travel and see the world, more money for me.
Horrible attitude. Money is not everything, it probably won't make you happy and you certainly can't take it with you when you kick the bucket. Life is to be enjoyed.
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go travel and see the world, more money for me.
Quote: (05-03-2011 12:56 AM)Samseau Wrote:
formal education is a waste
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mostly genetic, like a six pack
Quote: (03-29-2010 12:07 AM)Samseau Wrote:
I want the leisure to write philosophy someday.
Quote: (05-03-2011 04:46 AM)Gringo Wrote:
Horrible attitude. Money is not everything, it probably won't make you happy and you certainly can't take it with you when you kick the bucket. Life is to be enjoyed.
Quote: (05-03-2011 02:55 AM)oldnemesis Wrote:
Quote: (05-03-2011 12:56 AM)Samseau Wrote:
Factually, you are wrong:
Education in chad is compulsory
Education in Djibouti is compulsory
education in mali is compulsory
I'm not going to look up the other places, because you should research your posts better.
You said that "a country that only made school mandatory up until age 12 would probably become one of the better/richer nations on the planet". Mandatory in this regard is same as compulsory, meaning it cannot be skipped. Which is the case in most countries around the world, including the USA. So what was your point?
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children are only as good as their teachers.
This is a major logical fallacy. If every student was only as good as their teacher, this would mean the education level would in the best case stay the same (or slowly degrade) and we'd still live in caves.
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cultures are what produces high quality children, and to a lesser extent, their IQ. smart children are bred by educated parents. education does not come from schools, it comes from hard work and a burning desire to learn. formal education destroys this drive.
The obvious problem here is that most parents have no idea how to educate kids. You know, teaching is a skill people actually study for several years. And AFAIR homeschooling in the USA at least in half cases includes reading them the bible and other crap which has nothing to do with education.
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hell, european thinkers of 100 years ago blows away anything modern europe can offer. and this was all before the rise of modern education, aka the death of creativity.
So you disregard nuclear energy, plastics, superconducting, computers, satellites, Internet? You disregard genome and drug research? You disregard research in physics (LHC), chemistry, medicine (vaccines)? Do you actually read about Nobel prize nominees?
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Really, Samseau, were you homeschooled? I'm serious. At least in a few cases you made some logical or practical mistakes which are so obvious, so I start wondering if you got any formal education.
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way to prove my point. shithole nations are filling up the world while civilized ones are disappearing.
This question pops up frequently during discussions, and actually I found an interesting correlation. So far everyone who complained about "civilized nations disappearing" had zero kids, and when asked why, they typically came up with a bunch of crappy excuses. Note that a couple needs at least 2.2 kids to just keep the population steady. So what is your personal contribution to reverse the situation, besides complaining?
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Not once did I say to skip education, only that formal education is a waste of our time and youth. Instead of concerning ourselves with learning about this world, we wrap ourselves around a fruitless pursuit of money and place everything else in ancillary to it.
Formal education is exactly that - learning about this world. Chemistry, physics, biology, history, geography, even foreign languages - it is all learning about this world. The main advantage is that it gives you the platform to continue the self-study. Maybe you're one of those rare people who can learn quantum physics just by getting a book in the library and reading it, but most people aren't that bright. At least I don't know a single recent Nobel laureate who got there just by reading books, without any formal study.
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Poor OldNemesis is so trapped in today's time period he cannot understand the distinction between education and making money; probably a fault of 95% of today's population.
Poor oldnemesis just paid over $100K in taxes for 2010 and is doing very well. I'd speculate, much better than 98% of the world. And I can indeed attribute most of my success to the formal school education. So I stand my opinion - go travel and see the world, more money for me.
Quote: (05-03-2011 07:11 AM)kimleebj Wrote:
Quote: (05-03-2011 12:56 AM)Samseau Wrote:
formal education is a waste
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mostly genetic, like a six pack
Don't believe that hype about diet and exercise.
Quote: (03-29-2010 12:07 AM)Samseau Wrote:
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I want the leisure to write philosophy someday.
Better than being a fitness instructor or lawyer.
Quote: (05-03-2011 08:22 PM)oldnemesis Wrote:
Money is not something you should pile up and pray on, it is to make your life comfortable. Like getting a good apartment with AC instead of crappy dorm room, taking a flight instead of a crappy bus ride, and so on. This is part of "enjoying life" for me. Indeed, some people may live in a tent under the bridge and still enjoy life - but I am not one of them.
Didn't understand your death argument either - a lot of things become irrelevant when I die, and this includes travel memories as well. You're not taking anything with you, as there is no "you" anymore.
Quote: (05-03-2011 09:11 PM)Samseau Wrote:
point: no mandatory schooling = improved living for all
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but a child can only learn as good as the teacher shows him, unless the child is a genius. in which case, it is questionable if such a child needs a teacher.
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additionally, homeschooled children, while not perfect, are usually much better off than their public/private school peers in terms of a healthy self-esteem. home schooled daughters are less like to be slutty, and home schooled sons are less likely to get into trouble. less vanities and insecurities develop in home school children in virtue of avoiding the social cutthroat atmosphere that is public (or private) school system.
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notice, all you do is list scientific achievements of specific engineering feats. all of our science today is built on the back of former theoretical heavy-weights of the 19th/early 20th century (whose names i'm too lazy to look up... try einstein, bohr, godel, bertrand russell, darwin, for starters...).
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and yet even these former scientific thinkers are still lightweights compared to the 18th century thinkers and enlightenment thinkers who proceeded them (possible exceptions go to einstein and bohr).
this is why our age is dying today, we have no new ideas that break outside the current molds that were established over 200 years ago by genuine thinkers.
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i like your ad-hominem. like me having 2 kids is going to change shit. how about we fix society first so we don't need to feed our children to the state?
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formal education is fine if people willingly enlist to it, and do so at more advanced ages - say 16 and up.
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i also do not understand why you list nobel winners as examples of great thinkers; vast majority of the past's great thinkers and innovators had nothing to do with following the establishment.
Quote: (05-03-2011 09:20 PM)Samseau Wrote:
Come on, that's hyperbole. "Mostly" does not mean "all".
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too bad I can't turn philosophy into a vocation
Quote: (05-04-2011 08:55 AM)Gringo Wrote:
I actually prefer to stay in a dorm room and take buses when travelling than having private rooms and flights.
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I go travelling to meet new people and see the country. You don't meet so many people if your holed up in your own room and you see nothing but airports and clouds using flights.
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But do you have an option to? From your earlier posts I made an impression that it isn't really an option in your case, is it?
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Well, I'd guess you'd see more places in a country if you take a flight
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and you'll meet more people in your airplane than you would in your bus
Quote: (05-05-2011 09:24 AM)Gringo Wrote:
Of course I have the option to. I go away travelling for 6 months at a time, I could easily cut that down to 3 months and stay in hotels and take flights everywhere but I wouldn't want to. I like the way I travel, it's much more rewarding and fun.
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Don't know how you work out you'll see more places in a country if you take a flight. Flights are limited as to where they go, if I travel overland I can stop at all sorts of places that don't have an airport. I'd never want to go on a trip where I only visited destinations where a flight can land. I'd rather jump on a local bus and go to some smaller places.
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You've completely missed the point. I wasn't talking about using buses over flights to meet people. What I said was if you stay in dorm rooms you'll meet many more fellow travellers than if you stay in hotels / private rooms.
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if you had a $1M a year travel allowance, would you still travel and stay the same way?
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Typically they build airports at those places which are worth visiting. They don't just build it in the middle of nowhere. But, to each their own.
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Yes, you'll meet one more person who stays in the same room. Worse, you'll meet him no matter if you like it or not.
Personally I don't even understand why someone would be interested in meet "fellow travelers", but maybe this is just me.
Quote: (05-05-2011 07:52 PM)Gringo Wrote:
I've considered this many times and I actually think I would MOST of the time. I'd probably fly first class from home to my destination because it's much better than sitting in economy but once there I would still want to have the hostel experience (love it!) and travel overland because to me that's real travelling and actually good fun. Whilst I could hit an expensive hotel whenever I wanted if money is no object there's not many other aspects of my travels I'd change. I don't care for fancy & expensive restaurants, bars and clubs. I don't like taking internal flights. So I don't see how it would change much. I like the way I travel it's not something that's done out of neccessity of being broke.
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Most ridicolous comment I've read on here. Absolute nonsense. Said by someone who only goes on package tours to big 'must see' destinations and has no idea about actual travelling. Airports tend to be confined to cities & beach resorts (not always but mostly) and those are certainly not the only places worth visiting.
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One more person? Usually there's about 6-12 people in the same room actually so you've got a choice and if you don't like someone they are easily avoided, you just got speak to some other people who are staying in one of the other dorm rooms of the same hostel.
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I don't understand why you wouldn't be interested in meeting 'fellow travellers'. If someone is in the same country as you, doing a similar trip they're probably of a similar nature to you or at least have some shared interests.
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Interesting. I could care less about the first class (I have even skipped the free upgrade a few times as I'm sleeping the whole flight anyway, and I prefer the window seat in an exit row to an isle seat in business class),
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And I'd rather not go at all than stay in a hostel, as my idea of fun completely excludes sharing a room with a bunch of drunk Brits.
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But in Europe it is typically much more convenient to catch a flight or TGV than use a local bus
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Makes me really happy I avoided this kind of experience.
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I feel very comfortable on my own and I don't need a company of other tourist
Quote: (05-07-2011 11:33 AM)youngmobileglobal Wrote:
http://www.ceibs.edu/ ranked as one of the top MBA programs in the world and is based in Shanghai.
Quote: (05-07-2011 08:12 AM)Gringo Wrote:
Find it hard to beleive anyone would skip a free upgrade even if they do sleep the whole flight. Sleeping in business class is much better than sleeping in economy class because in business. Not only do you have much more personal service, champagne, better food etc but you've also a lot more space and your seat will recline all the way back to horizontal so you can get a much better sleep, better quality of chair too so it's more comfortable.
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Hostels have private rooms too and there's a much bigger variety of people than drunk Brits. People of all ages stay in hostels these days, from 18year olds to retirement age and not everyone is there to party. You'd be surprised who you find.
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It's easy enough to catch a train or a bus in Europe too and in some instances flying probably isn't much quicker due to waiting around in aports etc. Depends how far you're going really.
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Yeah I can be happy on my own too but most things in life are better with company, usually a shared experience is a much richer one.
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I always take it if I'm staying awake on a flight - just for free alcohol. But if I'm sleeping, I take sleeping pill which means I cannot drink alcohol anyway, so food, drinks and service doesn't matter. The airplane food is always crap and I do not eat there even on 12 hour flights. And I'm short, so chair reclining and legroom matters much less to me than to most of people.
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Then I always put myself into emergency exit row near window. On most Delta/KLM flights regular people have to pay to get into exit row unless the plane is full, and the chance someone would pay for a middle seat in exit row is virtually zero. It is MUCH cooler near exits, so while the whole plane is suffering from +25C (esp. Lufthansa - I hate it!), I sleep comfortably at +18C. No such option in business class.
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Let's just say I do not click with the personality types who prefer to stay in hostels. And if you're staying in a private room with private bath, what's the difference then?
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Eastern Europe the train service is much less appealing. I just took a train from Ukraine to Romania two months ago - something I haven't done in a while - and I wish I didn't.
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I prefer to be alone than with a company of random people.
Quote: (04-25-2011 05:51 PM)Chad Daring Wrote:
So far my degree has never come into use either. I tell employers I have it, not one has ever checked into, they just nod and ask me about my experience
Quote: (05-08-2011 09:25 AM)Gringo Wrote:
The international airlines I fly with EVERYONE gets free alcohol, even those in cattle class (economy). In business class you get some champagne before you've even left the run way which is a nice touch and the staff are more forthcoming with topping up your drink where as in economy you need to hassle them more for a beer.
I also take sleeping pills on every flight and I mix them with alcohol, not a problem for me. Few drinks then a couple valium is perfect for any flight but I'd much rather be sitting in business class than in economy anytime.
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Paying to get into the exit row? Never heard of that, definitely no the case on any airlines I frequent. If your quick enough at booking a seat online or get to the airport early enough you can have any seat you want.
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Considering the types of people who stay in hostels range from young to old to families and span every nationality and type of person I don't see how you can tar everyone with the same brush and say you don't click with them. Do you click with anyone? You seem like you might be quite miserable and lonely.
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Nothing wrong with most of the trains in Eastern Europe, used them many times and absolutely fine.
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Why are you so adverse to company, do you have any friends?
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the economy might not have any scotch at all.
I never mix alcohol and sleeping pills. The risks are there, and they are obvious, and I don't see any benefits which would justify the risks
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It is funny that you're mixing together "lonely" and "miserable". Are you that kind of person who feels miserable every second he isn't talking to someone, and is afraid to be alone with your thoughts? You seem to be very defensive about it.
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Either they are because they're dirt cheap travelers (in this case it is unlikely we'd find anything to talk about), or because they're the kind of people who feel uneasy on their own and must constantly communicate with others to maintain their mental homeostasis. This is kind of people I'd like to avoid.
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Yeah, we're definitely talking about different kind of comfort here.
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You probably missed the "random people" part. Which should have been more correctly read as "random tourists".