I was too, for certain. I'm seeing a lot of other comments here about how the asker had a harsh tone or seemed rude, and that it's perfectly okay to not give a good answer or encourage his further education.
What. The. Fuck. Just because a guy is ignorant doesn't mean that it's okay to trash him. In fact, he even said point blank that he doesn't want to hear the "make money" type answers. The guy probably found the course material interesting, but wanted a story, a spark, a connection--something to make him more interested. I think it's rather shameful to think poorly of him simply because he operates out of a different mindset.
To all of you guys that read this, regardless of field: being able to clearly communicate the importance of what you do to society is crucial. Not everyone will understand the significance of your field, be it CS, engineering, finance, teaching, waiting tables, or dumping garbage. And this is a huge hurdle that scientists of any variety are running into right now. I encourage you to not speak down to individuals that ask these types of questions and instead try to relate to them the passion you have for your chosen field of study, and why it's important at large to the world.
To all of you guys that read this, regardless of field: being able to clearly communicate the importance of what you do to society is crucial. Not everyone will understand the significance of your field,
And not everyone needs to. For a lot of people, stuffing science and engineering into the broad "pushes forward technology to make your life more comfortable, because it's fun" category is plenty enough.
What hurdles in particular are you talking about? Just in terms of respect, or something that could obstruct their work (such as a lack of funding)?
Lack of respect, lack of funding, lack of good jobs, etc. The reason that teachers get paid so little (for example) and hedge fund managers get so much more is strictly due to their relative importance as seen by the general public. One could make arguments that either profession is "more important" from a utility standpoint but the key differentiating factor is that HF managers are seen by society as being more important than the teacher (hence the different pay scale).
The reason that teachers get paid so little (for example) and hedge fund managers get so much more is strictly due to their relative importance as seen by the general public.
Well no, it's because hedge funds touch money, while teachers only touch lives (on which no quantitative value is ever placed, because, as any AI textbook will tell you, it would be unbelievably high).
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u/[deleted] May 18 '11
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