Will Wilkinson - Latest Comments in To the Slow and Steady and Smartest Goes the Race

Re: To the Slow and Steady and Smartest Goes the Race

Freddie — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 22:24:35 -0000

PS One thing English majors have going for them: unlike your commenters, they understand the concept of irony.

Re: To the Slow and Steady and Smartest Goes the Race

Freddie — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 22:23:15 -0000

I only ever pop in hear to remind you that not everyone believes that life is nothing more than the pursuit of capital, and that the end all, be all of human existence is accumulating wealth.

So, mission accomplished.

Re: To the Slow and Steady and Smartest Goes the Race

TGGP — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:30:15 -0000

Benjamin, I also incline to that point of view, but it seems to be based on a sort of Kantian universalibility standard. Thinking on the margin would seem to be more appropriate. My suspicion is that the marginal social gain from lawyers went past negative long ago.

Re: To the Slow and Steady and Smartest Goes the Race

Benjamin Munda — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:52:57 -0000

I chose engineering (biochemical) for totally unrelated reasons.

The primary reason is this: Some disciplines add to the sum total of society's wealth while other subtract.

I'm not saying that everyone should be an engineer, farmer, or miner. A society with professions only such as these would be drab indeed.

What I am saying is that it is important to note that many professions survive off of the wealth created by others. A society full of philosophers, artists, and lawyers would all be starving living in grass huts. Obviously, a society full of these professions would be far from ideal as well.

I simply lament that many Americans hold a certain degree of contempt for the disciplines that create the surplus wealth which is a requisite for their leisurely professions.

Re: To the Slow and Steady and Smartest Goes the Race

jen hutchin — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 13:49:59 -0000

Looks like English majors are, as usual, off the chart. I should know; I work as a probation officer!

Re: To the Slow and Steady and Smartest Goes the Race

jen hutchin — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 13:49:44 -0000

Looks like English majors are, as usual off the chart. I should know; I work as a probation officer!

Re: To the Slow and Steady and Smartest Goes the Race

TGGP — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 03:12:26 -0000

these philosophy majors will soon enough get their just financial desserts
Will, are you willing to bet that within five years philosophy majors will be outearning any of the top eight other majors? How about in a decade? Right now I suspect some self-deception/cognitive dissonance is causing your unrealistic projections.
Disclosure: I'm a Computer Science major, and yeah, it's not really science and we shouldn't be allowed to get degrees from a College of Engineering.

Re: To the Slow and Steady and Smartest Goes the Race

Jack — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 02:53:18 -0000

Those stats combine phil with religion... it seems to me that could screw these numbers up a bit (what I'm obviously suggesting is that the PHIL score is even higher).

Re: To the Slow and Steady and Smartest Goes the Race

Phil — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:56:56 -0000

"Philosophy majors frankly embarrass economics majors when it comes to the LSAT, I’m sorry to report."

With the link you sent, "embarrass" might be a little strong (156 versus 155.3; plus, just to play around with the data, I'd like to see standard deviations and philosophy/religion breakdowns (although the sample size is large enough that I would guess the difference is significant)). And unfortunately, no one will be more aware of the crushing ennui of serving one's life as an indentured servant to a vengeful legal system than a philosophically-trained lawyer.

P.S. With my economics major, I landed a 179, and the JD/PhD track can be quite lucrative.

Re: To the Slow and Steady and Smartest Goes the Race

glory — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 10:53:12 -0000

philosophy apparently is back in vogue...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/education/06p...

re: money

like inigo montoya sez: you keep using that word. i do not think it means what you think it means...

try hart: "The idea of money as a source of social memory was also crucial for John Locke, who figures prominently in our story as the philosopher who inaugurated the modern age of democratic revolutions. Locke was obsessed with money’s role both in establishing a progressive social order and in subverting it as its criminal antithesis. Indeed, he believed that money launched humanity from the state of nature onto the road to civil government. As long as men’s possessions were limited to perishable products, the scope for property was restricted. Money, by offering a durable store of value convertible against all useful things, unleashed the potential for property accumulation and for the intergenerational transmission of inequality. For Locke, then, money was indispensable to that development of cultural memory on which civilization depends." http://www.thememorybank.co.uk/book/ cf. http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/8/26/172939/637

Re: To the Slow and Steady and Smartest Goes the Race

Tim Lee — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 07:59:55 -0000

Interestingly, philosophy appears to be the highest in quantitative among non-engineering disciplines.

Re: To the Slow and Steady and Smartest Goes the Race

Robert S. Porter — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:32:32 -0000

Wow, my major, history, does suprisingly well in these comparisons. But I'll get back to you in a year when I graduate.

Re: To the Slow and Steady and Smartest Goes the Race

Fin Fang Foom — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 23:22:36 -0000

Oh, but don't you know, econ PhDs can get JDs, and then become law professors, whose starting pay is like four times as much as humanities professors.