posted on Mar, 25 2015 @ 03:16 PM
originally posted by: Gryphon66
I think we need to refocus away from what academe thinks that business needs, and let business tell the academy what it needs. By and large, in my
opinion, we have taken exposure to the medieval seven liberal arts that was, once upon a time, supposed to bring individuals out of whatever the local
belief structure had imposed on them ... into a wider world ... and have turned it into a torture process that so scorches the inquisitiveness of most
young minds that they never want to ask questions again.
The problem is that what business wants and what society needs are different. Most businesses do not want to employ someone who can create a new
system for doing things. Instead an owner, boss, etc wants someone who can perform a task the way they want it to be completed. Very often, the
owner is not an expert in the field they're running the business in, instead they're attempting to fill an economic need. The owner will find a way
that works and use that method.
Let me give a brief example. Just about every business has a webpage, how many of those business owners can sit down and create a database, write
PHP, HTML, and Javascript, understand the colors they've chosen to use and the messages mixing different colors portray. How many of them think
about their page being dynamic and loading different CSS sheets based on the device accessing it. How about features like steaming video and how that
related to document weight, do those business owners know the download speed of a 3g device, and can create a page that loads at that speed in 7
seconds or less? Do they understand what a CMS is and how that can save them money?
The answer to just about all of these questions is no, yet the business owner will dictate what they want done. Wouldn't society be better off if
the business owner actually understood that aspect of his business? That would allow the business owner to better integrate their store and website
which leads to a competitive advantage and ultimately improves society by creating better businesses.
These types of things can only happen when people have broad knowledge pools. Learning to do your one specific task on an assembly line with no grasp
of the bigger picture is the desire of the business owner. College does not teach that, and it shouldn't teach that.