Education from here to there...

Hi Guys,

So yesterday I posted in an other thread how I admire some of my fellow ATS member's level of knowledge and how I have no education of importance. Going by the things I read I'm picturing some of you guys walking around on some old campus working out mathematical problems on the windows of your dorm room or working with high level equipment in some University lab..

So I was trying to find out what my V.W.O diploma (Dutch education) equates to in America. (I'm pretty sure university here is not the same as what it is in America) but there really isn't any compare. The closest I got to translating it would be University preparatory education or pre-university education.

I know I'm not dumb and I got my IQ tested when I was 12 (129, which really doesn't say anything since that method of testing is outdated) but I'm trying to figure out how I compare to my fellow members and if a higher education would have helped me out more in life.

Just a stupid question from a 40 year old out-of-work guy who still hasn't figured out what he wants to be when he grows up....

Would love to hear from you guys what you did and where it got you.

Peace

Maybe you had the intuition that a formal education does more harm than good. Maybe you realized that locking yourself into 4+ years of memorizing and regurgitating information would decrease your ability of an open mind. When you spend so much time memorizing information, how apt are you to consider the other side? The arguments against it? Critical thought in being able to see both sides of an issue without a pre built bias?

Why are you trying to measure yourself against others? Why not just be content with who you are? I would say you are stronger than others by not measuring yourself against the standards of accepted mainstream, up until now that is.

Well DB and I had our IQ's tested too...



Didn't understand it.

I had 2 years of uni before I had to leave. It educated me some. Basically got my knowledge, such as it is, from reading...A LOT. If only I had the internet as a youngster.

a reply to: intrepid

Why did you have to leave? Was it the amount of unrelated bs courses you needed to take outside of your major or area of interest? Probably something simple but god it is fun to transfer onto others.

a reply to: ClovenSky

My girlfriend, now wife, got pregnant. Had to work full time then.

a reply to: intrepid

Ah, got it. Just simple reality then. I tried 3 separate universities and couldn't hack any of them past 2 years. Had a lot of fun though. But as to education, not so much. I have learned (learnt can go # itself) more in the last 10 years after desire became insistent than I ever gleaned from formal education.

I could understand the importance of education in the past where simple arithmetic and reading/writing skills were not always guaranteed, but today with the wealth of information at our hands? Not so much.

How do we know what they are pumping our heads full today of is even correct?

a reply to: operation mindcrime
I maybe the last person you wanted to hear from, I never finished college. Not that smart. Worked odd jobs, sometimes juggling 2 or more- street digger, door to door salesman, made badminton shuttlecocks, photographer and printer (back in the days of film cameras), been a field rep, bike courier (believe me, it's not like in the movies Quicksilver or Premium Rush) then got married and had a daughter.

Tried welding, glass etching, painting, sculpting, writing horrible poems and even composed more horrible songs. Then I took a few days seminar to supplement what I already know about screenprinting and started a small business... Still married to the same woman, our eldest daughter already graduated from college and currently works for an IT company, had 2 other daughters- 12 and 14 year olds now, business is still small if not smaller but we still get by.

To sum it up, didn't learn much going to the university and what little I learned there, ATS taught me it's all a lie... so, it's all an effing lie!



You'll figure it out and you'll be okay.

a reply to: operation mindcrime

I did go to college, have a bachelors in Design.

That got me into graphics. That got me into a position that lead to the formation of a small aerospace firm; fascinating, but didn’t pay.

Then I took a government job in taxes. Not at all related to my university degree, but fascinating in its own ways.

Now, I’m “retired” (for the moment, kind of itching to get “back in the game” for the challenge), though I’m thinking more like I’m on an extended vacation.

Moral of the story (so far): where we end up, often, bears little relation to where we start. And that is Ok, because it is the journey that really matters.

Don’t look back on what you did not do, look forward on what you might yet do.

If you know even just the tiniest bit more today than you did yesterday, you are becoming a better version of you.

If you haven’t yet figured out what you want to do when you “grow up”, it just means that you’re still growing (that is a good thing, since, in life, the opposite of growing, is dying!).

Go “outside” and play.

The more complex the mind, the greater the need for play. And it is through play that our desires are revealed as possible.

originally posted by: MaxTamesSiva
...made badminton shuttlecocks...

That sounds interesting. How did that go?

CS I think that there should be a better emphasis on practice. Not less theory but added to it. That practicality would go a long way in life. So get as much as you think you need. Degrees are preferable but if that's not an option take classes anyway.

a reply to: intrepid
It's just a small cottage industry, very labor intensive. There was a time when we import cork from Portugal, it was forced to close because of cheap competition coming mainly from China and Taiwan flooded the market. We suspected then that a considerable portion were smuggled into our country.

originally posted by: intrepid
Well DB and I had our IQ's tested too...

Didn't understand it.

I had 2 years of uni before I had to leave. It educated me some. Basically got my knowledge, such as it is, from reading...A LOT. If only I had the internet as a youngster.

I got a B on my IQ test which is pretty good! It was an 82.



Engineering, science, and a Master's degree later and this is what you get!



ME!

a reply to: ClovenSky

I agree with you 100% that original thought is worth more than copy + pasting the information you are fed and I always strive to remain as unbiased as possible with any subject. Heck, I dive into political or financial discussions without any knowledge of the subject armed only with my own sense of what should be right or wrong....which results more times than not in what must seem as pretty naive or uneducated replies but I really don't care...I'm here to learn.

I'm not trying to measures myself to anybody really it's just that I'm trying to figure out where I "zigged" when I should have "zagged". Would a higher education have prevented the sh*tstream that is my career...

I'm pretty content with who I am as a person and my moral compass seems to be calibrated nicely but this isn't helping very much in my work.

I've been hacking away at a keyboard since '82 and IT seemed like the most logical direction when it came to choosing a career. I've had (let me count 'm...) 12 employers in 20 years and I proud myself in never having been fired. My work ethic is hard to keep up and I've had 48 hour work days just to achieve a deadline not because it paid extra but only to prove my reliability.

But every single time I run into some argument with a boss because I can't be flexible when it come to principles.

Example: This one job I had to install security camera's for a client and he demanded I install one in the men's bathroom, I explained that this was against privacy laws but my boss was of the opinion that it was the customer's own responsibility and I shouldn't worry about it. Now I could have just accepted that but instead I go into a discussion with said boss which ended in me finding an other job...(again)

Peace

a reply to: intrepid

Yeah...that sound pretty familiar.

But what am I going to advise my kids? Stay in school, live life....

What is the better choice?

Peace

a reply to: MaxTamesSiva

Thank you so much for those kind words!!

There is so much I recognize in your "resume"...

Peace

a reply to: DBCowboy

I'm still trying to figure out what I am going to do with this $15.000,- MSCE certificate... apparently there isn't a whole lot of demand for people knowledgeable in WinNT...lol

Peace

a reply to: operation mindcrime

People don't care how much one knows when they know how much one cares... plain and simple.

If you take a step or two a day removing an energy that is robbing you of energy you wish for your life and replace it with adding an energy source that works towards something you want for your life... you are already winning at life. For starters, as you add energy to the lives of others, the energy vampires will undoubtedly try to feed from it. Secondly, the single step or two each day is a surefire way to remove any expectations... allowing you to more thoroughly enjoy the present moment you are living in each day. After a large collection of single efforts are added up, you will likely stand back and admire how your life is surrounded by the energies that further feed your good energy desires.

Life is a simple energy game. The quicker we realize that we are allowing our physical presence to hold more relevance than our spiritual being (that whole other person inside you that whispers relentless communication) equates to a quicker change in our physical lives as individuals.

The human element is a special pattern recognition system that is capable of adapting to surroundings ever so efficiently. The human, in most cases, can act as a magnet that repels/pushes energy away as it moves through time and space, or the human can attract energies as they move about.

The physical life has tendencies to steer a search for Gods (aka unknowns) and miracles that may exist for ones physical life. The quicker that one gets to a point that they not only feel, but know in a full-heart fashion that the current moment we are living is one of the biggest miracles one can live, the quicker one may realize that the current moment being lived now is called "The Present Moment" for a very specific reason. Those living outside the present moment in time have a higher probability that energies cling to their beings from all sorts of angles... making moving one's energy forward and upwards away from vampire energies all the more difficult.

You clearly care, so just step forward and upward with a just cause and you will be absorbed by the energies of which you admire. You may likely find that your envy of achievers learns to act as a conduit for brightening minds... much to the degrees of what you are in search of in the present moment. You see it, you believe it, so NOW is the time to achieve it!!!


1111

a reply to: operation mindcrime

You are still here, living and breathing. You must have done something right along the way.

Think about how much life you have experienced. How many trials and tribulations you have been through, and with good intuition the great lessons you have acquired. Maybe the whole point is the path itself and not the destination. If you had completed all of the education you desired and landed that $$$ position of stability, would life lose some of its charm? If you had all of the money and material objects your heart desired, would you take greater and greater risks in finding entertainment? At least it sounds like you take on challenges for self testing instead of material gain. How many others can say they are at that point?

One thing that I do, which could be completely incorrect, is appreciate the pain. It gives a simple hurdle of which to improve yourself against. Just nice, small, everyday hurdles of pain and suffering. I try to never demonize the past but instead be appreciative of the lessons, mostly because I am still here in this reality drawing breath.

Now if you had thoughts or a theory of where or what intuition is.......

a reply to: ttobban

Holy mother #(*(*&# god of this reality. That was beautiful. Simply beautiful.

There are some new ideas in there that I find very unique and original. I will savor the pondering of those ideas for hours.

Almost like not valuing yourself based on material gains, but how you developed spirituality and helped the other souls that you share this reality with. I have a feeling that will be the true measurement of how one lives their life, if there is a test at the end.

originally posted by: ClovenSky
Maybe you had the intuition that a formal education does more harm than good. Maybe you realized that locking yourself into 4+ years of memorizing and regurgitating information would decrease your ability of an open mind. When you spend so much time memorizing information, how apt are you to consider the other side? The arguments against it?

In reference to that comment, it seems you hold a large value in the realities that what one does for them-cellves is defined as learning... it requires another person or group to achieve what is defined as education. Personally, I shunned degrees and the college experiences as it hindered my abilities to learn.

Additionally, I thank you for your kind words and compliments! I too hold a high value of the reasoning found within the ATS community, and it strengthens my own confidence to know that people are embracing their individuality in a world that can be lonesome.

Yes, it is my belief that human life is of a spiritual existence with a whole bunch of physical experiences unfolding along the way... it is my dream to witness humanity embrace that human existence is not a physical existence in search of spiritual experiences...

a reply to: operation mindcrime

Don't sweat it man.

I only got me an eighth grade education.

That's the one that looks like a little snowman right? 8?