“I think college is basically for fun and to prove that you can do your chores, but they’re not for learning,” Musk said.
Riiiiiiiiiight.
That’s why, when Elon needs major surgery, he simply goes to the local butcher.
That’s why, when Elon needs an accountant, he just asks his applicants whether they can add and subtract. Percentages also a good thing to know.
That’s why, when Elon wants someone to manage his next rocket project, he hires someone who started a local plumbing business with her sister.
That’s why, when Elon needs some really deep analysis of how a car’s infrastructure can handle high bursts of wind on a highway, he hires a high school kid who’s really good with computer graphics.
Adding: yes, duh, there are plenty of jobs where a college education is besides the point. My field, music, has plenty of great practitioners who never went to college. (But there are also plenty who have.) And yes, duh, college is a place where young people socialize (have fun!) and often build important friendships, romances, and contacts.
But twenty seconds of deeply concentrated thought — something apparently beyond Musk’s capacity these days — brings one to the profoundly trivial conclusion that college is not at all “basically for fun,” that actual knowledge is imparted in college. Yep, even in the so-called party schools.
But billionaires spouting sheer blithering idiocy get listened to and publicized because… I can’t think of a single good reason.