Thinking Outside the Book
As I was growing up, we had a kindly old family doctor who would make house calls if you couldn’t come to his office (yes, I’m that old). When he retired, his son took over the practice and took care of me during my anxiety-ridden teenage years. There was a time when I had difficulty […]
Student Debt
We Americans are totally at home with the concept of borrowing our way to prosperity. Our government does it, so why shouldn’t we? Total U.S. credit card debt is around $604 Trillion, and contrary to popular opinion, we are not paying it down. When it comes to owing money, the number that should concern us […]
Skipping College
Two of the most famous college dropouts of our time are Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Steve felt he was wasting his parents’ money, and was convinced he could do better selling circuit boards out of their garage. Bill got booted from the Harvard dorm for running an illegal software business, and decided to quit […]
The Good Grade Pill
“One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small. And the ones that mother gives you, don’t do anything at all.” (opening lines of “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane). Just as physics teaches us that nature seeks the lowest possible energy state, so are humans wired to search for the “Easy Button”, or […]
The Spiraling Cost of College
Here in California where I currently reside, the cost of a college education is a hot topic. The University of California system, arguably one of the best in the country, is caught in the vise of the Golden State’s financial woes. On one side, there is the perception that the only way the […]
PhDs on Food Stamps
When I am asked if getting a PhD was “worth it”, I presume this to be a question about return on investment. The short answer is no. The long answer, factoring in the lost opportunity cost of those long years as a poor graduate student and the narrower job market, is the same. There […]
