Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Wow

I`d hate to come across one of your complex arguments

Anyway - take it you didn`t have a chance to see that I had changed my previous post - guess we must have reposted around the same time.

and people with less education are somehow smarter.  good luck with that one.

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James Lindon, Ph.D. Patent Attorney
Lindon & Lindon, LLC
Cleveland, Ohio
Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Pharmacy Law, Litigation
[this is not legal advice - provided for discussion only]
Intellectual Property for the Individual and Small Business: Identify, Protect, Enforce, Defend.
"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
http://www.LindonLaw.com

substitute "somehow" with "sometimes" and we might have something to work with

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Brendita`s Body Works - Organic Skin & Hair Care Products

The 15 exceptions to the rule are indeed worthy of a website of their own. However, the millions of successful entrepreneurs who did need a degree is an equally powerful statement.

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Making limitless possibilities much more limited.

So is today bashing people who went to college day?

 I don`t think you can prove one way or the other with any scientific method that one group is smarter or dumber than another group. But I`m going to attempt to enlighten you to the error of your thought processes and prove to you that people who went to college are NOT dumb.

I`m saddened that I even have to address or that this is even an issue.

 One of the main reasons why you are mistaken is because there are many forms of intelligence. Just because you are smart in one thing - like making a fast buck, doesn`t mean you`re smart in all things or that you`re even smart at all.

I have met people who have majored in the fields of science or math who knows things I couldn`t even begin to understand. Are they dumb?

Likewise, I would like to know if you would be so confident going to a doctor who never went to medical school if you or someone in your family needed major surgery? Are doctors dumb?

 Maybe you were just talking about people in business. OK. So what about Google, FedEx, CNN? All of these companies were started by people with college degrees. Are they dumb too? Plus if you look at the top fortune 500 businesses, I`m close to positive that most if not all of the CEOs of the companies have college degrees. Are they all dumb too?

 Maybe you`re talking about the small time entrepreneurs. What about mechanical engineers who patents a lot of our inventions, computer scientist who makes most of our software and hardware or a medical researcher who discovers and creates most of our drugs. Are they dumb too?

 When was the last time you design, built and tested an air conditioner, a flat screen television, a cell phone or even the RF controlled key to open your car door? Do you even know the beginning of how to make one of these? Or are you too smart for that?

Do you know the latest research on global warming, cancer or why we have had a 300% increase in space dust for the past 10 years? Or is all this just dumb people stuff that you don`t need to know?

 Do you really understand what you are saying?

Let`s look at it this way, more than 95% of all the stuff you need, want and use were designed, built and brought to you by people with college degrees. But they are the dumb ones, right?

Do you really believe you and your clan of non-college educated people are really smarter than all of the people or as you put it "not to generalize" most college educated people?

REALLY??? Are you serious?

I am not saying that people without college degrees are dumb or smart. I don`t know everyone who doesn`t have a college degree. So how could I make such a statement?

  I could make a great case for why people without college degrees are far more a drain public resources than people with a college degree. I could make a really good case for why the overwhelming majority of people in jail or our legal system is people without a college education. I could make a really good statistical case as to why people without a college degree are a net negative to our overall national productivity and GDP, but I know that`s not true and it`s stupid to believe that was all true.

But it’s also stupid to believe that people with college degrees are dumb as well.

I think your arguments are weak, divisive and belittling to all of us who are proud of our accomplishments. I respect your decision not to go to college. I`m sad to know that there are people like you who feel that people who want to further their education are dumb.

I hope you change your mind one day about people who have chosen to continue their education.

 

The truth is we are all needed and valuable in our own way. To say one is better than another shouldn`t be something we put a lot of thought into or debate. We are all needed and are all as valuable as we make ourselves.

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Hi Steven,

Wow -- thanks for your lengthy response.

So let me clear up a few things...

1. You assume I never went to college.

Hate to burst your bubble but I hold a 1st class degree. In fact, I scored so high on my exams I was awarded an automatic PHD scolarship (this meant that I did not have to take the prerequisite 2 years Master degree -- an exception that rarely happens). And 9 years on, my scores still haven`t been beaten at my old University.

Understand that this does not make me `smarter` or `dumber` than anyone else. For me, my degree is just a measure of my commitment to `self` and what I can achieve when I put my mind to something.

And like you - and every other degree holder - I am `ohh so proud of my degree` because no one can ever take that achievement away from me...no matter what.

2. I think you totally missed the point of the post.

I did say very early into the post that "I`m not talking about everyone with a degree". The post was about those who have degrees but display little common sense. Which kind of answers all the questions you posed.

Now - if you go back and read the post, and the responses you`ll see that:

1. There really was no issue
2. No one was trying to prove anything - it was a personal statement about some degree holders, based on personal observations during my University, corporate and business years.
   
3. We have already covered in previous posts/responses that there are other forms of intelligence and that -- depending on the circumstance -- one is not necessarily more important than others.
4. I never stated that any set of people are better than others. In fact, in one response I clearly state the following: "Once again, just want to highlight that in no way am I suggesting that one group is smarter or dumber than the other."

That said, I appreciate the passion you put into your post. I really do.

Being someone who has been guilty in the past of responding to what I thought was being said, as oppossed to what really was being said, I do not take any of your assumptions about me personal.

I knew when I made this post that it would `ruffle a few feathers`. I was also aware that because of the emotions it might stir up, the core points might get lost along the way (because I doubt that honestly speaking there is a single degree holder who does not know another degree holder who -- in their opinion -- lacks common sense.)

I think that an important lesson we can take from this is that before responding to a post, it might be wise for us to read all responses (especially those made by the original poster) so that we are armed with the full picture.

Doing this will save us time, frustration and maybe help us formulate more productive responses.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond Steven.

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Let me explain...

In the UK a Masters degree is a prerequisite for a PhD.

But if your overall exam scores place you in the top 1% of BSC graduates for that year, the University (as part of a special Government scheme) gives you a scholarship to do a PhD - no Masters required.

I graduated from University of Greenwich in London -- and I can assure you that they are not "giving any doctorates away" either.