Of course, that sort of life sytle is not renumerative, but I didn’t need to make much money since I was married to a college drop out who had a very well paid union job.

But, the experience of spending time with other bright young people (and some good professors) and figuring out how to interact successfully with them is valuable. It’s a good way to spend some time if you don’t know what you want to do to earn money (or aren’t ready to start).

I hope new institutions evolve that let young people get that benefit, and a way to signal to prospective employers what talents they have, without spending outrageous amounts of money.

If you go to Brown, or Yale, or Chicago, or Stanford, indeed you’re probably better off choosing to pursue a liberal arts degree, because it often helps you speak more articulately and confidently in interviews for investment banking, hedge fund, and consulting jobs. And you’ll seem more interesting.

If, though, you’re not quite so lucky as to wind up at an elite school by which your very affiliation opens up doors to any kind of career you’d like…if you instead are among the majority who has chosen to attend college at California State Hayward or Southwestern Illinois State or Estrella Mountain Community College, then acquiring skills that are of immediate utility to average employers in need of a mass of average employees is often the only hope of avoiding the box factory. Learning to close read Weber or argue against a phenomenological interpretation of a social norm is not, unfortunately, typically as useful to the average corporation as knowing how to write Java code or to prepare a cash flow statement or to deploy a server side security key.

Julian, did you want to do what you are doing or something related in college? That’s the biggest question for me. If someone is completely aimless in college, I’d advocate that they at least get a degree or take classes that indicate they aren’t scared of numbers. That should help them in the battle for better cube jobs.

You wrote: “Look, I love the life of the mind as much as anyone. But my advice to college kids is simple: think money and career. You can give yourself a liberal arts education with an investment of time, a library card, and some book money. While paying for a degree, go for what pays. Period.”

I couldn’t disagree more. I double-majored in theatre and philosophy in college because I liked theatre and philosophy. I was paying, so I went for what I enjoyed.

I know I needed to pay the bills after college, though, so I taught myself how to be a pretty damn good programmer (it’s all out there on the internet; all you need is an investment of time, a computer and an internet connection) and was making six figures by the age of 23.

My life now consists of traveling around the world, writing and playing guitar on faraway beaches with pretty girlfriends and picking up an occasional freelance programming gig when I need some dough. It’s not bad.

My advice to you: stop dispensing bad advice to college kids.