ss [06/10/10 09:31 +0530]:
Incidentally how many people on Silk can recall how to calculate the square root of a number manually? If you were taught in the first place. How many cooks need to know how to grow wheat or milk a cow? Or slaughter a cow for that matter?
Having thrown my maths and physics textbooks into the dustbin (and then, in a fit of economy, sold them to a second hand bookstore) as soon as I passed the exams they were meant for .. and then having got into a series of jobs where there has been zero need for me to remember what abel did to his lemma, carnot to his cycle or ohm to his law. And having known people who pass out of IITs (rather than obscure osmania university affiliated colleges) who then pass out of IIMs, following which they spend their time interacting with 10th standard pass local businessmen who are major distributors of soap, shampoo etc brands... The question would then arise as to whether most of what is taught - and learnt with anywhere from resentment to resigned impatience - is any use at all beyond HR managers insisting on seeing academics certificates before your first job, and then insisting on hiring people from "the best schools" to perform tasks that dont require the services of a nuclear physicist or electrical engineer. Later on - say 10 years down the line, not too good academics can be conveniently omitted from the CV, to be sure. Then if you need anything more complex than changing a fused bulb, call an electrician who never did go to college ..
