Higher Ed & Jobs: Former Reasoner Virginia Postrel on Glenn Reynolds' InstaVision

Former Reason Editor Virginia Postrel talks with Glenn "Instapundit" Reynolds on PJTV's Instavision.

Topics include the higher education bubble, why people are opting for college rather than high-demand fields such as machining, and more.

Well worth watching.

Read Postrel's bio and archive at Bloomberg, where she is a columnist.

Comments

[sage]

Drink!

[Pro Libertate]

You know, back when VP was editor, she never posted videos of herself.

[Spiny Norman]

And if she had, she would have picked a frame with a more flattering shot.

[Suki]

Did video even exist then?

[robc]

Instavision was better before Postrel lef....oh wait.

[jtuf]

How colleges teach critical thinking:

Professor: You must learn critical thinking.

Students in unison: We must learn critical thinking.

Professor: You must have open minds.

Students in unison: We must have open minds.

Professor: There is no absolute truth.

Students in unison: There is no absolute truth.

One lone student: Wait a minute. There are some absolute truths. For example, 2 + 2 = 5.

Professor and students in unison: Bigot! Racist! Sexist! Hater! Republican!

[cynical]

You couldn't even work in a Life of Brian quote?

[jtuf]

I thought the Life of Brian scene was already implied.

[Dustin Whitmore]

This makes a whole lot of sense dude. WOw.

http://www.VPN-Shield.tk

[NAL]

Off topic, but related to what she was saying, my dad is a retired machinist and he has a little lathe and milling machine in his garage now. He was teaching me to do some simple things on it, and let me tell you, that is an interesting, rewarding line of work. If anyone with a modicum of technical ability needs a good career path, look into machining.

[Jeffersonian]

My father-in-law is a machinist that once owned a mold shop in South Bend, and I'm encouraging him to mentor my second son in doing just that. Number Two Son is actually very smart, but I think he'd be a great machinist.

[Alan]

Machining will soon be like the secretarial work that Virginia Postrel said she kept as her reserve skill - vanished. There are already advances in automated machining that will make traditional skills ... not exactly useless, but less valuable than they are now.

Same thing with the skilled trades: my co-workers laugh when I tell them this, but some time before long, probably in 10 to 20 years, most of our jobs will be gone - having been automated.

5 or 10 years ago I would have suggested going into some of these skilled trades as the jobs were (and still are available) and there weren't enough people learning the skills. For people considering a job right now, however, I would not spend a lot of time learning these skills. That doesn't mean they will never pan out, but we don't need surging numbers of workers in these fields to replace retirees. As Postrel noted, the most important assets right now are flexibility and adaptability.

[mad libertarian guy]

That lady couldn't have been more boring.

[johnl]

Tibor Machan would have been more boring than that lady.

[Jeffersonian]

She did a helluva job as EiC at Reason.