<story><title>Don’t go to art school (2013)</title><url>https://medium.com/i-m-h-o/dont-go-to-art-school-138c5efd45e9#.87guodhbv</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>WhitneyLand</author><text>I think your advice sounds great for people living in a Star Trek utopia where people only work to better themselves.&lt;p&gt;However in our present time, how many people can seriously consider going to college without careful thought to how it will relate to their career?&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d love to go to art school but not be an artist.  While I&amp;#x27;m at it, I&amp;#x27;d also like to earn graduate degrees in history, literature, and philosophy (might help my lateral thinking).</text></item><item><author>justinator</author><text>I graduated from art school.&lt;p&gt;I didn&amp;#x27;t go to art school to pursue a career in art. The art school I went to basically said, &amp;quot;don&amp;#x27;t&amp;quot; - it&amp;#x27;s a lottery anyways. The people who can make a living as an artist are a few dozen worldwide.&lt;p&gt;I went to art school to think laterally and critically. I went to have my own ideas of what creativity is exhaustively challenged.&lt;p&gt;You can also go to art school to make those social connections to the larger art world - the art world is nothing but a huge web of social ties. I found that part of it pretty dark and disgusting, really. I just wasn&amp;#x27;t willing to stab so many people in the back to get ahead.&lt;p&gt;My curriculum was not centered around skills and technique - you were to learn that yourself. It was centered around your ideas - get your ideas out of your head and onto a stage basically. The school and my program were influenced by the Black Mountain school in N. Carolina where individuals like B. Fuller, Merce Cunningham, and John Cage taught. Interdisciplinary. It was all a living experiment, and all my higher level courses had, &amp;quot;Experimental&amp;quot; in their name.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t regret one second of art school. You get out what you get in. I still would never, ever pursue a career as an artist. I&amp;#x27;ve done lots of creatively amazing projects, but it wasn&amp;#x27;t for the money - this country I live in (USA) at least really doesn&amp;#x27;t find monetary value in the arts.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>codingdave</author><text>Why would such an education have a negative impact on your career? It teaches communication, makes sure you know how to get your ideas out into a consumable format, and teaches critical thinking. All of these skills will be valuable in just about any career.&lt;p&gt;And that is exactly why I think higher education is a good idea. Admittedly, paying for it is tougher now than when I was in school... but the leap from &amp;quot;It is too expensive&amp;quot; to &amp;quot;It is not a worthwhile education&amp;quot; is not quite correct.&lt;p&gt;When I was in school, the general attitude was that any bachelor&amp;#x27;s degree will help any career. A Masters degree will only help a career in that specific field, and a PhD will only help you in academia. I think this is still accurate, but the cost of tuition has masked the underlying value of the education.</text></comment>
<story><title>Don’t go to art school (2013)</title><url>https://medium.com/i-m-h-o/dont-go-to-art-school-138c5efd45e9#.87guodhbv</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>WhitneyLand</author><text>I think your advice sounds great for people living in a Star Trek utopia where people only work to better themselves.&lt;p&gt;However in our present time, how many people can seriously consider going to college without careful thought to how it will relate to their career?&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d love to go to art school but not be an artist.  While I&amp;#x27;m at it, I&amp;#x27;d also like to earn graduate degrees in history, literature, and philosophy (might help my lateral thinking).</text></item><item><author>justinator</author><text>I graduated from art school.&lt;p&gt;I didn&amp;#x27;t go to art school to pursue a career in art. The art school I went to basically said, &amp;quot;don&amp;#x27;t&amp;quot; - it&amp;#x27;s a lottery anyways. The people who can make a living as an artist are a few dozen worldwide.&lt;p&gt;I went to art school to think laterally and critically. I went to have my own ideas of what creativity is exhaustively challenged.&lt;p&gt;You can also go to art school to make those social connections to the larger art world - the art world is nothing but a huge web of social ties. I found that part of it pretty dark and disgusting, really. I just wasn&amp;#x27;t willing to stab so many people in the back to get ahead.&lt;p&gt;My curriculum was not centered around skills and technique - you were to learn that yourself. It was centered around your ideas - get your ideas out of your head and onto a stage basically. The school and my program were influenced by the Black Mountain school in N. Carolina where individuals like B. Fuller, Merce Cunningham, and John Cage taught. Interdisciplinary. It was all a living experiment, and all my higher level courses had, &amp;quot;Experimental&amp;quot; in their name.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t regret one second of art school. You get out what you get in. I still would never, ever pursue a career as an artist. I&amp;#x27;ve done lots of creatively amazing projects, but it wasn&amp;#x27;t for the money - this country I live in (USA) at least really doesn&amp;#x27;t find monetary value in the arts.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>matt4077</author><text>If I understand it correctly, the US is actually the perfect system to go to an art school and still make a career in a traditional field: You can still go to law school or HBS.&lt;p&gt;Many people suffer from &amp;quot;premature optimization&amp;quot;, trying to do business-related stuff because they see McKinsey in their future. I&amp;#x27;ve met quite a few people from those global consultancies, and they actively encourage people to study theology or modern french literature.&lt;p&gt;And don&amp;#x27;t get me started on parents asking for their children&amp;#x27;s middle schools to &amp;quot;focus on accounting, not these useless languages&amp;quot;...</text></comment>