To understand advice, people have to experience the outcome for themselves

I read a quote on a16z that said that those who say a college education is unnecessary mostly have college educations. What should you make of that?

They might be right, but you cannot say that to a high school student and expect them to understand. There’s no much nuance in the statement. What kind of job are they talking about. Some vocations absolutely require a college education. For many jobs, you will be disadvantaged vs. other candidates if you don’t have one.

On the other side of the argument, it’s true that there are many jobs where you don’t need one. Being an artist is one example. Jobs where you can demonstrate capability with a portfolio of work are jobs where you can find success even if you don’t have a college degree.

However, the point of this post isn’t about whether you need one or not, it’s harder to understand whether you need something until after you have it. You can apply this to almost anything in life. The successful entrepreneur can look back and decide whether their college education was necessary or not, but someone who is just beginning their journey into higher education cannot look forward to know what impact a college education will have on their life.