>>12138857the myth of it is that it's cope for people who hate learning and would never have the dedication to actually properly teach themselves something out of a structured setting. College for people who genuinely love to learn (the kind of people who actually can teach themselves things to a high degree of proficiency) is a great experience and being surrounded by peers and mentors only enhances the ability for self-guided exploration.
If you're in college now and think you're surrounded by stupid people and wasting your time, you have no idea how stupid the average person is. Once you get into the work force you will have to interact with actually stupid people and it will blow your mind how poorly functioning their brains are. The selection of upper-level academics (both self-selection and competitive selection) is the best part about it.
