I mean, what's the future of all this. Despite the free courseware ascendancy, a degree from Princeton is just as powerful as and even more sought after than ever. And I mean, why exactly is it that institutionalized learning is an anachronism suddenly? Is it the internet? Is "the internet" the answer to every fucking question about change we can ask these days? Our education system used to work, I think. Maybe.
tl;dr on the article for now, I'm volunteering in four hours. It's the title. Princeton and every other "prestigious" school is a brand name that everyone loves. It's the same reason people buy a sweater with an Under Armor/Nike/Adidas etc. logo on it when a blank sweater right next to it is a fraction of the cost. It looks nice.
And (I'm going to get a bit cynical) that's what people have begun to buy into. It's no longer about functionality, it's about status and comparison. We feel that buying something with an Apple silhouette is better than a Samsung bought at a flea market (she's been good to me for over two years now). Why is that? Well, for a lot of reasons. Anyway. For whatever reason, businesses are still under than impression that a degree from Princeton is better than one from Joe Shmoe University because back in a time when institutionalized learning was appropriate, Princeton played off of their high rejection rate to accept only those with the best credentials which meant they could charge more thus higher better professors. I just realized I could rant forever and you probably already have thought of all of this and get what I'm saying.
But yeah. The internet has in essence made institutionalized learning obsolete. Except for the fact though that having a personal experience is really nice. I'm going to sleep.