My advice for smart young people just starting university in 2026: be warned -- if you don't graduate from college within the next four years, you risk getting stuck as a freshman forever, thus joining the ranks of the Permanent Underclassmen.
Pretty controversial. I'd like to see more of an argument and consideration of counterarguments. Or alternatively, constructive advice for how to avoid this.
Note this is a joke, a play on the word "underclass" versus "underclassMEN", which is a word used in anglo countries to refer to freshman and sophmores at university. I'm not actually a fan of the "permanent underclass" idea; I think it's dumb (basically for the reasons explained in the astral codex ten "permanent moon ownership" essay). Hence my attempt to make fun of the idea.
My advice for smart young people just starting university in 2026: be warned -- if you don't graduate from college within the next four years, you risk getting stuck as a freshman forever, thus joining the ranks of the Permanent Underclassmen.
Pretty controversial. I'd like to see more of an argument and consideration of counterarguments. Or alternatively, constructive advice for how to avoid this.
Note this is a joke, a play on the word "underclass" versus "underclassMEN", which is a word used in anglo countries to refer to freshman and sophmores at university. I'm not actually a fan of the "permanent underclass" idea; I think it's dumb (basically for the reasons explained in the astral codex ten "permanent moon ownership" essay). Hence my attempt to make fun of the idea.
Oh - that went totally over my head 😅