"Diversification" still does not justify how much useless information we are forced to remember in school.

I have always struggled to articulate exactly why I believe that even information about "useful subjects", is often useless, but I think I have finally done it. Would appreciate your input. Main point is as mentioned in the title, education is horribly inefficient, we are taught so much that we do not require.

To start, let us take an analogy. We have an enemy with 5000 units of health. The only attack your character has, is a single hit that currently deals 2500 units of damage. You can perform this attack once per second.

Alright, so an optimal clear would be 2 seconds. Now lets say that you got an item that gives an attack buff. You now deal 50% more damage per hit. Now given that the relationship between clear time and DPS is linear, one would assume this directly translates to a 50% faster clear time, right? But it doesnt, because you still need two hits to kill the enemy [3750 + 3750], therefore rendering your effective DPS unchanged.

For the damage increase to result in a change in clear time, it would need to be high enough to change THE NUMBER OF ACTIONS NEEDED TO ACCOMPLISH THE TASK. In this case, the next BREAK POINT would be at 5000 damage per hit.

This concept is, I believe, at least partly why a lot of people overuse the defense of "diversification", when debating the necessity of different classes. More information on a subject does not necessarily mean you can handle situations pertaining the subject better.

Let me take a three subjects, that I think are somewhat overrated. Sex education, Calculus and Physics.

Granted, the exact curriculum will vary, but I was taught a LOT about sex and reproduction that I found useless.

1. Detailed cross sectional diagrams of reproductive organs.....why....sure knowing the external parts, their purposes and how to care for them is useful, but this is overkill.

2. Miscellaneous : How is remembering the exact chemicals that serve as the solvent for semen, or the system of ducts and glands gonna help me? C'mon.

3. The exact hormones and processes behind periods. DEAR MOM, while i sympathise with how terrible most men are regarding periods, YA WENT OVERBOARD. On one hand, yes it helps with dealing with my little sis and friends too [ its a bit depressing how impressed they are with me ] , but only a tiny subset of the crap she taught was useful. I also generally see people saying, under somewhat in depth (relative to what you need to manage them) videos, saying it should be necessary learning.

Again, as long as you remember the timeline with corresponding discharge, symptom managers/relievers (snacks, hot water bag, pads, tampons, cups, also masturbatiom helps with the pain apparently tho thats hard to bring up), to not dismiss excruciating abdomimal pain as period cramps, knowing you can have a late period due to reasons other than pregnancy [ weight gain, stress, exercise, sleep deprivation ], how to get the stains out [hydrogen peroxide helps a lot], YOU DONT NEED PARAGRAPHS ON HOW EXACTLY IT WORKS.

You can apply this to health in general, we learnt so much extra that is unnecessary.

Calc and Phy too

1. Calc is useless for daily use and most non-engineering and non-physics aligned jobs (software engineering is an exception i think), even if in theory it is present in everything.

2. Knowing roughly how forces interact helps us understand crumple zones in cars, how to drive properly, how to handle heavy weights, safely interact with electronics. On the other hand, remembering the formulas for gravity, oscillators, maximum power transfer (RLC circuits), Double refraction etc is a waste.

Unless you can reach a break point with a certain amount of information, you wont see any benefit.

Another point i would like to address is the "learning how to learn".

A lot of the information students need to learn is USELESS, even if the logic they use to derive conclusions from them can be applied elsewhere. I know one should be wary of simple solutions to detrimental problems, but JUST MAKE THOSE SUBJECTS AN OPEN BOOK COURSE??? NO??? IDK. That type of course would focus on criticial thinking, and relieives time that would otherwise be spent memorizing axioms they will never need (A lot of the facts in question here, are not TRUE axioms in the scientific and mathematical sense, but their derivations are often far too advanced to teach, making them effectively axioms in that context).

To conclude: even if the subject is theoretically useful, it does not mean you are enriching yourself when you try engrave facts from its domain, into your brain.

NOTE:

I know, its a pretty overdone topic, but I'm hoping these arguments are rarely spoken enough to justify a post.

Formal Education is sometimes an exhausting topic, because the system is good enough that its worth participating in, but bad enough that you constantly question how we have have stuck with this archaic system for so long. This results in debates regarding it being susceptible, I assume, simultaneously to over-critique and undervalue it out of frustration; yet also overvalue it out of fear that people will abandon this powerful tool.

Submitted November 29, 2025 at 03:08AM by Alice_283 https://ift.tt/q2gPoer