For quite some time, economists have said that the jobs high school students will get in five years likely doesn’t exist yet. Technology is moving so fast that we can’t actually predict what we’ll need. This also means that you can’t train someone for these jobs. So learning a vocation may pay the bills in the short term, but they likely will not relatively quickly.

When I was in college, I would balance my CD player on top of my books in my backpack and walk around like I was balancing water on my head just so I wouldn’t scratch the CDs. I also went to school in New York City so imagine how agile I was. About two weeks after graduation, I left for the Peace Corps. I packed a Case Logic full of CDs and batteries. When I returned, all my friends had this thing called an iPod. Here’s the thing: you probably don’t know what a Case Logic is, and honestly, you probably don’t know what an iPod is either. And if I told you I burned the CDs I was listening to after I downloaded the tracks from Napster, you would ask if I was 85 years old. But all of that happened within a span of five years. That’s the point.

Tech jobs involve way more than just coding. The Bay Area saw its first tech boom in the 90s when everyone was making websites. Consider how ridiculous it sounds to even consider that statement now because you’re thinking, people became millionaires by just knowing HTML? Yes. BUT people often forget that technology doesn’t create itself. People had to think of the languages and the concepts and the designs to keep building, to the point where just knowing HTML went from creator to consumer. Take for example AI and how people talk about it as though it’s a monster gearing up to take over the world. AI currently can’t draw five fingers on a hand but someone is going to figure out some really cool technology so that AI can figure out those five fingers. And then whatever technology that person used will be obsolete and hopefully that all happens by the time I publish this.

I’m hoping I’ve done enough so far to demonstrate that technology is moving too fast to train you to do the current thing. My other goal here is to remind you that college isn’t meant to train you. There are some tangibles that college will teach you but the bulk of the learning happens in and around the curricula. You learn to communicate, work with teams, build your confidence. As a teacher for so long, when I run into students years after they’ve been in my classroom, I hear them say things like, “you taught me to think critically” or “I learned to write because of you.” It’s my favorite compliment. In all of my classes, I can’t remember who taught me functions or the Civil War. But I remember the teachers that helped me build my voice, encouraged me to take risks, and fostered intellectual curiosity. The best way I can describe this comes from an article about applicants to medical school. The author said they can teach how to perform surgery, but they can’t teach bedside manner. And students learn bedside manner by understanding people and language. That comes from the humanities, performing arts, and social sciences…things that we think are so far removed from medicine. I found another example from Steve Job’s biography where he said he wanted the experience of opening an Apple product box to feel like how he felt when he read Moby Dick. That’s a different type of learning that isn’t training.

You’re going to say something about college being too expensive to do this stuff and that tells me you read Myth Busters out-of-order. But for now, remember that it doesn’t cost you anything to look into colleges. See what class you might be interested in and what Friday night looks like at that campus. And then consider how you’ll grow as a student and person. And then you’ll see why college is necessary for a “good” job.