"Response rates for this data collection were relatively low, both for the United States and for several other participating countries. There is evidence that procedures implemented to reduce bias associated with nonresponse have done so, and that the data are representative of the population. However, readers should be aware of the potential for bias and use caution when interpreting PIAAC results."
These stats don't pass the smell test. About a third of people in the US have a bachelor's degree, but only 13% can pass level 4/5 literacy challenge? If you dig into the sample questions, they are not hard. A level 4 task has the person read a short article and pull out the criticisms of some products.
I know not everyone with a bachelor's degree is 'smart' but it's hard to believe 2/3rds couldn't pass level 4/5.
Also 13% have a master's degree, does that mean those 13% are the only people passing level 4/5?
> About a third of people in the US have a bachelor's degree, but only 13% can pass level 4/5 literacy challenge?
Yes, that's how bad the problem is.
I've worked with people with master's degrees who can't comprehend text more complex than a Slack message. I've watched them try and fail.
I think it is difficult for a highly-literate person to wrap their head around this. It's very possible to get through a bachelor's program with low literacy. It's even possible to do quite well. And at a reasonably good school.
There are some pretty successful businesses out there whose target market are essentially professionals with low literacy. They use more flattering descriptions in their marketing.
This is just how it is out there. Ask teachers what students are like these days. Think about designing for users. Or cross-reference with other info on this topic.
And, in regard to colleges... you have to keep in mind just how many colleges there are, how much the quality differs, the relative workloads of different degrees. There are a lot of people graduating with a GPA quite close to 2.0 at that full range too.
Also, think of how many college graduates never finish a book again after graduating college. Those numbers judge 18 to 65. And the age stats show that the older cohorts drag the scores down significantly.
The only upside to all of this is that it at least makes the chaos out there in the world make a bit more sense.
Even working in "tech" but not FAANG this is so true, 10 days is still the norm at many white collar businesses for your first year of employment, sometimes 15 days if they're generous.
During COVID my company had mandatory days off (I think 14) if you reported any COVID symptoms. Those days were unpaid of course. The cherry on top is the people paid the lowest were the ones who couldn't work from home and were most likely to get COVID. This was pretty common at other places too.
> 100% of today’s SWE tasks are done by the models.
I do think he was overstating the current state of the models by a bit, but this is taken out of context. He is not saying this is where the models are at today.
He gives a spectrum [18:30] of the models taking over the SWE jobs:
- Model writes 90% of code (today)
- Model writes 100% of code
- Model does 90% of today's SWE tasks (end-to-end)
- Model does 100% of today's SWE tasks
- The SWE job creates new tasks that didn't exist before
- Model does the new SWE tasks as well (90% reduction in demand for SWE)
These stats don't pass the smell test. About a third of people in the US have a bachelor's degree, but only 13% can pass level 4/5 literacy challenge? If you dig into the sample questions, they are not hard. A level 4 task has the person read a short article and pull out the criticisms of some products.
I know not everyone with a bachelor's degree is 'smart' but it's hard to believe 2/3rds couldn't pass level 4/5.
Also 13% have a master's degree, does that mean those 13% are the only people passing level 4/5?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_attainment_in_the_...
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