Subjects and skills

Noah Smith’s post (HT: MR) on what students actually gain from college is a reminder that not all acquired skills are necessarily related to subject matter or academics. His list is the following:

1) Motivation,
2) Perspective, and
3) Human networks

I’m not in full agreement with his analysis except perhaps for #3 but it served as a reminder that in my post that learning classical music seems to take all the fun out of learning music - it’s not necessarily about the music. M claims that learning the notes and to play teachers perseverance and discipline. Someone else claimed that if nothing, all the recitals that one has to go through teaches confidence through public appearances.