You don't need a degree to point a hose at a fire.

Oh right because that is all firefighters do. They aren't also EMTs who study how to keep your smug ass alive after an accident. Nor are they trained in understanding a fire and how to fight it. They also can't possibly be trained in any of other other things that firefighters do. Literally all they do is sit and point hoses at things...

Once again the way that HN commenters as a whole (not all of us) reduce every job but software development to the simplest terms is astounding. Are you a software engineer? Do you just type shit into a computer all day? Seems easy.

My paid work isn't all that relevant, but I'm a volunteer docent at a fire museum actually. The museum was actually an active fire station where my father worked about 50 years ago. He did not need a degree to do the job.

A lot has changed in 50 years my friend. You should relegate your dismissive snark to a museum and in 50 years somebody will marvel at how you didn’t need a degree to talk shit on the internet.

How about this - I talk to a lot of active firefighters (what do you think they do on vacation?), and they tend towards a very right-wing view of the world, and they share a lot of dismissive snark about post-secondary education in general too. I didn't say they don't need any training and they wouldn't say that either, but they'd find the idea that one needs to take on tens of thousands of dollars in debt to get a four year degree in order to fight fires (or perform basic EMT functions) ludicrous, and they'd happen to be correct.