Going to college purely for a career is a hell of a gamble

Sure, but it's a gamble that everyone tries to tell you is a sure thing in your youth, and they pile immense pressure on you to do. Maybe things have changed recently, but it hasn't been all that long since I was in high school, in the grand scheme of things, and I remember how you were basically treated like the world's biggest idiot if you didn't plan on going on to get a university degree. Maybe the only exception was if you were going to join the military, with the understanding you were doing so in order to get a degree on the cheap when you finished.

I think everyone who wants to do so, and who has put in the work to be at the appropriate level academically, should have the opportunity go and study at university, but I also believe that the vast majority of people have no need to do so, and ultimately will not benefit from it. Unfortunately, modern society treats universities not as institutes of education and monuments to the pursuit of knowledge, but as glorified vocational schools. It seems largely to be at the impetus of companies who have decided to externalize any training costs onto potential hires, substituting any sort of on the job training for "Did they check the box that says they have a degree?"

In the past 30 years, I've seen massive changes in how companies operate just by watching the sort of jobs my father could get. When I was a kid, he could get hired on with nothing more than "I like computers, I'll actually read the whole manual for the system I'm working on, and I understand there's a 6 month probation period to see if I actually do that." for jobs that he would be summarily screened out for today, despite having successfully done in the past.

Like, don't get me wrong, he's dumb as hell in a lot of ways, but I've still seen extra stupid stuff in his career trajectory that reflects this. I recall him being fired because he got an IT job at Ernst & Young that he'd been successfully doing for years, because they suddenly said "Everyone doing this job needs to have a degree and the following certifications, and if you don't have them and do this job now, you need to get them ASAP and reinterview for your role."