The article is about the fact that school does not show that "developer ... is signaling that he is reliable and comes to work every day"

The whole point of the article is there is zero correlation between people who've graduated from college and people who haven't in term of how well they do on the job.

It sounds counter intuitive. There's like 3 situations

1. College trains you more than non-college

2. College doesn't train you but shows you're willing to stick things out more than people who didn't go

3. College does nothing what-so-ever (no difference in job performance from hiring people who did or didn't go to college)

The author of the article is claiming 100 years of research has shown it's #3. People will let you in the door because you have the paper (diploma) but they are fooling themselves that that paper has any meaning relative to hiring people without that paper

Here's another interview with the same author

http://www.econtalk.org/bryan-caplan-on-the-case-against-edu...

again, I am not agreeing nor disagreeing with the article. I'm only clarifying what it's trying to say

Let me add though, the author is claiming this is true in aggregate. Not for your personal anecdote.