[Last updated 6th November 2019]
The education system is in shambles, and it has been for quite some time now.
This is not weird. Old things break or go obsolete all the time. Why should this be any different?
What’s weird is that people still have an unshakable faith in the system.
The Education is Important; Schooling is Not
Education is important and will only become more important.
Schooling (public education and indoctrination) is just bad. It’s the remnant of a system made obsolete, decades ago.
Schooling used to serve a purpose—like the appendix inside the human body—but now it’s just bad for most of us.
Many aspects of public education are problematic. For example, the usefulness of the grading system is debatable. It disincentives creative and lopsided performance (which are the hallmarks of success in the real world).
And, many times the grading system is just plain wrong. . .
Like When George Orwell’s Writing Didn’t
Qualify for the “High Standards” of Academia
You know Michael Crichton? He’s the guy who wrote Jurassic Park. He was damn smart. Unfortunately he’s dead now.
Crichton started writing early in life. He showed talent from the get-go and was able to support himself through Med school by writing short stories under pen names. But, before that…
…when he was 18 years old, he took an English writing class at Harvard, where he was given C- on a paper. This confused him, because he felt this paper was one of the best he’d ever written.
Not only did the C- anger Crichton, but he really, seriously, believed that his teacher was incompetent and unable to think for himself, outside of the grading criteria. To test if this hypothesis was correct, Crichton decided to do something risky: he submitted a well-known essay written by George Orwell–under his own name!
This was 100% plagiarism. Crichton copied the essay word for word, and if he was found out he would be EXPELLED from Harvard.
When the time came for the grading of this new essay he was given a B-.
George Orwell’s writing wasn’t good enough to make the cut.
That makes you wonder: what does cut it?
What the hell are you supposed to do to get an A?
Crichton was really confused now.
I can relate to that, because I too felt confused many times during my school years. . . starting with when I was a kid.
8-Year Old Ludvig Gets “Put Into His Place”
When I was in second grade I had a friendly competition with a classmate. We competed over who could solve the most math problems each week.
Our class had like 60 kids in it (3 age cohorts, aged 7-9) and for some reason, me and my friend were the only ones good at math.
In our first year (age 7-8) we progressed to doing math books for kids who were 10 years old.
One day, I teased my friend for being slow because I was 10 pages ahead of him. My friend said he didn’t care, “because he was still years before everyone else.”
Our math teacher happened to be nearby when he said this, and she went fucking CRAZY (I don’t know why, no one else cared).
She made a huge scene and embarrassed us in front of the whole class.
“So, you think you’re smart just because you are doing math of people older than your cohort, huh!?”
“How would you like it if I took away your books–huh!? You wouldn’t like that very much, would you know?
We got really scared and pleaded: “No, please don’t take away our books!”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought!”
“I really should take away your books–that’s serves braggarts such as yourself right, puts you in your place. But I will let you keep them if you apologize to everyone else in the class for bragging and hurting their feelings!”
We promptly apologized to the whole class. They probably didn’t know what was going on, but my interest in math almost died there.
[Fast forward 14 years: at the finish line of uni when. . .]
A Passive-Aggressive Thesis Adviser Tries to Stop 22-Year Old Ludvig from Getting an Auspicious Start to His Career
When I did my thesis project I had to battle a semi-hostile academic overseer.
We had conflicting incentives:
I wanted to learn useful stuff, acquire valuable business contacts, and get the best entry-level marketing job possible.
My handler wanted my thesis to conform to “academic standards” (to be written in a quasi-intellectual style, full of citations of people whose work I haven’t read or don’t agree with) and—of course—to be as easy to grade as possible.
This made me angry, because I had put a shitload of effort into getting a tailor-made thesis project from one of the world’s top brands (IKEA–read how I did it here).
I took more initiative than all of my class combined, cold-called a ton of people, and felt I should be rewarded for it. The least the university could do was to stand out of my way (I got it on my own, let me do it on my own).
Instead they put up obstacles.
I guess they don’t want students to get jobs.
My handler wasn’t supportive at all. If anything, she was trying to sabotage the start of my career.
Looking back on this now, I don’t care at all. But as I reflect on the situation, it really highlights one of the big underlying problems with university. . .
The “Institutionalization of Knowledge” and Its Problems
University is supposed to be a final checkpoint towards work-life: it’s meant to train and empower young people into getting the jobs they want; not to recruit them into the ranks of academia (like a cult).
Unfortunately, this is what has happened.
Like big government, the interest of university is no longer primarily in serving the people–which is why it was created–but in serving itself, and making sure the machine “stays alive,” with its cogs turning.
One of the main ways universities do this is by forcing students to waste their time writing theses (that no one reads or cares about).
This is a Really Shitty Final Rite of Passage Before Entering Work-Life
Why force boring and non-value-adding activities on those who don’t want to join the “institution of knowledge”? Give them a practical assignment instead.
University is now strongly mismatched to the demand of the job market.
College and uni might be a good place for finding yourself (and partying a lot), but it’s not a good place to find a job you’ll love and excel at.
Like My Friend Kyle Eschenroeder Wrote a Few Years Ago:
You go to college to figure out what you want to do, what you like. Going into college I was mainly interested in three things: Libertarian ideas, trading, and making movies. Graduating, those are still the most interesting things to me and none have been enhanced by my college career. In fact, I’m an economics major and my ability to grasp what’s happening in the world is almost totally thanks to the internet and a willingness to read, not their bullshit textbooks.
My Economics degree is like my SAT score, people can look at it and say, “well he jumped through those hoops well”. More and more companies, especially ones worth working for, are looking at what you can do, what you’ve actually created.
I graduated with a master’s degree in business—and guess what?
–I’ll never have any use for it!
Why?
Because initiative beats “jumping through the hoops” every day of the week.
Now, let me tell you why I think that:
The School System is a Failure
- The School System Was Created for the 18th Century
- School Teaches You to Fit in…to an Obsolete Economy!
- School Turns You Into a Sissy Conformist
- School Breaks Down Most People’s Will to Learn
- School Doesn’t Cultivate Self-Knowledge
- School Turns Independent People into Co-dependent Peons
- School is Full of Propaganda
- School Doesn’t Teach You How to Think & Develop Your Own Style
- School Gives You a False Certainty about Things You Can’t Know
- School Indoctrinates False Rules That Handicap You for the Real World
Starting with reason #1…
The School System Was Created for the 18th Century!
It’s hard to pin down when and where public education started, but the first time public education was cohesively organized to fit the needs of an entire country in a successful way, was in Prussia under Frederick the Great ca 1750.
To entrust government with the power of determining education which our children shall receive is entrusting our servant with the power of the master.
—Frederick the Great
Frederick’s Education System in Prussia:
Frederick turned Prussia into a socialist state with planned economy. The country was so bureaucratic that women had to register the exact date of each month’s period to the state. [footnote] so that it would be easier to reliably keep track of child births and such things.. [/footnote]
The purpose of Prussia’s public education was to train citizens into the jobs its government decided was important for the future of the country.
Remember, this was a planned economy (not a free market) and:
- The economy, at that time, was simple enough [footnote] technology disruption wasn’t changing the world every few years… [/footnote] plus,
- Prussia’s population was small enough for a bunch of highly intelligent people to “plan ahead”. Frederick and his administrators could make reasonably accurate projections and decide that “we need so-and-so many workers for this and that role”.
Frederick’s stroke of genius made Prussia into the powerhouse of Europe.
Napoleon’s Education System in France:
50-something years later, Napoleon noticed how successful Frederick’s education system had been and decided to copy it for France, with some minor adjustments.
For example, Napoleon wanted his education system to:
- Train competent personnel (military leaders, scientists, and engineers) for his army and administration.
- Indoctrinate citizens into obedience and patriotism (and wrest power from the Christian church to the state).
Like Frederick, his system was also a massive success—for its intended purposes. The skill with which Napoleon’s engineers built bridges, moats, and other combative structures was unparalleled at its time.
The Western World’s Education System:
After noticing the obvious success of Prussia and France, much due to their education systems, the rest of the western world eventually copied their approach, with minor adjustments of their own.
This change took place during the early stages of industrialism, and so the biggest difference between the Prussian and French educational systems and the western education systems had to do with training the population for new stuff like:
- Factory work
- Managerial work (outside of public administration)
- Scientific inquiry (the origins of the STEM fields)
The greatest invention of the nineteenth century was the invention of the method of invention.
—Alfred Whitehead.
Off the top of your head, you probably will instinctively think most about managerial work and scientific inquiry. But those areas received maybe 10 % focus each, whereas training people into factory workers received around 80 % of the focus.
Why? Because factory work was by far the most important thing to the economy at the time, and it does not come about naturally.
Lots of public education had to do with what we now call schooling (disciplining and indoctrinating) people into becoming obedient and reliable factory workers. [footnote] but we still haven’t figured out how to train knowledge workers. [/footnote]
Sitting in straight rows, raising your hand before you address the teacher, asking for permission to do XYZ. Following the rules.
Reason #2: School Teaches You to Fit in…to an Obsolete Economy!
See public education for what it is: a system for training as many people as possible into professions reasonably projected into the future.
It worked pretty darn well for Frederick the Great and Napoleon. It also worked for many western countries during the industrialization.
Today it does not work well, because the world is changing faster than before. The Internet, AI, robotics and such things are rendering many industries obsolete. The school system can’t keep up.
How can you project what jobs to train workers for one generation from now if you can’t even project what will happen in many industries 5-10 years from now?
Modern schools are great if you want to be a….
- Retail clerk or a cashier
- Truck driver
- Doctor or nurse
- Janitor or property manager
- A gazillion types of office workers, administrative agents, number counters, or middle managers.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want one of those jobs.
Reason #3: School Turns You Into a Sissy Conformist
—Too bad nearly all winners are contrarian in one way or another!
Sissy conformists have to do what they’re told. They have to obey the leader and ask for permission to go to bathroom. They have to watch stupid TV shows and memorize American Idol names to keep up with the recent happenings of popular culture.
It’s nothing short of intellectual prostitution to corrupt your Dunbar’s Number to fit in, and in doing so living in a collective hyperreality.
Sissy conformists don’t get to set the pace or the trajectory for the projects they work on. The slowest member of the group “decides” that. The chain is no stronger than its weakest link.
In school, winners have to carry the losers, and for the winner to get his superior ideas picked he has to rely on the consensus decision of the group, rather than the merit of the idea.
In real life, winners are those who dare to do interesting stuff that stands out and runs contrary to popular opinion.
I spoke to Billionaire Martin Sandquist and asked him “What’s the worst business advice you ever got?” He answered:
Not starting Lynx. No one thought it was a good idea. Professors, banks, friends. Very few believed in it.
If you have an idea that people don’t believe in, it’s probably a good idea. You shouldn’t pay too much attention to other people’s opinions. Especially not our education system, which tends to be very biased. I believe you need to try to think for yourself as much as possible, and engage in self-studies. I don’t think I’ve learned anything useful in school; everything of value I’ve learned by being passionate about some subject and studying it for myself, reading or watching YouTube.
If you want to do something in a unique way, it’s important you try to do it yourself. Otherwise, it’s probably the same as everyone else.
Reason #4: School Breaks Down Most People’s Will to Learn
School is jail for children.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi wrote in his book Flow that:
Many people give up on learning after they leave school because thirteen or twenty years of extrinsically motivated education is still a source of unpleasant memories.
This ALMOST happened to me!
I thought I didn’t like learning until I was 20.
Then I realized being an A-student in school has little to do with enjoying the learning process or achieving real-world success.
The trick is to create your framework of learning and gain knowledge your own terms. It will take a while, but you’ll love it once you learn it.
Reason #5: School Doesn’t Cultivate Self-Knowledge
Education is either for domestication or for freedom.
—Joao Coutinho
Metacognition is the most common trait among successful people.
This has been agreed upon by wise men for millennia—dating back to Ancient Greece. The purpose of education is to bring about self-knowledge.
School does nothing to teach or incentivize metacognition or self-knowledge. And why should it? That’s not what it was made for. Never was!
The closest you get is assignments having to do with “analysis” or “critical appraisal” of some subject. But—at least in my experience—that’s just for show. Whenever I seriously scrutinized anything I always got lower grades, like Crichton.
–The only exception to this that I can think of was my Swedish and English teacher during high school. He was the sort of natural teacher who could make his students interested in anything, and genuinely encouraged students to be open-minded and reflective. He was great.
Anyway, it makes sense that things are this way. The industrialists of the 19th century didn’t want independent-minded thinkers; they wanted reliable managers and precise workers. The school system is still built to churn out people like that—people who know how to compute, but not how to think.
People with high metacognition—the sort who, over time, develop a strong self-knowledge—tend to succeed in spite of their schooling; not because of it.
Reason #6: School Turns Independent People into Co-dependent Peons
Like the bed of Procrustes, you’re forced to fit in whether you want to or not.
But a better question is: Do you even want to fit in? With those people?
Haha!
Only losers and weaklings have to fit in.
The strong make their own way in life. You don’t need to make a detailed study of the Savannah to understand that you want to be the apex predator.
Humans are animals too—we just wear suits and skirts to work.
But unlike animals, we work well in different settings. Some people work 10x more effectively alone. Do you?
I can’t answer that for you—and neither can school.
It takes self-knowledge.
Reason #7: School is Full of Propaganda
And it has to be that way.
(How else will you maintain a democracy?)
You cannot get through the density of the propaganda with which the American people, through the dreaded media, have been filled and the horrible public educational system we have for the average person. It’s just grotesque.
—Gore Vidal
It’s different for each country. In Sweden the propaganda is based on outdated socialist ideology (the sort that prompts math teachers to go into rage and threaten to take away 8-year olds’ math books if they use it too much).
In the real world, it is very hard to succeed when you have this sort of mental dysfunction, because it is at odds with reality.
Another example is in the U.S, where many schools are not allowed to teach about evolution or abortion, because crazy Christians prohibit it.
Reason #8: School Doesn’t Teach You How to Think & Develop Your Own Style
In the martial arts world there is a long-standing conflict between the different styles: which style is the “best” one?
–The same goes for acting methods.
There are now acting studios where students are “taught” how to act. Many practitioners, with real-world success under their belt, like David Mamet, believe that acting studios do more harm than they do good.
Maybe you have seen the TV show Actor’s Studio, where James Lipton interviews people who are successful in the movie industry?
In the audience of that show there are hundreds of acting students, all looking at the famous guest with deep admiration, as though the person is a metaphysical guru who inhabits “the secret to acting”.
Little do the members of the audience know that they’re probably about as good actors as the celebrity up on stage is, only that they lack the level of breadth and comprehensivism that the celebrity has.
The celebrity typically knows 10 other skills than just acting–such as promotion, business, networking, public speaking, etc, etc.
The celebrity’s success does not rely solely on his or her acting skills.
Again, the same goes for martial arts. . .
In the martial arts world we now know that MMA is superior to any and all other martial arts (if you can call MMA “a martial art”).
Even if the rules changed, some new type of MMA would still prevail. Why? Because it’s not just one style; it’s the practice of putting many styles together into a unique synthesis that fits the individual fighter.
–And that’s how you become successful at anything in life. Not just fighting.
You have to develop your own style in life by gaining experience and studying other fields than the one you’re in.
You can’t just rely on one thing.
–That’s how you become obsolete, not Future-Proof.
Reason #9: School Gives You a False Certainty about Things You Can’t Know
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.
—Yogi Berra
The memorization of “facts” probably makes up something like 80% of public education. This aspect of public education does more harm than good because…
It can lead to 3 common types of cognitive handicaps:
- Box-thinking: The mistaken notion that you can fit reality into neat boxes pertaining to specific academic disciplines.
- Outdated beliefs: A deeply rooted confirmation bias regarding “facts” and “certitudes” of life and business that may never be uprooted.
- Domain specifity: Conditioning of mental practices convenient in the classroom, but typically useless, or forgotten in real life, because the environment is different.
Any and all three of the above cognitive handicaps breed a sense of “false certainty” where you feel more confident in your abilities and understanding of the world than you deserve to.
You often see it in university graduates who feel entitled to such-and-such a salary for having—as Kyle eloquently put it—jumped through the hoops.
They want to be paid for their grades, not the results they produce.
This “false certainty” is especially rampant among students of macroeconomics, liberal arts, political science, and similar areas–where there are few (if any) real-world litmus tests to test performance against.
This might explain why these people are causing the most ruckus in the social debate (without a track record to back up their claims). One of the worst examples are “Gender-Specialists”.
Reason #9b): School Conditions You into Having an Unhealthy and Irrational Fear of the Unknown
Which student wants to be caught by the teacher not knowing the answer to the question?
No one dares to say, “I don’t know, but if you give me a day I will have the answer for you by tomorrow!”
Public education tricks you into “false certainty” from thinking that everything is knowable or quantifiable.
Worse still: that it’s actually worth investing the time to know or quantify everything before being able to make a decision!
(As if time was not your most important resource.)
In the real world, it’s more important to take action and get movin’ than it is to be 100% certain. Momentum and psychology matter more.
Reason #10: School Indoctrinates False Rules That Handicap You for the Real World
In school you’re not allowed to work the way you want. You have to sit by your desk and do it like the textbook says.
In school you can’t think and say what you want. You might hurt the feelings of the dullards, the immigrants or the [insert other group of currently downtrodden people].
You know what they call taking initiative and being creative in school?
—Cheating!
In the real world, you can “cheat” as much as you want.
You just do what you want, learn what you want, rely on your judgment, make decisions under uncertainty, and take responsibility for your actions.
The rules are, there are no rules.
–Aristotle Onassis
What could be simpler?
The end.
–Ludvig
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Hi,
I am now at the end of my second year of college. I am planning to quit studying for a while, or maybe forever…. Even if I go back to school, i will choose to self fund me education and just take classes for the sake of learning and meeting people not for the sake of earning that useless piece of study
The biggest reason I quit school is not one 10 of the reason. They are more society-based i GUESS. THE BIGGST REASON I QUIT IS I FEEL MY LIFE IS SO EASY AT COLLEGE AND IT IS MAKING ME SOFT. who am i kidding? It is actually me making myself soft. School( my school) is just one way for me to avoid the harsh world
I read a book called “50th law” by 50th cent and ROBERT GREENE. 50th cent started selling drugs on street since the age of 11 years, and later in his early 20s, he became and rapper and the rest of is history. That is a book i strongly recommend everyone to read. One of the best book i have read on self-reliance and how be fearless and the super importance of creating your own empire. You are missing out big time if you don’t get that book now!!!
My opinion on college:
How challenging and fulfilling do u find your college life?
If u do activities in college such as playing in a college sports team, being a club or fraternity leader, etc. or doing activities everyday to challenge and stretch yourself. You are learning, growing and having fun or even making money as a college ambassador. Why quit?
If u are just going to classes and spending the rest of time mostly playing video games and watching TV show(the worst part u are funding your college through student loan or parent money) like what I am doing now from time to time. You should seriously take a step back and make some serious changes.
College isn’t magic pill, how useful it is “all depend on” how much u utilize your everyday at a place called “college” to further your goals and potentials.
Great comment, Yaze.
I listened to 50th Law as an audio book when I was like 21. Great book, but the narrator was not good. I remember some time when he would say stuff like, “Understand: Your purpose is formlessness, be refined and untouchable….” or something like that. It might have read well in written form, but made me laugh when listening to it.
That being said, I totally agree with you it was a very inspirational book. One of my biggest takeaways from it was the intimidation factor, and that 50 doesn’t scare easily, and how it has helped him in negotiation with people who tried to lord over him with their degrees and education.
A comedian that I like used to put it elegantly:
“You study 25 years. Then, when you start your ‘real’ life, you need to spend another 25 years just to unlearn the shit you have just memorized because, otherwise, you can not survive; it’s just impossible!”
Ludvig,
FYI, I don’t normally comment (I’ll admit some of your commentators are pretty smart and I consider myself fairly intelligent!)
This post really spoke to me on so many levels…..
Yes!!!! Education is important just not so much schooling. Ludvig gets it, super fine distinction!!!! I’m from the US and I can honestly say college is not worth it unless you know what you are doing. Most 18 year olds are not bright enough to make that big decision yet. Sadly enough I know several people that are in their late 20s and owe upwards of 100K. Short of robbing a bank or running a crime syndicate I don’t know how they will pay it off.
I actually just bumped into an old classmate a couple hours ago and we were laughing/cursing at this professor who ran a class about altruism (“that hippie class”). I felt like I wrote my best and did my part to try and get an A…..boy was I wrong.
Yeah seriously, the school system is for idiots. Like my old boss said, “Anyone with an asshole can go to college now” (haha).
Haha!
–Thanks for the comment mate.
If Frederick the Great was so smart, then why did he make a socialist system? There’s a reason capitalism has won out as the main economic system in most of the world.
Mike you are falling victim to historian anachronism:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anachronism
As much as I am against socialism (in the modern world), it was definitely the right choice at the time. Frederick made the right decision and his type of socialism was just about what was needed at that period in time to make Prussia the best and strongest country in Europe. Chavez failed in Venezuela because first, idiots can’t copy geniuses. And second, as you remark, capitalism is the way now.
Free market capitalism died in the 1930’s. All modern nations of any significance have managed economies. The only difference is whether the government dictates to the corporations or vice versa.
GREAT article, Ludvig!
I hated school since the firs day! I hated the predominantly reptilian mentality coupled with dogma and herd behaviors for as long as I can remember!
It is very much like getting a job vs creating a business yourself.
Universities serve themselves, NOT their students! Jobs serve the owner, not the employees!
Hi Ludvig,
Great article, as always. Interesting timing too – I’m just finishing up my first year in Engineering classes, and am finding the tedious teaching style to be a bit off-putting. Schools don’t seem to have anything very difficult to teach, so they convolute it through pointless complications and omissions in order to keep students coming back day after day.
Personally, I want to see what can be done when I’m not spending 10 hours a day on make-work to get A’s, and am planning to drop out and work on online business ventures instead. University might be great if you want a stable job working for someone for the rest of your life, but I like to think that it’s possible to do better.
I guess we’ll see. Thanks for the article, great trigger for thinking.
Fantastic Post Ludvig!
I have to agree that the school system today is in shambles! A Dinosaur that is on its last days on earth. I went through Public Schools albeit quite a few years back than i would like to admit but back then the Teachers where much more different than the ones that are Teaching now. I had a few Teachers who actually cared about us learning and most of the time we learned things that were not part of the curriculum.
But all of those things you spoke about above is still true! I learned so much more on my own from when I was a child by doing a lot of reading as well as watching Documentaries on the Public Channels. Even read a few National Geographic books and learned about Cultures and people. I did that because it felt normal to me to learn about things on my own. My parents even bought us an Encyclopedia set that me and my brothers read, learning about people, places and things.
The looks I would get when I would answer a question like “What is the capital of New York State?” most people would say NYC, when in reality its Albany. I would look at them like who could you not know that? Even today ask a younger person where California is on the map and most would not be able to figure it out.
My Public Schooling mostly was learning in what we call a Trade School which teaches you how to work in certain fields and to get a job. This is how I was able to move into technology only because my major while there was in Electronics.
But this never kept me from learning on my own. Self Knowledge is extremely important as it helps anyone to see the world differently. you would be surprised on how many people can’t even do something as simple as changing their flat tire on their car and rather wait hours for the Tow Truck to arrive. I learned to use Map when I drove a delivery van all around NYC during the summer at the age of 16 as well as a Jack Hammer when me and my Dad decided to demolish the garage.
With Self Knowledge I can build and fix computers! Which is what I do now for a living.
I think the worse that schools teach people is helplessness! Waiting for others to come to their rescue rather than going ahead “Balls Deep!” and tackle the problem. I see that helplessness a lot in field that I work in as people become mentally unable to function if they come across a computer problem. The majority of the issues that pop up are user related and can be fixed quickly. Hell you can even Google the problem and I’m sure you will find the solution. But most people will not take the time to learn and would much rather sit there and blame the computer! A machine! How ridiculous is that!
Anyway in the end unless the schools change their views it will be heading much like the Dinosaurs went! To extinction! Even with this new invention called “Charter Schools” its the same old shit just different Masters!
Great post Ludvig!
“Even today ask a younger person where California is on the map and most would not be able to figure it out.”
Haha yeah maybe you have seen this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_pw8duzGUg
Anyways, it is maybe not the most important type of knowledge to know (trivia) but our people’s lack of it reflects poorly on us. Makes me a bit embarrassed when I see videos like that.
Dear Ludwig,
I was one of the very best students in my high school and elemantary school. I am very proud of it, I am now at medical school because of it. But I was always jealous of people with scientific projects in my age, people who gives value to world.
Lately, I made my name on some scientific journals but it was mostly product of networking and running around errands for prof and nother much thinking on my part. Right now, I am trying to come up with scientific project I can look say ‘I am proud of it’. My friends says that I can do it but I need courage. Do you have any advice or motivational words for me?
I’m not Ludvig, but as someone in the STEM field, I have one for you. Think about a puzzle you really, really want to solve and that you would lose sleep if you can’t. You have to obsess with it – and if it happens that the particular puzzle is important enough in your field you’re in. Of course, you need to understand your own limitations and take a problem you actually believe you have the skills to solve. There are always plenty of problems to solve in science with a variety of importance and difficulty. A project you would probably be proud of would be, for example, thinking about a complete new angle to deal with a well-defined problem (personally I like the ones that are clear and very easy to state but have nevertheless no known solution, but that’s me) . It’s all about the puzzles.
Thanks for your advice. It means a lot. I will try to obey it for next 6 months and see what happens.
I really dig the honesty, this Reminds me of a friend of mine except my friend wants to take much more credit and make a bigger deal for his published paper hehe.
Thanks. I used to be shy about it or boast it too. But now I realize it is a common thing
(although I find a bit unethical) and it is better to be honest about it rather than acting with overcompensation.
As a musician, I can relate to Reason #8. Many pianist practise so hard for their entire lives, hoping to win the all-important prestigious Chopin competition in Warsaw that will kickstart their career. And when it doesn’t happen, they’re screwed. It’s not like they are bad pianists, they just aren’t the cream of the crop. So they can still play really well, but the problem is that that’s the only skill they have. (Yet the layman won’t know why their music sounds better than others anyway.)
And then there will be those who study music to become performance majors. It’s not uncommon for these people to think:
1. Enter elite conservatory > 2. the more elite, the better you can hone your skills > 3. better skills = better job
I think it’s foolish to entrust something so very important as our own education into the hands of the school system. Or anyone else for that matter. Yet so many people are relying fully on their uni education, expecting that ‘education’ to do all the heavy lifting. Plus, the more I read and take action, the more I realise just how inadequate school is in preparing me for life.
I liked this article a lot!
Thanks Jeremy.
Btw: The day after you kicked my ass at Badminton, I woke up feeling super sore in my right arm.
I dropped school at 17, best choise i did and will ever do in my life.
*choice;
*Also, capitalise your ‘I’s
At least one benefit of the educational system is proper spelling :)
I would say that maybe it isn’t university that’s that wrong, it’s what people expect from it; for most it’s just a socially acceptable way of spending 3-4 more years fucking around and avoiding taking responsibility for your life. It isn’t a magic pill as many people at the age of 18 just enter following the herd without ever asking why and thinking about do they need it right then. It’s not entirely professors fault, they are just highly knowledgeable people about one specific topic, they usually don’t promise too much and at good universities carefully check if you are good fit for their programme, they usually hate lecturing and delegate it to focus on their research. And we need those people, even if only 1% of them make significant discoveries. The student’s are those who come to them with “shut up and take my money” mentality.
For example: to learn a foreign language (perfectly) you don’t need to spend 3-4 years studying it at the university yet many of girls do because they think that they have talent for languages why in fact they have never put any serious effort into anything and don’t like studying in general (as result of bad previous schooling, weak parents or whatever). As result they get bored translating XIII century books but that’s what studying language and culture of one nation means and the problem was in the expectations. (ok, maybe not the best example).
I think that USA system and college provides much more opportunities compared to Europe as it is easier to switch subject (major), try out things, and they try more to teach ‘critical thinking’ and entrepreneurship. But in general traditional education is largely obsolete concept badly in need of repair and reshaping now when you have unimaginable knowledge in your pocket, literally everything that is available to humankind, but you don’t use it and chose to be addicted rat instead.
So what was I trying to say is that I agree with you but that much of things universities are required to do shouldn’t be their responsibility in the first place because and there can never be one size fits all solution. Everyone is responsible for their own learning.
I agree with you on the U.S system incentivizing switching / trying is a good thing. Helps you get a better sense whether to continue looking into that field.
This is a very interesting topic. I must say that I dont agree 100%.
University isn’t supposed to be a place to educate proffesionals. This use of university is a Contemporary invention. The term “Business School” is almost a contradiction, little can you learn abou entrepeneurship studying. University should, and it was supposed to be a research center for Academics. If you want to lead an academic career, and work in research, then I think University is very important, not so if you want tecnical formation, or to create a business.
In University you can find groups of people who can support you and with them you can expand your ideas. Chicago Boys and Milton Friedman wouldt of been the same if they didnt attend to university.
I agree 100% with you critic to highschool though. I focused on improving myself in highschool. I joined politics and participated in debates and forums. I also kicked my mates asses by keeping a healthy diet wich made me perform better.
Business school = oxymoron.
Haha — I like that. Might steal it for future reference :)
“I focused on improving myself in highschool. I joined politics and participated in debates and forums.”
–Wow, good for you. That’s young.
Having spent 8 years at a university and having gotten a PhD from a leading UK university.
This is why Universities still exist:
– So parents can send their kids there, and fool themselves they are great parents for having done so
– So the students can fool themselves into procrastinating on what they REALLY want to do.
– Stupid social status
Maybe only 0.5-1% of students actually need their degrees for what they want to do. Medical doctors, lawyers, people who want to do academic research STEM subject.
Aside from that…..
USELESS
Hey, it could be worse… you could be deluding yourself over sunk cost to protect your ego ;)
I wouldn’t be so harsh on the educational system. Yes, a lot of things are wrong with it, but it does teach you some fundamental skills that you wouldn’t get otherwise. It’s just up to you to do with that stuff what you will. That’s where self-learning comes in.
I have always taken school as a “teaser” thing, where you learn some basic knowledge and then you should go on your own and explore things that interest you.
In the modern world, there is a need to have some sort of a systemic educational system to teach some fundamental skills. Most people in the world don’t need much beyond that and they don’t even have the motivation to go beyond that.
People who spend their time taking selfies and doing other BS, don’t really care about getting educated, but there needs to be some sort of a system in place, to at least make them somewhat productive.
I attribute much to what I do now to self-education, but I have to say that school has helped me out in many ways as well. There is just no way that as an individual you can come up with a self-learning system that would cover all the basic fundamentals that you need.
You got some cool articles on your site
Thanks :)
“I have always taken school as a “teaser” thing, where you learn some basic knowledge and then you should go on your own and explore things that interest you. ”
–I think that’s the exact right attitude to have. But I never had it, so it didn’t work out so well for me.
Taking education in your own hands is essential to having any kind of personal success, no doubt about it.
In the engineering department at my school there is a phrase commonly repeated: “you will have employers knocking on your door after graduation!”. This is only potentially true…
Many of the students here don’t really learn anything apart from what’s in the curriculum. They do what’s required of them in school yet still believe they will get a well-paying and interesting job after graduation. Not going to happen, unless they start spending their free time on personal projects and such instead of wasting all their time on DotA 2 and TV shows.
I’m in computer science/engineering. If you want to be successful in this field, taking initiative is absolutely vital. Have a personal website. Have a portfolio on GitHub to where you upload your programming projects. Learn things not in the curriculum: machine learning; scientific computing and data analysis; the interlap between statistics and programming; app development; and so on—useful skills.
I’ve only touched on the technological aspect so far. Education is manifold. It does not matter how interesting your work is if you are clueless in other areas:
* Eat well and lift, or else you’ll be low on testosterone and gain less respect in the eyes of your peers.
* Pick up a book instead of a newspaper, or else you’ll stand convinced by leftist media that daddy government wishes the best for you and that unregulated immigration is a great idea.
* Learn about male-female sexual dynamics and the current state of the world in this regard, don’t live blissfully blind to the fact that you as a man don’t have any reproductive rights whatsoever, or else you’ll be left paying child support and alimony to the mother of your children (whom you are not allowed to see more than once a month). Good luck getting out of that if you’re not already rich.
* Study at least some psychology and philosophy to facilitate metacognition.
Also, as you often repeat, study history, and read SGM ;)
Great one, Ludvig. Excuse my somewhat incoherent rant and potential typos, I’m on my mobile.
Really good comment, Alex. Thank you. Not incoherent, lots of useful advice!
Insightful comment and all, thanks! Oh and by the way, could you edit the “live blissfully blind” to say “don’t live blissfully blind” instead, so that the comment is not confusing to future readers? If you have the time, of course.
Also, interesting about the history of schooling. I didn’t know that the concept of universities was that “new”.
Alexander, great comment mate. Good to see a real programmer for once. Getting MinGW GCC to compile was one of the hardest things ever, I take it as a C dev you’re using Linux/Unix/Mac?
Un question pour vous… as someone who obviously has his head screwed on, why haven’t you done something commercial?
I guarantee if you made a company money with either front or back end programming, you’ll be 90% more valuable as a team member.
Programming in C on Windows can be a pain in the arse. Yeah, I use Mac OS X, works perfectly for my purposes (complete Unix system, easy package management with Homebrew and easy to carry around and work with).
I’m actually working on learning web development (using Python with Flask) properly at the moment, hehe… It’s something I’ve neglected for a good while, but yeah, it is very important to know, especially for commercial purposes.
DUDE DON’T LEARN FUCKING FLASK, you’re wasting your time. Ruby on Rails is where it’s at. Rails is the millionaire’s club, here’s the guy who made it: http://david.heinemeierhansson.com/ “We split our time between Chicago, Malibu, and Marbella.”
Rails will make you a billionaire far more than “Flask”. Let’s see what was programmed in Rails… Twitter, Groupon, AirBnB to name 3. There’s a HUGE company in UK called Sage (£1bn turnover). They’re moving their customers to a “cloud” system………. wonder what it’s programmed in? Yep. Check this out: https://convertkit.baremetrics.com/ — programmed in? Yep.
J’ai plus experience de la Rails et je suis un fanatique pour cette. Drop Flask and go “all in” on Rails.
A little bird tells me that a new version of SGM might be programmed in Rails, too.
As counterpoint, Ruby on Rails is great but Node JS might be as good or better. Ideally learn both, but you should probably know Javascript before Ruby, and then it’s easier to get into Node next rather than Rails. Ruby is pretty popular and offers good salary potential, but Node seems to perform better and is more natural to C programmers. But really, both are great.
A dozen times ‘yes.’
You’re on the money; of my electrical engineering peers, only 10% or less spend their free time working on relevant projects and self-learning instead of playing League of Legends, watching Game of Thrones, or even getting high/drunk. Very few exercise, eat well, talk to men, talk to women, read history, read psychology, or read outside material on their school subjects; they just expect professors to teach them everything they need to know to pass the exam, then expect to find a high-paying job right out of school.
That just means our advantage is greater!
How could you get into a business school / good university if you didn’t have good grades?
I find it fishy.
SAT score.
Lol forgot about that sorry man.
Hey Ludvig! Never knew the origin of the schooling system, as you explained it in historical context makes more sense. Thank you!
1) Studying political sience I see it as a biggest curse and blessing together. You are right, I was forced at my uni to memorize outdated theories, have never been taught anything (almost, kid you not) with practical value (in the real world it always worked differently as I saw later) and spent hours to be trained as a well-fitting academian.
2) , 3) I realize the insignificance of the schooling system after my 2nd year,. I finished the bachelor and got out of there to the real world. If something UNI taught me is , what doesn´t work. That was the blessing. Rigid, conformist systems produce fragility. That is why most of my peers can´t get the job after completing masters in political science. Learning what doesnt work and you don´t want was great lesson.
Metacognition: The fact is also, that I could do much more in the school in terms of being contrarian, seeking the like-minded individuals and max the value for myself.
Q: In further series , it would ineterest me to know:
– your tips on how to maximize the value from the not-so-effective school system
– would you advice yourself to go to the university again and what would be criteria for choosing an institution
“Rigid, conformist systems produce fragility. ”
–Can you elaborate?
I will (hopefully) answer both your questions in the next article.
The easiest way for you to understand that is to buy a copy of “The Black Swan” and “Antifragile” by Nicholas Nassim Taleb. I think.
True, it´s derived from Taleb.
By saying Schooling system is fragile I meant it hates randomness and volatility. Example would be your Thesis choice which didn´t conform to academic standards. Teacher didn´t like your initiative. What if everyone would start doing that? More work, change of the thesis grading policy, etc.
Instead to expose students to the real world problems, the system often goes with fake security – learning not very useful skills, which are easily graded, having rigid rules on how the seminar papers should look like etc.
Then the fragility is transferred to the graduates who come to the job market with unadequate skillset and unprepared to life..
Experienced type of knowledge is antifragile = small mistakes are acceptable, learning by trial-and-error, avoiding big losses
Institutionalized academia knowledge is fragile = small mistakes are punished, big mistakes aka loosing later in job market are hidden traps
Hope I managed to clear myself, it´s definitely not this white/black dichotomy but Antifragile is good concept to look at the different systems based on their relationship with error and randomness.
Please explain and expand what you mean here when you say this:
“This is a Really Shitty Final Rite of Passage
We need a new one which is appropriate for the 21st century.”
The final rite of passage is death. How about an intermediate rite? I’m in no hurry here.
You say people with high metacognition become successful despite their education. So you mean that a person who later gets famous and successful at business doesn’t become that way because he/she has a prestigious degree but because of self-knowledge in general, which improves trial-and-error in business? Also, what about the network one might gain from a prestigious degree?
The network you gain from a degree often lacks breadeth. Those people followed the exact formula, provided through their education, and there are high chances that thinking for themselves is difficult, or impossible.
Why not build your network through trade groups, conferences, submitting work to people and becoming interested in people? This way you will find more self-aware people who have the drive to forge their own path.
( I have done this through the Internet. Though there is much untapped potential in the “real world” if I could finance visiting conferences and events.)
Yes, a degree can be used stregiclly for fastrackjng yourself into a network. The question: Is that network based in quality or quantity? Are those relationships, at their core, beneficial?
Your answer depends in what you seek from your network.
Was just about to provide several counterexamples from my experiences as a first year undergrad at Stanford until I read the very end when you mentioned “elite schools.” Although I have to admit my high school experience had many characteristics that you describe (and I even went to an “elite” high school!).
Looking forward to the next article!
Elite schools — nice!
Would be interesting to hear more about your experience with that, relative to other people you’ve met, and how your education + classmates seem to be differ.
I am of the opinion that any negative experience is a learning experience. All the negative parts of schooling are just a reflection of the way humans are deep down. That is never going to change and you will encounter the same types of deffects in other areas of your life, whether work, play or interpersonal relations… Human nature is the way it is…
With any experience, you always need to take the mindset of “what can I learn from it”…