WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.480 --> 00:00:02.839 You don't need college to learn and learn stuff. Okay, 2 00:00:03.439 --> 00:00:07.080 everything is available basically for free. You can learn anything 3 00:00:07.120 --> 00:00:10.240 you want for free. It is not a question of learning. 4 00:00:12.160 --> 00:00:15.759 There is a value that colleges have, which is, like, 5 00:00:17.359 --> 00:00:21.000 you know, seeing whether somebody's is can somebody work hard 6 00:00:21.039 --> 00:00:24.760 at something including a bunch of sort of annoying homework 7 00:00:24.760 --> 00:00:29.160 assignments and still do their homework assignments and kind of 8 00:00:29.160 --> 00:00:34.000 soldier through and get it done. You know. That's that's 9 00:00:34.039 --> 00:00:38.520 like the main value of college. And then also you know, 10 00:00:38.079 --> 00:00:40.479 if you probably want to hang around with a bunch 11 00:00:40.479 --> 00:00:42.679 of people your own age for a while instead of 12 00:00:42.679 --> 00:00:47.159 going right into the workforce. So I think colleges are 13 00:00:47.159 --> 00:00:49.600 basically for fun and to prove you can do your chores, 14 00:00:49.679 --> 00:00:54.520 but they're not for learning. But there is a requirement 15 00:00:54.560 --> 00:00:57.960 of evidence of exceptional ability, like you just can't if 16 00:00:57.960 --> 00:01:00.600 you're trying to do something exceptional, they must have evidence 17 00:01:00.640 --> 00:01:03.880 of exceptional ability. I don't consider going to college evidence 18 00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:07.840 of exceptional ability. In fact, ideally you dropped out and 19 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:12.959 did something. I mean, obviously, you know, we just look 20 00:01:12.959 --> 00:01:15.680 at like, you know, Gas is a pretty smart guy. 21 00:01:15.760 --> 00:01:19.719 He dropped out jobs pretty smart. He dropped out you 22 00:01:19.760 --> 00:01:24.319 know Larry Allison, smart guy, he dropped out like obviously 23 00:01:24.439 --> 00:01:28.120 not needed. Generally, you want education to be like as 24 00:01:28.120 --> 00:01:31.040 close to a video game as possible, like a good 25 00:01:31.079 --> 00:01:33.680 video game. Like you do not need to tell your 26 00:01:33.760 --> 00:01:37.040 kid to play video games. They will play video games 27 00:01:37.079 --> 00:01:40.840 on autopilot all day. So if you can make it 28 00:01:40.920 --> 00:01:47.079 interactive and engaging, then you can make education far more 29 00:01:47.079 --> 00:01:50.359 compelling and far easier to do. So you really want 30 00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:54.519 to disconnect the whole grade level three the thing from 31 00:01:54.840 --> 00:01:57.879 the subjects, allow people to progress at the fastest pace 32 00:01:57.879 --> 00:02:03.159 that they can, or interested in in each subject. It 33 00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:06.799 seems like a really obvious thing. I mean, I think 34 00:02:06.959 --> 00:02:12.560 like most teaching today is a lot like vaudeville, where's 35 00:02:12.800 --> 00:02:14.919 and as a results, just not that compelling. It's like 36 00:02:14.960 --> 00:02:17.680 somebody's standing up there and lecturing to you, and they've 37 00:02:17.719 --> 00:02:19.479 done the same lecture several years in a row. They're 38 00:02:19.520 --> 00:02:22.800 not necessarily all that engaged or in doing it. Do 39 00:02:22.840 --> 00:02:26.879 you agree with Peter Tiel about the unnecessariness of university 40 00:02:27.080 --> 00:02:33.319 higher education? A university education is often unnecessary. That's not 41 00:02:33.360 --> 00:02:37.560 to say it's unnecessary for all people, But I think 42 00:02:38.280 --> 00:02:41.319 you've probably learned about as much for the vast majority 43 00:02:41.319 --> 00:02:43.599 of what you're gonna learn there in the first two years, 44 00:02:44.159 --> 00:02:47.000 and most of it is from your classmates. Now. Now, 45 00:02:47.039 --> 00:02:50.479 for a lot of companies, they do want to see 46 00:02:50.479 --> 00:02:54.759 the completion of the degree because they're looking for someone 47 00:02:54.800 --> 00:02:57.479 who's going to persevere and see it through to the end, 48 00:02:57.680 --> 00:03:01.199 and that's actually what's important to them. So it really 49 00:03:01.199 --> 00:03:03.240 depends on what somebody's goal is. If the goal is 50 00:03:03.280 --> 00:03:06.280 to start a company, I would say, no point in 51 00:03:06.520 --> 00:03:12.159 finishing college. So I think that's how it should be, 52 00:03:12.280 --> 00:03:14.400 and it shouldn't be that you've got like these grades 53 00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:18.479 where people move in lockstep, and so everyone goes through 54 00:03:19.039 --> 00:03:25.199 you know, it goes like normally we'll go through English, math, science, 55 00:03:25.240 --> 00:03:27.120 and so forth, from like fifth grade to sixth grade 56 00:03:27.120 --> 00:03:30.280 to seventh grade. Like it's an assembly line, but people 57 00:03:30.319 --> 00:03:33.960 are not objects on an assembly line. That's a ridiculous notion. 58 00:03:34.319 --> 00:03:37.400 So how would you educate your five boys? Actually? I 59 00:03:37.439 --> 00:03:40.439 created a little school. Yeah, what kind of school could 60 00:03:40.479 --> 00:03:42.560 you describe for that? Sure's I mean it's small. It's 61 00:03:42.599 --> 00:03:45.240 only got fourteen kids now and it'll have twenty kids 62 00:03:45.280 --> 00:03:50.360 in September. It's called ad Astra, which means to the stars. 63 00:03:50.520 --> 00:03:53.919 That's maybe a bit different from from most other schools 64 00:03:54.400 --> 00:03:57.360 is that there aren't any grades. There's no like grade one, 65 00:03:57.400 --> 00:03:59.719 grade two, grade three type of thing, and making all 66 00:03:59.759 --> 00:04:02.879 its children go in the same grade at the same time, 67 00:04:02.960 --> 00:04:05.479 like an assembly line. I know, you know, because some 68 00:04:05.520 --> 00:04:09.520 people love English or languages, some people love math, some 69 00:04:09.560 --> 00:04:13.960 people love music, and different abilities at different times, it 70 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:17.839 makes more sense to cater the education to match their 71 00:04:17.839 --> 00:04:22.639 aptitudes and abilities like That's one principle. Another is that 72 00:04:22.800 --> 00:04:27.120 it's important to teach teach problem solving, or teach to 73 00:04:27.160 --> 00:04:29.959 the problem, not to the tools. So this would be like, 74 00:04:30.959 --> 00:04:36.199 let's say you're trying to teach people about how engines work, 75 00:04:36.360 --> 00:04:39.680 or you know, you could start by a more traditional 76 00:04:39.720 --> 00:04:41.240 approach would be to say, well, we're going to teach 77 00:04:41.240 --> 00:04:45.839 you all about screwdrivers and wrenchers, and you're going to 78 00:04:45.879 --> 00:04:48.199 have a course on screwdrivers, a course on wrenches and 79 00:04:48.279 --> 00:04:51.279 all these things. And it's this is a very difficult 80 00:04:51.439 --> 00:04:53.279 way to do it. A much better way it would 81 00:04:53.319 --> 00:04:55.519 be like here's the engine. Now let's take it apart. 82 00:04:55.519 --> 00:04:56.959 How are we going to take it apart? Oh, you 83 00:04:56.959 --> 00:04:59.240 need a screwdriver. That's what the screw drivers for. You 84 00:04:59.240 --> 00:05:03.000 need a wrench the wrenches for and then a very 85 00:05:03.040 --> 00:05:05.680 important thing happens, which is that the relevance of the 86 00:05:05.680 --> 00:05:08.600 tools becomes. It seems to be going pretty well. I 87 00:05:08.600 --> 00:05:10.480 mean the kids really love going to school. I think 88 00:05:10.519 --> 00:05:13.360 that's a good sign, you know. I mean I hated 89 00:05:13.399 --> 00:05:15.160 going to school when I was a kid who was torture. 90 00:05:16.279 --> 00:05:19.759 So the fact that they like, they actually think vacations 91 00:05:19.759 --> 00:05:23.399 are too long, like they want to go back to school. Yeah, exactly. 92 00:05:23.920 --> 00:05:27.319 I know if you think, like what is education, Like 93 00:05:27.360 --> 00:05:30.879 you're basically downloading data and algorithms into your brain, and 94 00:05:31.639 --> 00:05:36.480 it's actually amazingly bad in conventional education because like it 95 00:05:36.480 --> 00:05:38.720 shouldn't be like this huge chore. Like the more you 96 00:05:38.759 --> 00:05:44.879 can gamify the process of learning, the better. And I 97 00:05:44.920 --> 00:05:47.600 think unfortunately, like a lot of education is very bored brilliant. 98 00:05:48.879 --> 00:05:52.439 You've got someone standing up there kind of lecturing at 99 00:05:52.439 --> 00:05:55.120 people and they've done the same lecture of twenty years 100 00:05:55.160 --> 00:05:57.480 in a row, and they're not very excited about it. 101 00:05:57.639 --> 00:06:00.680 And that like enthusiasm, you know, is conveyed to the 102 00:06:00.680 --> 00:06:03.519 students that they're not very excited about it. They don't 103 00:06:03.519 --> 00:06:05.519 know why they're there, Like why are we learning this? 104 00:06:05.600 --> 00:06:07.839 Stuff we don't even know why. In fact, I think 105 00:06:07.839 --> 00:06:09.319 a lot of things people learn it probably there's no 106 00:06:09.319 --> 00:06:12.959 point in learning them because they never use them in 107 00:06:13.040 --> 00:06:13.480 the future.