Somebody needs to build a parallel education stack, from top to bottom. The current one is just too broken.

There’s an incredible new input to education (learn anything for free with AI!) and a very different world in terms of needed skills (and economic realities) upon graduation. Against a legacy cost curve that seemingly is inflating to infinity and is immune to productivity gains.

Here’s a math course at Exeter and the introductory, mandatory Biology class at Andover. Andover and Exeter are two of the “best” high schools in America, something that other schools try their best to emulate. The kids that go there want to go to a “good” college so must pretend to enjoy / agree with these courses in order to get the grades and recommendations to get into the “good” colleges. Got a C in Biology? Take a stand against the English teacher who generates grades based on vibes? No good school for you!

The “good” colleges thus are increasingly filled either with people who have excelled at preference falsification and politics, or who genuinely believe in Lysenkoism.

It’s also why college grade inflation is not surprising. Force everyone to take hardcore quantum mechanics and grades will deflate. But the students who have perfected themselves through superficial perfectionism have a real skill (superficial perfectionism!) and will continue that throughout college and life. It just stops accruing benefits outside of academia.