Wow, this was a fascinating read.

As a former Edtech founder interested, I was proud to see the shift in academic language to “skills” and “providing student’s value.” We worked hard for that.

The “business-ification” of higher education has one virtue - which is a return to the idea that students are a meaningful participant in what matters in defining education.

It’s limited to viewing them as consumers (and parents as buyers) which is very dated. Today’s average college freshmen is 27, a single parent, working full time, and paying their own way.

But it at least acknowledges that we graduate students from high school with almost zero discovery time for their passions and interests. I recognize there’s a lot of debate here on whether those matter (just “be good at something and you’ll be passionate about it” is a common counter-point to “find your dream vocation”), but it does require very specific skills to learn to answer those questions for yourself. Skills take time to develop.

The humanities continue to be, despite their post-modern vernacular, the heartbeat of Enlightenment era thinking where all we need is to “give students the right content and they’ll have a more elevated understanding of themselves and the world.” Anything that pulls the tools kits they’ve developed into “right now” application is a step forward.

It also reflects the Boomer leadership domination in effect everywhere - a generation who, mostly, cannot conceive of a world where the content humanity produced before is eclipsed in both size and (potentially) importance every day - very soon to be every hour - globally.

As we enter humanity’s global journey into living in perpetually exponential times, finding resonance in the voices of the past is vital and comforting. We see we are no different than our ancestors. Every child should have the benefit of meeting a mentor in the biography of someone they see themselves in. Education institutions don’t have that as a goal (they have “canon”) but perhaps one day they will.

The concept of an institution is shifting to reflect its true nature - an amorphous amalgamation of today’s opinions tied to an organization that has to find a way to function using yesterday’s decisions.

The humanities are Madonna. Swift is the representation, for multiple generation, that playing your own game is possible & lucrative as a founder. She is Gen Alpha’s Steve Jobs. When you are the founder you get to care about what you want to care about, write about what you want to write about, and advocate for what matters to you. All you need is a team, a community, and compelling experiences worth buying.

That’s not just my economic philosophy. It’s my political, spiritual, and social justice playbook as well. The more people own “the means of production” as their own commercial entity, the faster they learn to prize adaptability and a set of values that enable them to chart their own destiny.

I see it as the synthesize of capitalism, socialism, communism, and a host of others. To the extent any philosophy has a practical implication, that is a tool a founder can try & learn from.

“Me, inc.” is the last hope I see for a century of citizens herded into becoming consumers.

The heart of it all is agency. The data on student agency is unequivocal. The more agency, the greater the learning and the more unique the outcomes. In a world where the rate of change is accelerating, those two are pillars of survival & success.