Ah, the perennial question haunting every dinner table with a teenager in tow: To uni or not to uni? That is the question. And, in the grand tradition of answering questions with more questions, we find ourselves pondering the worth of formal education in an era where YouTube tutorials can teach us quantum physics, and LinkedIn Learning is just a subscription away.
It’s clear that formal education is being disrupted. A lot of people are seeking out alternative education sources, mainly with the goal of making money. This is a perfectly reasonable goal, as higher education has, for the most part, turned into an economic investment.
Why college doesn’t work for many people
A lot of people can’t afford to spend 4 years AND 100,000$ AND not make money for that period of time, to then make the same amount of money they could if they just started working immediately. The opportunity cost of going to college is massive.
The demand for income producing skills has not gone away. The formal supply of it has. Most university paths simply do not offer an income producing skill. This is why people are seeking out alternatives.
However, if without perspicacity, young people might just be walking into a different trap.
Hustler’s University, “Here in my garage” and the course economy
Of course, whenever there is a vulnerability, there are forces that will try to exploit it. We shall not forget the legendary “Here in my garage” video that might’ve been the first video to really make us hate Youtube ads. Tai Lopez, the infamous creator of it, was one of the first people in the digital marketing and course creation spaces.
Years later, we got Hustler’s University, which, at the moment of writing this post, has over 220,000 members paying 50$ per month.
Tai Lopez walked so that Andrew Tate could run.
Without going in depth into the character of any individual person, it is clear that people like Tai Lopez and Andrew Tate are marketing geniuses. That’s what they are first and foremost. The educational value they provide comes second to their marketing skills and their business (which is not to say that the same doesn’t hold for universities necessarily).
At the end of the day, it makes sense – to sell a course on how to make money, well, you need to show a Lambo to catch attention. But what these people are experts on is MARKETING. So if they are not teaching you how to do that, you have no business paying for a course titled “12 rules for life”.
But the low price of around 50$ per course is very affordable compared to a typical university education. Not only that, these people will always emphasize the obsolete knowledge you will get from a university, while they can provide, new, fresh, proven methods of generating dollars, right here, right now.
They need to change your perception of higher education to suit their needs, so of course they won’t be telling you about the good sides of it.
What they also won’t be telling you is what to do when it’s four years later, and you still have not generated any money, you’re still laying on your couch smoking weed, and complaining about how university is bad.
What they will say is – well, you should’ve worked harder. And you should have. But you should’ve at least known yourself better to get a job at Starbucks, than to keep watching courses on how to be a better person.
A case for university
Of course, if you want to go into medicine, law, or any other field that requires formal education, you have no choice. With things like engineering, there are cases to be made for both sides. Although it seems like the bootcamp-into-six-figures-dev-job era is over. IT companies have gone back to preferring university-educated, experienced engineers.
Aside from tough economic conditions, there is a very simple explanation for this.
Going to college, being forced to take mandatory course work, broadens your intellectual curiosity. You end up taking things that you thought you’d like, but don’t, things that you though you wouldn’t like, but end up loving. You take some courses just because you think they will be a breeze, but they end up kicking your ass, and some things that you thought you’d be terrible at, but end up acing.
You become competent at handling various new problems you are presented with. You learn how to learn. With engineering, for example, your employer can be confident that you have at least encountered all the things that will be relevant for your job.
I do think that broader education, with assignments, homework and everything is really valuable to someone in that phase of life (the age of a typical undergrad student). Even if it’s a liberal arts education. Because at the end of the day, you often don’t know what you want. It is absurd to think that you have a comprehensive self-awareness of your strengths and weaknesses. You simply don’t.
What about student loans?
I’ve recently listened to a podcast featuring Rory Sutherland, an advertising executive and the founder of the behavioral science practice. I could not phrase this better myself, so here is a full excerpt of his view on student loans, and how they could be alleviated.
“Reducing student loans for individuals who’ve worked for one or two years before attending university could be transformative. Historically, a degree from a prestigious university was sufficient for securing a good job but not mandatory. However, as higher education expanded, having a degree became necessary yet insufficient, compelling some towards academia who might be better suited or happier entering the workforce directly. By reserving or discounting university places for those with work experience, we could not only enable some to discover their passion in the business world, potentially foregoing university altogether but also establish a new social norm that breaks the automatic sequence of school to university. Moreover, requiring proof of the ability to function in the real world before pursuing higher education could recalibrate our valuation of tacit knowledge and practical experience, challenging the prevailing narrative that formal education is the sole enhancer of human capital.”
Are you just lazy?
Well, it doesn’t get simpler that this, folks.
For a lot of people, not going to college, and more importantly, not doing good and giving it your best if you decide to go, and blaming it on the outdated principles of traditional education, is done purely out of laziness.
What I’m trying to say is, don’t use all the bad things about university as an excuse to give up on life and start being lazy. If you decide not to go to university, or drop out, the next four years should be spent working hard, developing yourself, and utilizing the freedom you have to actually do the things college would’ve prevented you from doing.