Conventional wisdom says that more education is better.
But I think we need less.
People should be able to find their first jobs with 12-18 months of vocational training. Then, once they're financially stable, we should encourage them to continue their education.
There are two kinds of education, but we treat them like the same thing.
1) Vocational training: Schools should help students find a job quickly.
2) Becoming cultured: A high-minded approach centered around art, music, and philosophy.
Finish #1, work for a bit, then start #2.
The second kind of education should not be mandatory, even though it's more interesting.
It's an "erudite" approach that trains you for intellectual conversations by giving you a solid foundation in ancient languages, history, mathematics, astronomy, art, music, and literature.
Nassim Taleb makes a wonderful distinction between the two approaches:
1) Education to do things: Engineering, medicine, accounting, law, and plumbing.
2) Education to be civilized: Literature, philosophy, poetry, abstract math, history, and stamp collecting.
It's a return to the Latin word for school: "scola."
In Greek, the word translates to leisure. But it's different than how we define leisure today. The leisure of school is a reward for daily work, where students nurture their souls and contemplate life's biggest questions.
I'm reminded of this quote from Charlie Munger, who encourages people to make a solid chunk of change as fast as possible.
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