Recently I heard and read many prominent entrepreneurs, such as Peter Thiel, co-founder of Pay-Pal and the author of the highly regarded book on startups “Zero to One” or Richard Branson, expressing very critical views of traditional, academic education. Thiel has completed both college and law school, while Branson never went to college, so the view seems to be relatively independent of their personal background. And of course, it is not just these two famous people, who believe that the conventional education is deeply flawed and, in a nutshell, one should take responsibility for his/her own learning. This view is so popular, that sometimes after seeing various infographics online, it seems that dropping out of school is requirement for success.
I think that this certainly applies to someone, who wants to become a photographer nowadays. The technology and the whole paradigm of content creation and production are developing so fast, that I cannot see how a school curriculum can truly keep up with it. Beside, there is a vast amount of resources available online and in print, so one only needs to be willing to learn.
Having said that, I see a huge benefit in formal education. Taking the example of photography, I think it would be of great benefit for a future professional to take formal classes in communications and business, not to mention fine art.
While Peter Thiel appears not to hold learning for the sake of learning in high regard, I believe that learning how to learn (note the difference) is very valuable. From the historical perspective, brilliant individuals like Thiel, Branson or Musk would always exist. They become personally successful and make great contributions to society. However, this kind of brilliance of a few individuals is different from the intellectual and creative potential of a sizeable slice of the population – people, who accumulated this capacity through receiving the highest possible education, often over multiple generations (i.e. children benefitting from the education received by parents). No doubt, maintaining the highest level of education for a large part of the population is very expensive for society. This is partly because this kind of educational system is more or less equally open to a wide range of individuals. Of course, one could argue that the higher education is very competitive, but the system certainly serves not just the highly capable and motivated people like Thiel or Musk. As Tolstoy’s character from “Anna Karenina” Konstantin Levin said about multiple generations of educated aristocrats, “talent and intellect, of course is another matter.” Perhaps, education is valuable precisely because the society benefits from it, even in an indirect way, even if an individual, who receives the education, doesn’t realize that he/she needs it.
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