Disclaimer
Your children can continue attending classes. However, as responsible producers of equipment for the public system, it’s essential to understand what dataset is being loaded into it.
For decades, schools and universities have prepared individuals to work within the system. But now, knowledge is depreciating rapidly, machines are taking over traditional jobs, and individuals must choose whether to become an interface for algorithms or a truly sought-after specialist in their field.
Alexander Aremefe, a crypto polymath, shares his thoughts on how to take the latter path with ForkLog readers.
A Wrong Turn
Let’s start by recalling how the Industrial Revolution began.
A young spinner sits in one corner, spinning flax. In another corner, her mother weaves with the finished threads, while a grandmother advises on the proper technique. In a fourth corner, a cradle holds a daughter, destined for a similar future.
In the evening, the husband returns home and announces that a certain John Kay has patented the flying shuttle, which will revolutionize weaving. Don’t worry, the girl in the cradle will also weave, as it will be another fifty years before Edmund Cartwright invents the mechanical loom in 1785. However, the Industrial Revolution has begun, marking a mass shift from manual labor to machine work.
After the loom's invention, weavers began working so quickly that spinners couldn’t keep up with their material needs. This shortage of raw materials forced inventors to create mechanical spinning machines, such as James Hargreaves’ famous Jenny.
Of course, machines do nothing on their own. Even today, to generate an image of Labubu scolding Michael Saylor, you need to write a prompt.
Labubu scolding Michael Saylor. Data: ForkLog / DALL·E.Machines produce goods that are sold for profit. This formula works at both the individual and state levels. To earn more, production must increase, which requires more machines and, consequently, more operators. But where will they come from?
The state found the answer — schools.
A Call for Teachers
But these aren’t the schools that teach how to learn.
Most educational institutions follow the class-based system of Jan Amos Comenius, which creates disciplined workers rather than thinkers. “The bell is for the teacher, not the student” is a perfect setup for a future cog in the vast industrial machine with gears of endless production cycles. For those who struggle with learning, there’s punishment, association with the delinquent camp, and ridicule reminiscent of the cartoon “Barankin, Be a Man.”
Yet, a teenager is a future full-fledged member of society, and they need a chance to improve. The army offers such a chance, where disobeying strict hierarchy and failing to follow orders can earn you not just a failing grade but a badge with a star on your back.
Both institutions aim to integrate individuals into the system. If you don’t want to consume education, it will be forced into your head by those who have already absorbed it and become staunch advocates of such “enlightenment” methods.
The evaluation system essentially determines whether you will join the club of prestigious university graduates or drive an old garbage truck on the outskirts of your hometown. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this, as long as success isn’t idolized.
Even in Palo Alto — the unofficial capital of Silicon Valley — a spate of suicides among high school students has become a troubling testament to the price of the relentless pursuit of success. For many, preparing for college or university admission involves not only tutoring sessions but also taking medications to enhance concentration.
The situation is equally grim on the other side of the world — in China. There, the main terror for students is known as Gaokao. During its administration, transportation is restricted nationwide, and police are deployed to ensure absolute silence.
On Reddit, users describe how in the months leading up to this exam, they study around the clock, taking breaks only for sleep and meals. One user claims that his school had paid IV drips with nutrient solutions to allow students to study longer without breaks for food.
For those who don’t succeed, there’s Maotanchang — a small town in Anhui province where schools operate in a barracks-style regime, specializing in giving students another year to retake the exam. Students come from all over China. This isn’t about education; it’s about trying not to fall out of a system that has already rendered its verdict.
A Diploma Under the Corner of the Wardrobe
The system doesn’t end at the schoolyard. It acts like a bully, spitting pen caps and declaring that nothing good awaits you. Ahead lies the employer, and if you don’t plan to start your own business, listen closely: is the enchanting music of someone else’s flute playing in the distance?
Your diploma shows potential employers what you are willing to do to achieve someone else’s goals. For instance, in the U.S., a year of undergraduate study at Yale costs about $94,100. The full program totals nearly $380,000. Of course, elite education can be obtained for free, but you must prove that your family’s annual income does not exceed $75,000, score the maximum on the SAT, obtain recommendations from school teachers, apply, wait, and hope to be among those chosen by the admissions committee.
Regardless, you must prove to the system that you are willing to play by its rules: either pay for your education or flawlessly navigate all selection stages.
Once you obtain your diploma, you become part of a vast community of individuals who have taken the same path. However, knowledge alone does not guarantee employability. If years of study were not accompanied by practical experience, the main acquisition becomes not a profession but the ability to meet the system’s demands and play by its rules.
With this baggage, you find yourself in line for an interview alongside dozens of graduates who studied the same programs, took the same exams, and earned the same degree.
Nobel laureate in economics Michael Spence suggested back in the 1970s that we view diplomas not merely as proof of knowledge but as signals for employers. While the number of educated individuals is low, this signal helps differentiate candidates. However, as diplomas become commonplace, their value begins to decline.
This has led economically developed countries to experience a structural crisis: we lack people to drive harvesters for grain collection, yet we have an excess of those who can fill out paperwork about labor shortages in agriculture. Young Americans pursue diplomas as if following the Pied Piper, accumulating student debt exceeding $1.7 trillion.
We Don’t Need You
The system expects you to return and work off your debt.
It doesn’t matter — to the state that provided your education or to society that places its hopes on you.
After school and university, you can reproduce knowledge — and that’s it. If you decide to work in your field, it may even benefit society. The likelihood of this increases with the acquisition of a unique skill — for example, the ability to accurately identify the middle and upper notes of perfume oils.
The problem is that once a skill is acquired by a broad audience, its value plummets: just recall the recent oversaturation of the market with law school graduates. The same is happening today with IT specialists. You are no longer needed: LLMs reproduce any knowledge much faster; they don’t need to save for an apartment or take a child to daycare. The only thing a language model cannot do today is take responsibility for its decisions.
This highlights the primary need that has changed little since the days of the first machines. The world still needs people willing to take responsibility for the work of machines and the results of their labor. According to The Future of Jobs Report 2025, by 2030, artificial intelligence will eliminate around 92 million jobs, but it will also create about 170 million new ones.
Machines will take on more tasks, but responsibility will remain human. If you want to be useful to the system, you must become its external interface — the one who makes decisions, evaluates consequences, and takes responsibility for the outcome.
I Don’t Want to Be an Interface
Whether you like it or not, the system has already decided for you.
Your diploma may serve you in two ways: either to earn money and buy a new wardrobe or to prop up the leg of an old one to keep it from wobbling. A degree alone does not guarantee employment. If you’re not willing to gamble years spent on education, there is an alternative.
Today, skills and experience are valued more than knowledge. Any information is only valuable until it can be obtained in seconds online. What truly matters is what you can do without prompts, searches, or ready-made answers.
If you think this is where an advertisement for yet another online school or course will follow, you’ve developed a certain skepticism: this is typically where something is sold. But there will be no sales here. Alternatives will be presented.
- Unschooling. This type of education fosters curiosity and a desire for exploration in children. If you choose to guide your children down this path, keep in mind that it’s not a replacement for education but a side quest that helps them integrate into the system while preserving their childhood interest in learning. Many adults can no longer regain this skill: years of life have trained us to seek the right answers instead of asking our own questions. But it’s not too late for your children.
- Self-directed Learning. The concept’s author, Gerald Grow, views it as a gradual process where the learner goes through several stages of developing independence. At the first stage, they depend on a mentor: they lack sufficient knowledge, have little understanding of the subject, and haven’t formulated goals. Over time, the learner takes on more responsibility, becoming “self-directed” and transforming from a passive recipient of knowledge into an active participant in the educational process. This concept is suitable for people of all ages.
- Bootcamp. A more intensive format for acquiring knowledge than traditional courses, and in some ways, a modern equivalent of educational camps like Maotanchang, which we mentioned earlier. You immerse yourself in a learning environment for a set period alongside others pursuing the same goal. Unlike exam preparation, the aim here is not to correct past mistakes but to master a specific practical skill. This format requires resources: intensive programs can last several months, sometimes up to four. During this time, you won’t become a doctor or engineer, but you can certainly learn a sought-after tool — for example, programming in Python.
In the 21st century, we are like that spinner (or weaver) sitting in the corner, waiting for news about the invention of the next “flying shuttle.” We will all eventually become data for the system, but it’s up to us to decide whether to drink from its poisonous well or to poison it ourselves.