tl;dr: knowledge is available. All that’s level is a decentralized accreditation framework, which will come.

My daughter was working on an essay for school in which she was arguing that the college educational system is no longer suited for the post-industrial, knowledge economy world.

Admittedly, I have been singing this tune for years.

Don’t get me wrong, I think there’s a lot of value in the “college experience” to meet people from diverse backgrounds.

Further, I think there’s tremendous value to a classical liberal arts education to become a freer thinker.

Where I struggle is in the cost structure and the heavy debt burden that most families and students must incur in order to obtain a certification by a brand name of their supposed knowledge.

What’s more, many of the things that a traditional institution provides in terms of accreditation for can be demonstrated in other ways now, thanks to the arrival of technology.

In this respect, Good Will Hunting was ahead of its time.

I think the changes that we saw coming are going to accelerate. Yes, more and more people will try to climb towards the “top of the rankings” as Early applications surge at prestigious colleges. So does early heartache.

And Community colleges will grow, as will online. The middle tier will get crushed. These were trends that were happening anyway, only accelerated by Covid.

However, I will be looking for another educational trend, a “self-sovereign” educational model in which you demonstrate competence and knowledge by gaining attestations from others with whom you have worked or who have seen your work.

The Internet makes the education free. It’s decentralized and democratized access to the best minds in the world.

All that is left is to figure out a way to highlight the serious and the committed from the “label buyers.”

That’s going to come because the market will force its arrival.