what is school for you asked this
question my answer is two things teach
kids how to lead teach kids how to solve
interesting problems that's it because
if you know how to lead and you know how
to solve interesting problems you will
always be able to find a job you will
always be able to create value and you
will never get bored that's the opposite
of what school was 400 years ago which
is trained compliant factory workers to
do what they're told and work cheap and
I don't think we need that so much
anymore I think we need the other thing
what are there alternatives right now
like what would we do differently if we
could just start over and design school
systems for the economy and the
information age be living well let's
begin with this if it's worth memorizing
mm-hmm it worth not memorizing because
the amount that you can look up online
if you know what to look up is close to
infinity what's the purpose of knowing
how old George Washington was when the
Revolutionary War happened just look it
up and so we begin with this competence
is overrated if we can write down your
job we can find someone cheaper than you
to do it in fact that the thing we find
to do it might not even be a person so
that means we need to teach kids to
eagerly do jobs that cannot be written
down so the pressure in a universe with
call centers is top-down we're pushing
people to do evermore menial labor and
bottom-up we're pushing computers to do
that same job and so people are getting
squeezed in movies and the alternative
is to be a linchpin to race to the top
and to say I solve interesting problems
problems that no one's solved before if
you can look it up don't call me I'm the
person who can help you if you can't
look it up
you do an interesting thing where you
asked your audience everybody to raise
your hand as high as possible and they
do so and then you say raise a little
high here and they're able to do that so
why is it that we raise our hand but we
we hold back what is it about us how
we're hardwired I don't think hardwired
I think we're brainwashed
ok great by the industrial economy so
the industrialist and and we've known
this for a hundred years
Karl Marx thought there's a tension
between the boss who wants unlimited
effort for no money and the worker who
wants to do as little as possible the
reason the worker wants to do as little
as possible is she knows that the boss
is gonna ask for more and we took that
model and took it to coaches and to
teachers and to the system and so
everyone holds back because they know
the boss is gonna ask for more the
people who don't hold back are artists
you don't see a playwright saying I had
a really good line I could have put in
this play but I saved it for my next
play that never happens mm-hmm because
when we're doing art we say how can I do
more and when we're doing work we say
how can I do less that's the difference
between our didn't work hmm so if you
love what you do does that make you an
artist or is there more to that I think
there's more to it I think it's possible
to decide to love what you do I say that
it if you're on the chain gang and you
know you're gonna be there for a year
you could spend a whole year hating what
you do or you could brainwash yourself
into loving what you do cuz why not
spend a year doing something you love
what I'm saying an artist does and a lot
of artists I know hate what is you are
staring into the void that you are doing
work that might not work you are doing
work without a manual you are showing up
to make change happen in a generous way
that you're not sure is going to work
and that's really frightening what we
got trained to do as compliant cogs in
the system was find deniability find
authority find the established protocol
take good notes and repeat back to the
teacher what we learned
and that's not what solving interesting
problems are solving interesting
problems is I don't know the answer to
this let's figure it out and I can't
remember the last time we taught a kid
how to do that
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