[Music]
just like many of you I finished my
university studies not so long ago I was
happy full of energy and eager to prove
myself and to the world the value that I
can create in society but pretty much as
soon as I have joined the company I was
very disappointed turned out that pretty
much none of the skills and the
knowledge that I have gained during my
university studies was applicable in the
real world I felt betrayed I felt upset
and I took it upon myself to go back to
school this time as a lecturer to
hopefully provide the students with some
more applicable skills something they
will surely need it also got me thinking
why is there such a disconnection
between the real world and education
before we go into details it is
important to define the terms while the
real world can be essentially understood
as everything apart from education
education itself is a bit harder to
define so let me bore you with the
definition for a minute
education is a structured system of
facilitating the acquisition of
knowledge skills values beliefs and
habits now notice the last three values
beliefs and habits while we all
understand it intrinsically that when
you go to school you will learn how to
spell or that you will learn how to
integrate we also learn that hard work
pays off we learn to get up in the
morning every day and we learn that you
should do unto others that you would as
you would have them do unto you
why is there such a disconnection if
there is such a big difference who came
up with the system why is it set up this
way
why does education work the way it does
and it turns out that the educational
system as we know it is not something
that has been painstakingly
instructed by the foremost experts it is
something that we have inherited so to
truly understand education we must look
at its history so let us go back a few
thousand years to the hunter and
gatherer times in those days work was
very skill intensive very knowledge
intensive but it was not so labor
intensive you had to know how to throw a
spear you had to know which berries to
pick but you did not need to do this for
the whole day in fact you would kill a
large animal bring it back to the tribe
and they would be taken care of for at
least a few days in those times also
there was no distinction between work
and fun because work was fun and
children would have fun and they would
play and they would imitate what their
parents do they would learn how to do
their work this way you can for example
think of lion cubs play fighting yes
they are having fun but they are at the
same time learning a very useful skill
which they will need later in life then
times have changed and we have come to
the agricultural era where suddenly work
was no longer so skill intensive or so
knowledge intensive after all you did
not need to worry about fifty different
berries if you only had the one that you
were growing but they became very labor
intensive you had to work hard every day
people would slave away sometimes quite
literally in the fields and they brought
their children alongside to help
moreover the qualities which were
required before which were seen as
virtues that is creativity or
willfulness became problematic the most
important quality would be obedience an
obedient child was a good child the same
way that an obedient person was a good
person and who would not be obedient
would be severely punished
this system was in place
for hundreds of years essentially up
until the industrial era people would no
longer work the entire day in a field
now they will be working the whole day
at a factory with the changing nature of
work have changed the requirements
people needed knowledge people needed to
know how to do the work and in order to
combat this need for knowledge
most states have begun implementing
universal education where the state
would take away the child from their
parents from their employment and try to
impart in them the knowledge that they
would need in those times however when
the system was being set up the states
did not just think about the knowledge
which would be required in the future
they have essentially try to
indoctrinate the children into becoming
a good citizen in the future now if you
want to indoctrinate someone how will
you do it you’ll force them to memorize
long passages without understanding you
would test them on their memory how they
did you would you would punish them
severely if they did not perform as
expected and then you would make them do
this whole thing all over again now does
this sound familiar
today the times have changed we no
longer use physical punishment in
schools but at the same time the school
curriculum has expanded tremendously
while adults spend or eight nine hours a
day in the office
children spend six hours a day in school
for decades
work is no longer fun but school is
neither in fact school is seen as
children’s work as something to prepare
you for the future so while the adults
are sitting in the office for eight
hours bored out of their mind
children are sitting in the classrooms
for six hours bored out of their mind in
this way school teaches them that it is
okay now is this system really useful is
this really going to provide you with
the knowledge that you need well let me
ask you do you do what
you have studied I know that I don’t
none really and why is this well how can
school prepare you for something that
you will need 20 years from now how can
we predict which jobs will be required
in the future yes are simple we can’t in
fact look at the number of managers over
the last hundred years one hundred years
ago there may be six percent of managers
or proprietors or officials today the
number is song around 14 yet let me ask
you 50 years ago who would have heard of
a business school 20 years ago who would
have heard of an entrepreneurship course
no one every mother is overjoyed when
her daughter tells her mom when I grow
up I want to be a doctor it considered
the proportion of doctors in today’s
society it is and it has been the same
for the last hundred years around 0.5%
but at the same time consider the number
of nurses and health care technicians
their numbers have increased
tremendously now let me ask you which
one do you think is more likely to
provide you with the job security
consider professionals technicians you
know people who in general have problems
explaining what they do to their parents
100 years ago maybe 5 percent today 25
who could have predicted this growth
this is incredible but unfortunately not
all professions do as well in the 1920s
if you thought that going into
agriculture would have been a great idea
provided with a job security you would
be considered smart but yet by 1950s
this was no longer the case and by 1970s
good you would have been happy to have a
job to retire from at all there is a
popular sentiment
going around these days which says that
liberal arts majors are useless and you
know what in terms of marketable skills
marketable knowledge I’m inclined to
agree at the same time remember that
education gives you more provides you
with values beliefs habits
and these are the things where liberal
arts majors excel we live in a
globalized society today understanding
of culture is more important than ever
an American person might need to
understand that their Indian colleague
has a different set of values German
needs to understand that being on time
means something different in Italy but
this cultural understanding is not
something which you will learn in a
trade school I’m speaking from
experience when I say that technical
skills are easy to pick up three years
ago I did not know a thing about Excel
today I teach it two years ago if you
told me I’d be programming I would have
laughed but today I create solutions
which are useful to the client
and which they pay good money for
however it took me five years of
education of Business Economics and
International Studies to become the
person I am today do I know all the
answers no but I know how to ask the
right questions don’t believe me
consider mr. Brian Chesky the founder of
Airbnb he majored in fine arts consider
perhaps mr. Stewart Butterfield
co-founder of Flickr founder of slack
his majors philosophy consider miss
Susan Wojcicki current CEO of YouTube
one of the first employees of Google her
majors history and literature and of
course we have mr. Jack Ma the founder
of Alibaba perhaps the second largest
online marketplace in the world internet
evangelist in China his manger was
simply English language now that we know
that the qualities which create for a
good businessperson are not something
that University will provide we can ask
ourselves why do we need university
education at all how come that still at
any job ad it says at least some college
required Michael spends world renowned
economists Nobel Prize laureate has
answered this question for us he came up
with the signalling theory in the nine
in 70s and not to bore you with the
details but he essentially said that the
value of university education is not in
the skills and the knowledge that you
gain it tells a lot about you as a
person you prove that you are smart
enough to get into the university you
prove you’re not going to give up half
way because you did not drop out of the
university and it shows that you’re able
to work hard enough and do independent
research to finish the university can we
then say the university education will
ensure success in life now the answer is
yes but not in the way that you might
think university education provides you
besides the actual knowledge with many
learning experiences that you might not
be able to get otherwise
it teaches you to think in a productive
way it provides you with many social
experiences that you probably would not
have had otherwise
and it broadens your horizons so that
you see what is beyond your little town
where you came from success is not
determined by your GPA success is
determined by your intelligence very by
your emotional intelligence by our
perseverance by your grit and all of
these can be learned in a university
however you have to go out and get it
you have to remember that you are in
control
you have to want to learn to learn and
once you want this nothing can stop you
not today
Frank Zappa once famously said if you
want to get late go to college if you
want education go to library
let me follow this up with a little
addition of my own if you want to learn
something today go to the Internet
there are numerous applications websites
platforms which have been developed in
conjunction with today’s research about
education which make your education
experience much much better than a
standard lecture type setting you have
applications that teach you language and
reward you for taking the time every day
to practice for 10 minutes you have
entire platforms where you can go and
zoom in on the one skill on the one bit
of knowledge that you want and learn it
you do not have to go through hundreds
of books but as you did before you have
entire platforms dedicated to providing
you with information on demand no longer
do you need to go through hundreds of
books hoping one of them might have the
answer now you can just go out there get
it learn it and continue on with your
life and if you are a fan of U of
University lectures today you can get
top grade recordings with the notes
completely for free
now I may not know a lot but I do know
one thing and again I speak from
experience if you’re currently studying
get a job if you’re working consider
going back to school my educational
experience has been incredibly improved
the moment I started working because I
was able to recognize the skills that I
can learn in University and I was able
to differentiate the knowledge which
might be useful one day from the
knowledge that I just need to pass the
test most importantly remember it is up
to you you have to decide what you want
to learn and you have to go out there
and get it thank
you
just like many of you I finished my
university studies not so long ago I was
happy full of energy and eager to prove
myself and to the world the value that I
can create in society but pretty much as
soon as I have joined the company I was
very disappointed turned out that pretty
much none of the skills and the
knowledge that I have gained during my
university studies was applicable in the
real world I felt betrayed I felt upset
and I took it upon myself to go back to
school this time as a lecturer to
hopefully provide the students with some
more applicable skills something they
will surely need it also got me thinking
why is there such a disconnection
between the real world and education
before we go into details it is
important to define the terms while the
real world can be essentially understood
as everything apart from education
education itself is a bit harder to
define so let me bore you with the
definition for a minute
education is a structured system of
facilitating the acquisition of
knowledge skills values beliefs and
habits now notice the last three values
beliefs and habits while we all
understand it intrinsically that when
you go to school you will learn how to
spell or that you will learn how to
integrate we also learn that hard work
pays off we learn to get up in the
morning every day and we learn that you
should do unto others that you would as
you would have them do unto you
why is there such a disconnection if
there is such a big difference who came
up with the system why is it set up this
way
why does education work the way it does
and it turns out that the educational
system as we know it is not something
that has been painstakingly
instructed by the foremost experts it is
something that we have inherited so to
truly understand education we must look
at its history so let us go back a few
thousand years to the hunter and
gatherer times in those days work was
very skill intensive very knowledge
intensive but it was not so labor
intensive you had to know how to throw a
spear you had to know which berries to
pick but you did not need to do this for
the whole day in fact you would kill a
large animal bring it back to the tribe
and they would be taken care of for at
least a few days in those times also
there was no distinction between work
and fun because work was fun and
children would have fun and they would
play and they would imitate what their
parents do they would learn how to do
their work this way you can for example
think of lion cubs play fighting yes
they are having fun but they are at the
same time learning a very useful skill
which they will need later in life then
times have changed and we have come to
the agricultural era where suddenly work
was no longer so skill intensive or so
knowledge intensive after all you did
not need to worry about fifty different
berries if you only had the one that you
were growing but they became very labor
intensive you had to work hard every day
people would slave away sometimes quite
literally in the fields and they brought
their children alongside to help
moreover the qualities which were
required before which were seen as
virtues that is creativity or
willfulness became problematic the most
important quality would be obedience an
obedient child was a good child the same
way that an obedient person was a good
person and who would not be obedient
would be severely punished
this system was in place
for hundreds of years essentially up
until the industrial era people would no
longer work the entire day in a field
now they will be working the whole day
at a factory with the changing nature of
work have changed the requirements
people needed knowledge people needed to
know how to do the work and in order to
combat this need for knowledge
most states have begun implementing
universal education where the state
would take away the child from their
parents from their employment and try to
impart in them the knowledge that they
would need in those times however when
the system was being set up the states
did not just think about the knowledge
which would be required in the future
they have essentially try to
indoctrinate the children into becoming
a good citizen in the future now if you
want to indoctrinate someone how will
you do it you’ll force them to memorize
long passages without understanding you
would test them on their memory how they
did you would you would punish them
severely if they did not perform as
expected and then you would make them do
this whole thing all over again now does
this sound familiar
today the times have changed we no
longer use physical punishment in
schools but at the same time the school
curriculum has expanded tremendously
while adults spend or eight nine hours a
day in the office
children spend six hours a day in school
for decades
work is no longer fun but school is
neither in fact school is seen as
children’s work as something to prepare
you for the future so while the adults
are sitting in the office for eight
hours bored out of their mind
children are sitting in the classrooms
for six hours bored out of their mind in
this way school teaches them that it is
okay now is this system really useful is
this really going to provide you with
the knowledge that you need well let me
ask you do you do what
you have studied I know that I don’t
none really and why is this well how can
school prepare you for something that
you will need 20 years from now how can
we predict which jobs will be required
in the future yes are simple we can’t in
fact look at the number of managers over
the last hundred years one hundred years
ago there may be six percent of managers
or proprietors or officials today the
number is song around 14 yet let me ask
you 50 years ago who would have heard of
a business school 20 years ago who would
have heard of an entrepreneurship course
no one every mother is overjoyed when
her daughter tells her mom when I grow
up I want to be a doctor it considered
the proportion of doctors in today’s
society it is and it has been the same
for the last hundred years around 0.5%
but at the same time consider the number
of nurses and health care technicians
their numbers have increased
tremendously now let me ask you which
one do you think is more likely to
provide you with the job security
consider professionals technicians you
know people who in general have problems
explaining what they do to their parents
100 years ago maybe 5 percent today 25
who could have predicted this growth
this is incredible but unfortunately not
all professions do as well in the 1920s
if you thought that going into
agriculture would have been a great idea
provided with a job security you would
be considered smart but yet by 1950s
this was no longer the case and by 1970s
good you would have been happy to have a
job to retire from at all there is a
popular sentiment
going around these days which says that
liberal arts majors are useless and you
know what in terms of marketable skills
marketable knowledge I’m inclined to
agree at the same time remember that
education gives you more provides you
with values beliefs habits
and these are the things where liberal
arts majors excel we live in a
globalized society today understanding
of culture is more important than ever
an American person might need to
understand that their Indian colleague
has a different set of values German
needs to understand that being on time
means something different in Italy but
this cultural understanding is not
something which you will learn in a
trade school I’m speaking from
experience when I say that technical
skills are easy to pick up three years
ago I did not know a thing about Excel
today I teach it two years ago if you
told me I’d be programming I would have
laughed but today I create solutions
which are useful to the client
and which they pay good money for
however it took me five years of
education of Business Economics and
International Studies to become the
person I am today do I know all the
answers no but I know how to ask the
right questions don’t believe me
consider mr. Brian Chesky the founder of
Airbnb he majored in fine arts consider
perhaps mr. Stewart Butterfield
co-founder of Flickr founder of slack
his majors philosophy consider miss
Susan Wojcicki current CEO of YouTube
one of the first employees of Google her
majors history and literature and of
course we have mr. Jack Ma the founder
of Alibaba perhaps the second largest
online marketplace in the world internet
evangelist in China his manger was
simply English language now that we know
that the qualities which create for a
good businessperson are not something
that University will provide we can ask
ourselves why do we need university
education at all how come that still at
any job ad it says at least some college
required Michael spends world renowned
economists Nobel Prize laureate has
answered this question for us he came up
with the signalling theory in the nine
in 70s and not to bore you with the
details but he essentially said that the
value of university education is not in
the skills and the knowledge that you
gain it tells a lot about you as a
person you prove that you are smart
enough to get into the university you
prove you’re not going to give up half
way because you did not drop out of the
university and it shows that you’re able
to work hard enough and do independent
research to finish the university can we
then say the university education will
ensure success in life now the answer is
yes but not in the way that you might
think university education provides you
besides the actual knowledge with many
learning experiences that you might not
be able to get otherwise
it teaches you to think in a productive
way it provides you with many social
experiences that you probably would not
have had otherwise
and it broadens your horizons so that
you see what is beyond your little town
where you came from success is not
determined by your GPA success is
determined by your intelligence very by
your emotional intelligence by our
perseverance by your grit and all of
these can be learned in a university
however you have to go out and get it
you have to remember that you are in
control
you have to want to learn to learn and
once you want this nothing can stop you
not today
Frank Zappa once famously said if you
want to get late go to college if you
want education go to library
let me follow this up with a little
addition of my own if you want to learn
something today go to the Internet
there are numerous applications websites
platforms which have been developed in
conjunction with today’s research about
education which make your education
experience much much better than a
standard lecture type setting you have
applications that teach you language and
reward you for taking the time every day
to practice for 10 minutes you have
entire platforms where you can go and
zoom in on the one skill on the one bit
of knowledge that you want and learn it
you do not have to go through hundreds
of books but as you did before you have
entire platforms dedicated to providing
you with information on demand no longer
do you need to go through hundreds of
books hoping one of them might have the
answer now you can just go out there get
it learn it and continue on with your
life and if you are a fan of U of
University lectures today you can get
top grade recordings with the notes
completely for free
now I may not know a lot but I do know
one thing and again I speak from
experience if you’re currently studying
get a job if you’re working consider
going back to school my educational
experience has been incredibly improved
the moment I started working because I
was able to recognize the skills that I
can learn in University and I was able
to differentiate the knowledge which
might be useful one day from the
knowledge that I just need to pass the
test most importantly remember it is up
to you you have to decide what you want
to learn and you have to go out there
and get it thank
you
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