How industry leaders think about education today

Table of Contents

• Focus: Valuecation

• Mindset: Andrej's 85% Rule

• Life Skill: Experience Matters

• Career Advice: T-Shaped Experts

• This is Cool: Multiple Languages. One Voice.

FOCUS OF THE WEEK
Getting Value From Your Education

Most people aren’t intentional about what they want out of their educational experiences.

Yes, you know want the piece of paper at the end of it, but in a world where that piece of paper hold less weight with each passing day, if that’s you’re only goal, you’re leaving a lot of unrealized value and potential on the table.

Harley Finkelstein, President of Shopify, suggests that it’s up to you to take ownership over your educational experience to make sure you’re seeing a positive return on investment from the time and money you’re putting into it.

It applies within publicly funded K-12 systems as well. You might not be paying for it, but as a society, we are. And more importantly, you’re spending your time.

For students, this can be a powerful reframe. In TKS, we would start the program telling students to “Be selfish with your time here. Ask for feedback. Ask for help. Book 1on1s with your directors. Do the optional. Make the most of this, for you.”

Instead of viewing yourself as a passive recipient of knowledge, you become an active participant demanding fair value for your investment of time and money.

It's not actually selfish, it's strategic.

As you read his thoughts below, consider how this value-exchange mindset might transform your own approach to learning, whether you're currently in school or simply continuing your education through other channels.

What would change if you demanded fair value for every hour and dollar invested in your learning?

MINDSET OF THE WEEK
Andrej’s 85% Rule

There's this strange paradox in education where the path to true success often lies perpendicular to the path most students follow. While many are grinding away for that perfect GPA, they're missing what actually matters in the long run.

Andrej Karpathy, who was one of the founding members of OpenAI, and is one of the most respected names in AI today, spoke about this recently.

I love his "85% rule" - good enough to keep doors open, but not so obsessive that you miss the opportunity to build something truly remarkable outside the classroom.

It's about recognizing where the real opportunity lies.

When I was coaching students at TKS, I'd often see this pattern play out. The students who made the biggest impact weren't necessarily the straight-A machines.

They were the ones who understood that good grades were just the price of entry, a box to check, while the real game was happening elsewhere.

Rachel is a great example of this. She explains it as doing high school on the side.

Because of that mindset, she graduated high school with a respectable average, and more importantly, a portfolio of real world projects, and relationships that any graduating university student would be envious of.

This mindset extends far beyond education.

It's about strategic mediocrity in areas that provide diminishing returns, so you can channel that energy into what actually moves the needle.

This is a fancy way of saying ‘work smarter, not harder’.

Here's what Karpathy has to say about it:

LIFE SKILLS
Experience Matters

The truth is, while what you learn in class often matters, how you apply that knowledge in the real world matters significantly more.

Application > Exposure

This is something I saw firsthand coaching students at TKS. The ones who earned impressive opportunities for themselves weren't just good at absorbing information.

They were the ones who consistently put themselves in real-world situations where they could apply it.

Portfolios created opportunities. Not resumes, or report cards.

Reps. Reflection. Repeat.

Brandon Busteed, CEO of BrandEd, shared three reflective insights that every student should understand before heading to college.

They're backed by his own lived data and employer preferences that reveal what really drives career success.

They show that internships aren't just "nice to have" additions to your resume, they're fundamental experiences that can double your odds of landing a good job after graduation.

Also interesting is Busteed's point about the power of combining broad education with specific skills.

The "both/and" approach dramatically outperforms either specialized or generalized education alone.

More on that in the Career Advice section.

CAREER ADVICE
T-Shaped Experts

I've been talking about AI's impact on the future of work since I started this newsletter. It's one of those topics that can either terrify you or energize you, depending on your perspective.

Many jobs as we know them today will transform or disappear entirely. That's not pessimism, it's reality 🔮

The exciting part is that this transformation creates unprecedented opportunities for those who position themselves strategically.

What I love about the framework below is how it moves beyond the typical "just learn to code", “follow your passion”, or "just be creative" advice.

It offers a practical roadmap for becoming what's called a "T-shaped expert", someone with deep expertise in one domain combined with strategic breadth across related fields.

This approach isn't about competing with AI in a race you can't win. It's about developing a complementary skillset that makes you more valuable alongside AI, not less.

When I coached students at TKS, we stressed the importance of developing both specialized knowledge and the ability to make novel connections between seemingly unrelated fields. That’s often where innovation happens.

It’s also where you can strategically differentiate yourself.

For example, there are a lot of people in the world who are really good at AI. And a lot of people who are really good at Gene Editing.

There are fewer people who know how to combine the two.

This was one of the first slides students would see in TKS, in relation to the importance of their Focus projects.

Sean explains his framework for how you can become a T-shaped expert.

The Strategic Curiosity Framework outlined below gives you a practical distribution of your energy: 70% deep expertise, 30% strategic breadth.

THIS IS COOL
Multiple Languages. One Voice.

Language is a beautiful thing. It’s kind of crazy when you think about how all these different people from all over the world invented different versions of mouth-sounds to be able to communicate with each other.

That’s obviously an oversimplification of the wonder that is language, but you get the point.

I always find it so interesting when I learn that other languages have specific words to describe such specific things.

Like Schadenfreude: a German word meaning "harm-joy," describes the experience of pleasure or satisfaction derived from the misfortune or suffering of others.

Japan has a bunch of these, like Komorebi (木漏れ日): the sunlight filters through trees, creating a dappled effect on the ground.

There’s immense beauty in language. But that beauty also presents a challenge.

The less languages you understand, the less perspectives you are exposed to.

I don’t speak Hindi, so I’m likely not going to be exposed to many perspectives from Hindi speaking people.

But obviously, AI is changing that.

Eleven Labs is a big player in the AI voice space.

A lot of AI Voice Agents are powered by their technology.

So what that means in this scenario, is that Modi is speaking in Hindi throughout the interview, but the full conversation is translated into English for me.

Not just the subtitles, but the full audio. And in Modi’s voice. It sounds like him. But in English.

It would also sound like him in Russian.

Not some robotic, technical sounding, computerized voice. His voice.

Likely won’t be long until they figure out how to make the lips line up when you switch languages.

I’ve linked to the Youtube video below so you can see for yourself.

If you click the Settings gear on the bottom right, then click Audio Track, you’ll notice you’ll be able to toggle between different languages.

Full disclosure, I haven’t listened to the full conversation at the time of this writing.

This has nothing to do with his politics; this is about the technology that is powering this possibility.