Education Experts to Review Arguments on Credential Value-AI Impact
The problem with current education (poke holes, please)
I'm not sure if this is the right place to post it. Feel free to correct me and point me towards the relevant sub.
I'm working on a piece about education, and I want to stress-test the argument before I publish. So here's what I've found so far. Tell me where I'm wrong, where the logic breaks down, or what I'm missing entirely.
Starting Point: What Education Actually Does
I started by looking at the history of education systems, and across time and place, they've served some combination of three purposes:
Foundational literacy: teaching people to read, reason, do basic math, understand how society works
Workforce readiness: turning students into disciplined, employable adults
Specialization: enabling deep expertise that drives innovation
Different countries emphasize different combinations. The US cranks out PhDs and billion-dollar companies but imports much of its workforce. Finland focuses on making sure no one falls through the cracks. High baseline competence, fewer hypercompetitive innovators.
But here's what almost every system misses: the meta-skills. Learning how to learn. Learning how to think. Critical reasoning. Self-direction. Philosophy. Agency.
Schools became almost like factories optimized for producing workers and specialists. But the foundation, the ability to think clearly and teach yourself anything, got buried under standardized tests and credential chasing.
Then the Internet Showed Up (And Now AI)
YouTube videos. Online courses. Coaching programs.
Suddenly, all those meta skills and domain expertise weren't locked behind university gates. You could learn graphic design, programming, marketing, or philosophy from your bedroom. Some of it was gold. Some of it was grifters selling get-rich-quick schemes.
Then AI arrived and made it all instantaneous and free. Now anyone with internet access can get personalized tutoring in virtually any subject.
This matters most for people who see education as their ticket out of poverty. A kid in rural India doesn't care about meta-skills or innovation (even if thatโs what they really need). They want a way to make money.
The decentralized free market of education gives them that option that didn't exist ten years ago.
But what about universities and degree?
The Signal Is Changing (Maybe?)
Degrees were never valuable in themselves. They were signals. A degree told employers, "This person completed basic requirements and passed standardized tests. They're probably competent enough to hire."
But that signal is weakening, or at least, that's my read.
Companies are shifting to project-based hiring. They want to see what you've built, shipped, and solved in the real world. Degrees are no longer the only gatekeeper between you and someone willing to pay for your skills.
This doesn't apply everywhere. You still need formal credentials to be a doctor, lawyer, or research scientist. We're not letting people do open-heart surgery because they watched YouTube videos.
And yes, the decentralized education market has problems. No structure. No clear progression. You can learn scattered, incomplete fragments instead of building knowledge systematically, which is exactly what traditional schools still do well.
Here's What I'm Actually Saying (And Where You Can Disagree)
I'm not telling you to drop out and learn everything from the internet. That would be stupid for most people.
What I am saying is we're watching the gatekeeping power of traditional credentials erode in real time. More companies care about what you can do than where you studied. The internet and AI have made expertise accessible to anyone willing to pursue it. The old path still works, but it's no longer the only path.
My working thesis: We're living through a fundamental restructuring of how society distributes knowledge and opportunity. Some of our core institutions, like schools, universities, economic practices, and relationship constructs, are being rebuilt whether we like it or not.
But here's where I might be wrong:
Is the "decentralized education market" just a privileged take that ignores how most people actually learn?
Does the lack of structure in online education make it fundamentally worse or just different?
I want this piece to be intellectually honest, not just another "school is dead" hot take. So where does this argument fall apart? What am I not seeing?