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๐Ÿ‘‰ The Unbundling of Harvard Has Begun

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๐Ÿ‘‰ The Unbundling of Harvard Has Begun

COVID19 has driven universities online but they can't compete with modern influencer-lead alternatives

Brett Goldstein
Jul 13, 2020
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๐Ÿ‘‰ The Unbundling of Harvard Has Begun

socialstudies.substack.com

Yo!ย โœŒ๏ธย Iโ€™mย Brett! I am a Product Manager, User Psychology consultant and former Cognitive Science researcher. Social Studies is a semi-weekly newsletter for tech workers looking to stay up on the news and build more human-centered products.

I synthesize the most important developments in tech (with a special focus on Tech Twitter) and share frameworks from psychology, economics, and other social sciences to better understand them.


โœจ What Happened on Tech Twitter Last Week

Hereโ€™s the main story:

๐Ÿ“‰ The education bubble reached a tipping point - Harvard announced all classes would be online but tuition would not be lowered. More students are reconsidering the value of higher education than ever before.

๐Ÿคฏ What the hell is going on? - David Perell wrote that the abundance of information on the internet has been eroding the value of higher education for some time.

๐Ÿ“š Education will need to be reimagined - Online education is in its infancy. The best programs will adapt to the new medium rather than copy and paste from the old IRL format.

๐ŸŽ“ The unbundling of universities has begun - A new crop of (social) media celebrities like Erik Torenberg and David Perell are unbundling universities by creating communities and programs around specific subject areas.


๐Ÿ“‰ The education bubble reached a tipping point

Harvard announced that it would continue 100% online learning in the Fall but keep tuition prices the same - more universities are expected to follow suit.

Twitter avatar for @zslayback
Zak Slayback ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ @zslayback
Harvard just announced that all classes will be online for 2020-2021. Tuition will remain $50,000.
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3:12 PM โˆ™ Jul 6, 2020
2,705Likes741Retweets

Thereโ€™s been a growing bubble in higher education for some time, but this may be the tipping point. The cost of tuition has been rising for years, but the value hasnโ€™t.

Twitter avatar for @chris_hockley
Chris Hockley @chris_hockley
@balajis Multi-generational households seem like fairly accessible leverage against runaway education, childcare, and healthcare inflation.
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12:20 AM โˆ™ Sep 10, 2019

As universities shift to online education until the pandemic is over, the value of higher education will take a serious nosedive.

This is causing many American college students to consider taking gap years or deferring enrollment indefinitely. In turn, many universities (particularly mid and lower-tier where the value is less clear) will likely face financial hardship.

Twitter avatar for @nikillinit
Nikhil Krishnan @nikillinit
This week I asked Get Real members about their thoughts on Harvard going virtual. This response was super interesting
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7:09 PM โˆ™ Jul 9, 2020
11Likes1Retweet

Also last week, the federal government made moves that confirmed growing sentiment that university degrees are becoming increasingly less important for successful employment.

Twitter avatar for @Austen
Austen Allred @Austen
In case you missed it: Soon having a college degree will not be a requirement for federal employment. It's time to roll back all the regulations that require degrees; there are so many ways to gain the same skills.
usatoday.comTrump signs order prioritizing job skills over college degree in government hiringDonald Trump is overhauling federal hiring practices so that government can hire workers based on talent instead of educational level.
7:05 PM โˆ™ Jul 6, 2020
736Likes118Retweets

Keep in mind, this is all happening against the backdrop of continuous stories of individuals achieving incredible success despite lacking a traditional college education.

Twitter avatar for @Austen
Austen Allred @Austen
Remember: You can read all the same books as any student (or even any professor) who has any kind of degree. No one needs to give you permission or a piece of branded paper for you to become an expert in anything.
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2:48 PM โˆ™ Jul 10, 2020
310Likes37Retweets

Traditional colleges have put 44 million people in debt while online bootcamps have literally turned homeless into home owners. If youโ€™re an incoming college freshman looking at $50K for Zoom lectures for at least 4-6 months, what would you pick?

๐Ÿคฏ What the hell is going on?

To understand why this is all happening, you should read David Perellโ€™s piece โ€œWhat the Hell is Going On?โ€

Here are a few key points:

  • Traditional higher education (as well as commerce and politics) is built on information scarcity. You pay to get access to information in universities that is impossible to get elsewhere.

  • Thanks to the internet, we now have information abundance, which means you can now access any information you want for free.

  • This dramatically erodes the business model for higher education, particularly for mid and low-tier institutions that donโ€™t have a strong brands.

Dave Perell writes:

Weโ€™ve entered a digital, two-way, information-rich world where millions of people can produce and distribute content at scale. We need to recalibrate our collective compass.

Twitter avatar for @thatguyBG
Brett Goldstein @thatguyBG
COVID19 feels like an accelerant for the upending of higher education @david_perell talked about in What The Hell Is Going On Why pay $50K for tuition when information is everywhere. perell.com/blog/what-the-โ€ฆ
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4:41 AM โˆ™ Jul 13, 2020

๐Ÿ“š Education will need to be reimagined

If you watch the earliest movies, youโ€™ll notice that they are essentially just video recordings of plays. Years later, directors began creating films that were more native to the format (where which the camera was moved around shot to shot).

This is the transition weโ€™re beginning to make with online education. One-to-one translations of in person lectures to Zoom isnโ€™t how remote learning should be done. Universities will need to reimagine education for this new medium to keep up.

Ana Lorena Fabrega and David Perell have some great thoughts here:

Twitter avatar for @anafabrega11
Ana Lorena Fabrega @anafabrega11
Remote learning isnโ€™t working. Teachers are burned out. Parents are stressed out. Students are โ€œzoomedโ€ out. Whatโ€™s going on? @david_perell and I address this topic in this week's episode of Show & Tell ๐Ÿ‘‡
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8:53 PM โˆ™ Jul 11, 2020
337Likes23Retweets

๐ŸŽ“ The unbundling of universities has begun

As universities continue to lose their relevance, students will seek alternatives. This spells immense opportunity for startups looking to unbundle the university experience.

Erik Torenberg shared an abstract view of what this could look like:

Twitter avatar for @eriktorenberg
Erik Torenberg @eriktorenberg
Unbundling the university: - liberal arts - technical education - summer camp - dating market - sports - co-living - salons - hedge fund - 4 year vacation - flirting w/ marxism - coming of age - alumni network - credential - prestige - insurance policy - identity - coming of age
Twitter avatar for @eriktorenberg
Erik Torenberg @eriktorenberg
The credential is the last element to be unbundled from college: - education (MOOCs) - networks (accelerators) - credentials (stay tuned) My bet: P2P credentials If I trust you & you say X is the best young person you've worked with, that means more to me than a Harvard degree
6:38 AM โˆ™ Feb 25, 2020
552Likes66Retweets

Companies like Udacity, Udemy, and Masterclass are earlier examples of this unbundling - take educational content and make it widely accessible for a fee.

Entrepreneurs like Erik Torenberg and David Perell have a new approach: build education-based communities on the backs of (social) media empires.

Twitter avatar for @_benjamincrane
Benjamin Crane @_benjamincrane
Prediction ๐Ÿ”ฎ Media Companies replace Educational Institutions ๐ŸŽฅ Itโ€™s all just โ€œcontent and conversationโ€, after all ๐Ÿฟ
2:45 PM โˆ™ Jul 9, 2020

Erik runs a podcast and a venture fund. Heโ€™s also the founder of On Deck, a modern alternative to MBA programs that helps entrepreneurs meet cofounders and start companies.

Twitter avatar for @eriktorenberg
Erik Torenberg @eriktorenberg
If youโ€™re in an MBA program or considering one and want to be founder, consider @beondeck instead. Itโ€™s a better network and 100x cheaper.
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2:57 AM โˆ™ Apr 23, 2020
231Likes19Retweets

David Perell runs a popular blog and podcast. He is also the founder of Write of Passage, an alternative to creative writing programs.

Twitter avatar for @david_perell
David Perell @david_perell
College kids: Don't pay $50,000 for Zoom classes. Use your time to start an online business. Live at home, spend as little money as possible, and find a side job if you need to.
perell.comDonโ€™t Go to College This Fall โ€” David PerellCollege students: Donโ€™t go to school this fall.  Use your time to start an online business. Live at home, spend as little money as possible, and find a side job if you need to. How do you start? Build your skills, identify a problem, and find a software-based solution. If you
4:11 PM โˆ™ Jul 6, 2020
832Likes129Retweets

While this unbundling has been happening for technical education (e.g. engineering, design) for some time, Erik and Davidโ€™s โ€œschoolsโ€ are emblematic of more of whatโ€™s to come. Many more entrepreneurs will likely follow in their footsteps unbundling other subjects.

I launched Social Studies (currently as a newsletter) with the idea of unbundling Social Science education from universities and applying it to business.

Twitter avatar for @thatguyBG
Brett Goldstein @thatguyBG
Psychology is the most underrated major in tech. UX, growth, management, etc all boil down to understanding how people think.
1:20 AM โˆ™ Jul 10, 2020
618Likes95Retweets

The Theil Fellowship approach of getting would-be college students to start companies instead is also continuing to grow in popularity in the venture community. The 1517 fund announced last week it would make $50K investments in students building companies instead of going back to school.

โœŒ๏ธ Other great tweets

Hereโ€™s what else happened last week!

Twitter avatar for @Bosefina
Bo Ren @Bosefina
Startups are like airplanes. They need at least two engines to stay aflight โœˆ๏ธ : For B2B, it's product and sales For B2C, it's distribution and product For DTC, it's product, brand, distribution h/t @k3fernan for the illuminating convo on company engines!
7:48 PM โˆ™ Jul 10, 2020
912Likes240Retweets
Twitter avatar for @GoodMarketingHQ
Marketing Examples @GoodMarketingHQ
How Hey made us care about their email service
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2:13 PM โˆ™ Jul 10, 2020
857Likes94Retweets
Twitter avatar for @VCBrags
VCs Congratulating Themselves ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘ @VCBrags
Early Uber - Official Trailer (HD)
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12:06 PM โˆ™ Jul 9, 2020
3,002Likes297Retweets
Twitter avatar for @d1rtydan
Dan Okopnyi ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ฆ @d1rtydan
A guy on reddit reversed engineered #TikTok Hereโ€™s what he found on the data it collects on you Itโ€™s far worse than just stealing whatโ€™s on your clipboard:
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3:27 AM โˆ™ Jun 28, 2020
100,942Likes61,304Retweets

Be sure to check out these threads and links:

Twitter avatar for @amanda_robs
Amanda Robson @amanda_robs
The past few years I've sat in a number of board rooms and watched some founders thrive and others struggle Sharing some tips, particularly for first-time founders, on how to best run board meetings Oh - and it's a THREAD ๐Ÿ˜‰๐Ÿงต
11:55 PM โˆ™ Jul 8, 2020
514Likes60Retweets
Twitter avatar for @lennysan
Lenny Rachitsky @lennysan
๐Ÿ’ฅ New deep-dive ๐Ÿ’ฅ How today's fastest growing B2B businesses found their first 10 customers tl;dr 1. ๐Ÿ‘‹ Tap personal network 2. ๐Ÿง—โ€โ™€๏ธ Seek out your customers where they are 3. ๐Ÿ—ž Get press Stories from 20+ companies. Takeaways in thread below ๐Ÿ‘‡ lennyrachitsky.com/p/how-todays-fโ€ฆ
lennyrachitsky.comHow todayโ€™s fastest growing B2B businesses found their first ten customersLessons from Figma, Stripe, Airtable, Shopify, Plaid, and many more
3:00 PM โˆ™ Jul 7, 2020
809Likes115Retweets

๐Ÿ™ Thanks!

Have a great week!

Twitter avatar for @thatguyBG
Brett Goldstein @thatguyBG
Translated @lennysan's "how the biggest consumer apps got their first 1000 users" for the Tik Tok generation! (This is how I imagined him typing it out ๐Ÿ˜‚) On Tik Tok: vm.tiktok.com/J8g9CnY/ OP: lennyrachitsky.com/p/how-the-biggโ€ฆ
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1:11 AM โˆ™ Jul 9, 2020
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๐Ÿ‘‰ The Unbundling of Harvard Has Begun

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Steve Foerster
Jul 27, 2020Liked by Brett Goldstein

Hey, so I had so many reactions to your article that I wrote my own as a response: https://stevefoerster.com/harvard-will-be-just-fine/

I hope it doesn't across as too kvetchy, because I promise you that it ends nicely.

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