Essays
Education
The Age of the Independent Builder
The era of being a part of someone else's machine is finally over. It is time to build your own.
I spent years trying to fix education from the inside. I built tools, I talked to deans, and I tried to find the "hero teachers" who could change things. But the system has an immune system. Every time you introduce a new idea, the institution finds a way to turn it into a standa...more
Permissionless Leverage in the Age of Agents
One person with a clear goal can now outbuild an entire 20th-century company.
In 2023, I realized that trying to fix education from the inside was a losing game. The system has an "immune system" that turns every new idea into a standardized checkbox. I decided the only way forward was to build a new path outside the system and I called this initiative goa...more
The Proof of Work Protocol: Beyond the Degree
The degree is a lagging indicator of compliance. The artifact is a leading indicator of agency.
We are witnessing the largest destruction of human capital in history. The four year degree has become a $200,000 receipt for a map of a world that no longer exists. For a century, the degree served as the ultimate Signal. It was a way for a student to tell a company that they co...more
The New Beginning: From 21st-Century Skills to Permissionless Leverage
After years trying to fix schools, I realized the answer is outside them.
Today is the first day of 2023, and I am sitting with a realization that has quietly rewired my entire understanding of education, work, and leverage. I spent years trying to change education from within. I built tools, I designed programs, and I sought "Hero Teachers." But the s...more
The Forcing Function: Why Curriculum Isn't About Learning
Curriculum is an operational forcing function for standardization. The system is optimized for credentials, not skills.
I spent years thinking curriculum was the problem. I believed that if we could just teach the right things in the right way, education would improve. But after seeing our 21CS skills platform collect digital dust while our fundraising tools thrived, I realized a deeper truth: cur...more
Transforming K12 by focusing on the Context
If we fail to measure the right things, we will land up growing and making the wrong thing better.
If you hear someone say out loud “School Success,” what comes to your mind? Maybe a picture of a hustling and bustling school corridor where a bunch of students are walking around in neatly tucked school uniforms? Or a school lobby where an authoritative adult is walking with pri...more
A new way for schools to foster 21st-century skills among kids
Future won’t reward obedience and conformity. But schools still teach for it.
As we reach the middle of 2020, it is clear the world has changed forever. The pandemic has left a mark on how we live, how we work, and how we teach our children. For years, we told students that if they follow the rules and get good grades, they will be successful. But as we lo...more
Promoting Inclusion: Empowering Classroom Engagement
A real classroom moment in 2016 reshaped how Schoolze approaches inclusive, accessible communication for every family.
Strong family school communication is one of the most important predictors of student success. Yet in many classrooms, well-intentioned messages never fully reach home, not because parents don’t care, but because the format or language creates invisible barriers. Over the years,...more