📖 My Notes on Paul Graham's Essay: The Lesson To Unlearn

Link to essay: http://paulgraham.com/lesson.html



👉 Learning to get good grades is the most damaging thing you learn in school

👉 The issue with educational systems are that its so dependent on tests

👉 The problem with these tests are that they are hackable.

👉 You have test prep companies, admissions counselors who will tell you how to game the system (that’s hacking the system)

👉 These admission tests are about whether you “suit the taste” of a very specific group of people (the admission officers)

👉 Basically, this system makes you ask stupid questions. It’s stupid because you’re too attuned to memorizing facts and following a playbook for getting those coveted A+ instead of learning to ask the right questions

👉 When you see anything with numbers, you assume it’s a test. So you go “how do we get those numbers?” e.g. “How much money do we need to raise for my startup?”

👉 The answer is usually in front of you, but you have to first untangle the knot you created while learning how to game bad tests. E.g. “Build a valuable company and you will get investors. To build a valuable company, grow your company”

👉 Unhackable tests are those not imposed by authorities. E.g. running a startup is not a test imposed by authorities. Your entrepreneurial ability determines if you succeed.