I’m skipping college

July 2026

Many hold the misconception that I don’t want to attend college. In their mind, it must be the case that I have some overarching vendetta against the educational institution, that I dont wanna be ‘handed a friggin packet, yo,’ or that I think school is boring. It’s actually far more true that I really wish I could go to college, but it is alarmingly glaring that the alternative is higher return, so it would be irrational to pursue my silly little fantasy.

I think that’s the case for a few reasons

1. You can learn pretty much anything by talking to models* - and generally this can be done more quickly than taking a class and watching a lecture.
2. Generally, the best way to learn to do something is to do it. Want to be a farmer? Milk cows and herd sheep. Want to be good at ML? Train models.
3. Frontier tech is nonlinear. Everything has changed in the last month, let alone pre-GPT. 99% of people underestimate what the models are and will be capable of. We are in the golden age, there has never been a better time to build and a worse time to sit in a classroom.

*learning from models is an art form, and one that I’m still developing. I think current ‘learning harnesses’ are and need to unhobble the models instead of place restrictions on them (e.g you can’t give me the answer? that’s stupid). They just need to teach better, from first principles, etc.