The case against education
by Bryan Douglas Caplan · first published 2018
55% recommend42% neutral3% critical
Why HN recommends it
Data-heavy economic argument that school mostly signals intelligence and conformity rather than building skills, drawing on twin studies and dropout effects; suits readers questioning college's value.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Despite being immensely popular--and immensely lucrative -- education is grossly overrated. In this explosive book, Bryan Caplan argues that the primary function of education is not to enhance students' skill but to certify their intelligence, work ethic, and conformityin other words, to signal the qualities of a good employee.
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There are two books that cover this subject well: The Case Against Education: https://jakeseliger.com/2018/03/12/the-case-against-educatio..., which argues that most "education" is really signaling, not human capital acquisition, and Paying for the Party: https://jakeseliger.com/2014/04/27/paying-for-the-party-eliz...,…
on “The student loan crisis is really an underemployment catastrophe” ↗…decreasing birth rates that is already below replacement in the west making it impossible for most to buy and making rent crazy high seem like an incredibly short sighted idea. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Case-against-Education-System-Waste/d... [2] https://www.nber.org/papers/w17485 Edit: added extra info on education having a time cost. This is Peter Thiels long-standing point.
on “Student debt hinders millennial homeownership” ↗Caplan's whole book, The Case Against Education, is excellent, and if it doesn't convince you, try also Paying for the Party: https://jakeseliger.com/2014/04/27/paying-for-the-party-eliz... , which is, too, congruent with my own experience on the provider…
on “The World Might Be Better Off Without College for Everyone” ↗To your first point, you may be interested to read Bryan Caplan’s “The Case Against Education.” He makes a very strong, quantitative case that education is primarily a signaling device. For instance the difference between 3.5 years without graduating and 4 years + graduation is immense, whereas…
on “Three Levels of Wealth” ↗Are you familiar with Caplan's Case against Education? Here's a good review (and some critique): https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=3678 Caplan makes a very compelling case that education, while inarguably teaching something, primarily serves to signal…
on “Biology is the New Tech: Letter from a conference on CRISPR” ↗An excellent point. See also The Case Against Education: https://jakeseliger.com/2018/03/12/the-case-against-educatio.... I'll also observe that many fields have an unpleasant introductory learning curve in which one must memorize lots of random-seeming and…
on “The Bitter Truth of Learning: It’s Tough, Unpleasant, and Often Pointless” ↗…learned a lot of extremely interesting things. It’s just not the learning you get that is responsible for correlation between higher education and life outcomes. I recommend Bryan Caplan’s book “The Case Against Education”.
on “Record number of colleges drop SAT/ACT admissions requirement” ↗…thought it was weird how the 'Information Age' has barely changed an institution entirely based on passing information to new generations (education). Bryan Caplan (economist at George Mason) wrote The Case Against Education (https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691174655/th...). IMO, he's definitely too provocative and it's certainly not perfect but he makes really good points on modern education. My version of…
on “The Sick History of Public Education” ↗I don't know why this is downvoted. I think that Bryan Caplan's book The Case against Education - Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money (https://press.princeton.edu/titles/11225.html) makes a pretty strong argument to support the related points.
on “The Practice is not the Performance: Why project-based learning fails” ↗I highly recommend The Case Against Education by Bryan Caplan (https://www.amazon.com/Case-against-Education-System-Waste/d...). It's one of the more careful social science books I've ever read, and while it comes to controversial conclusions, even…
on “Why read old philosophy?” ↗If you haven't yet, you should read The Case Against Education. Though be forewarned: if you work in most of the education-industrial complex, the book may make you want to quit. https://jakeseliger.com/2018/03/12/the-case-against-educatio...
on “Forget Bribery – The Real Scam Is Pretending That Degrees Have Value” ↗I'd recommend reading Bryan Caplan's The Case Against Education. He argues that getting a high quality education is a good investment on average, but mostly not because it actually makes you better at anything, rather explicitly because it acts as a socioeconomic…
on ““I Tested into Stanford Through My Own Hard Work.” JK, Her Parents Paid $6.5M” ↗If you had read the book The Case Against Education by his George Mason University colleague, Bryan Caplan, then you might not be as surprised. That economics department seems to be a haven for libertarian thought, opera, classical music, and Renaissance…
on “A list of the top recipients on Patreon shows an obsession with the ordinary” ↗If you’re interested in this topic you should read Bryan Caplan’s The Case Against Education. Getting more credentials can be individually rational but socially wasteful. So there are tons of people working as bank tellers now and there were tons of people working as bank tellers in the ‘70s.…
on “People kept working, became healthier while on basic income: report” ↗This whole blog post means very little unless you’ve read Caplan’s “The Case Against Education”
on “School Choice, Sorry I Underrated You” ↗