The Case Against Education, Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money

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In your new book, you argue that education is a waste of time and money. What deeper disease about our society do you think excess credentialism reflects? At least a big part of it is what psychologists call action bias - the idea that itss we ought to do something right. And again, i think f this as primarily a disease of government, because it's so based upon what people say rather than on how things actually turn out.

"No single paper is that good", says Bryan Caplan. To really understand a topic, you need to read the entire literature in the field. And to do the kind of scholarship Bryan's work requires, you need to cover multiple fields. Only that way can you assemble a wide variety of evidence into useful knowledge.

But few scholars ever even try to reach the enlightened interdisciplinary plane. So how does he do it?

Tyler explores Bryan's approach, including how to avoid the autodidact's curse, why his favorite philosopher happens to be a former classmate, what Tolstoy has that science fiction lacks, the idea trap, most useful wrong beliefs, effective altruism, Larry David, what most economics papers miss about the return to education, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Recorded April 17th, 2018 Other ways to connect

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