What Should You Learn In College?

I saw this article in the WSJ from a Yale professor about what kids should really learn while at Yale.   It’s a good list.  I remember a few years after I graduated from college I read the book, The Closing of The American Mind, thought I had just wasted four years of my life.  In that book Allan Bloom talked about the American education system and college.  What should kids really be learning?  He made a persuasive case and it stuck with me.  I’d urge anyone to read it today.

Yes, you need to learn a skill.  Don’t major in some stupid major.  Take a science, a business major, an engineering major or something like history or english.  The rest you can find in newspapers and blogs.

I think one thing students should learn to do is handle themselves in business situations no matter what their major.  Learn how to eat for God sakes.  Learn table manners.  Learn how to dress appropriately.  One of the things that was drilled into me when I was a cadet at USAFA is that one day I would be dining with a head of state or with someone that was very important politically or in business.  Amazingly, that actually happened to me and knowing how to work my way around a place setting allowed me to go with the flow of the conversation.  When you are comfortable, it takes a lot of the nerves and fuss away and allows you to get down to business.  Although, once I was stumped at a lunch with the House of Representatives in Washington DC.  Ask me about the Capital Dome if you ever see me.  It’s a funny story.

The Air Force has an app for that now.  Check it out.  The most comprehensive guide to not offending people from different cultures.

A lot of people think that if you want to be in the startup world you need to know tech backwards and forwards. Tech is important but so are the arts.  The arts help you think creatively and if there is anything startups need from time to time is creativity.  Resources are scarce, so startup people have to think and execute their way out of problems.

Most people can’t talk about tech but they can talk about the arts.  Knowing tech and the arts allows you to be able to translate to terms that a lot of people might understand.

Learn original concepts.  People think crypto and blockchain are changing a lot of things but they are still beholden to original concepts like cost/opportunity cost and what happens at the margin.  As my friend Jeff Minch likes to say, “you didn’t invent sex” although the positions might have changed it’s still sex.

I’d also take a persuasive speaking course.  I took one in college.  It’s intimidating to get up in front of people.  Every successful entrepreneur knows how to sell and persuasion is a part of that.  When you are in the real world if you want to be one of the top dogs, that’s what you have to do.  No one ever led from a cubicle.

Shakespeare is often cited as someone that you should study.  His plays cover wide human themes and do it really well.  Each play might have a tidbit or two that you can bring to the startup world and implement.  Shakespeare might help you think differently.  Plus, being classically educated with a strong base in Western Civilization never hurt anyone.  At the very least you might be able to come up with some snappy quotes at a cocktail party.  I’d be sure to take a Shakespeare course in college.

Above all, Shakespeare gave us this advice,  “Things won are done; joy’s soul lies in the doing.”  It’s about the journey which means you don’t start at the top.  Even if you got a perfect score on the ACT and were valedictorian of your class.