Marie Thompson

“agency” has become a way to describe what sets founders apart from civilians: a bias toward action, a willingness to ignore the haters, a steadfast belief that “you can just do things.”

an existential crisis for conventional school. “A lot of the world is proof of work — college applications, reference letters, thank-you notes — where the only value is time and effort,” he said. “Traditional education models have taught that it is the effort that matters,” but that’s rendered meaningless in a world where anyone with a free ChatGPT account can effortlessly perform effort. “AI,” he said, “kills the proof-of-work stuff.”

Each student’s work is set at a personalized level of difficulty, and they can move forward to the next grade in a subject only once they’ve achieved 90 percent “mastery” — in other words, proof of ability rather than proof of work.

Those who’ve trained themselves to decide what matters and to pursue goals, the thinking goes, will have a stark edge over more passive people.

she listed traits like resilience, a flexible skill set, and creative problem-solving and things she believes will continue to have value in most future scenarios — physical activities like cooking and building and gardening and exploring; emotional skills like self-regulation, empathy, friendship, and conflict management; creative pursuits like music and writing and game design

“it’s good if children’s self-image isn’t too built around the idea of a career.”