The GSV Big 10: Lobster Tails and Hard Pills to Swallow
Seafood towers, Princeton's cowboy, and 2 keys to success...
This Week’s People Moves
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Abhinav Singh: Keras ➡️ Coursera, Sr. Machine Learning Engineer (ML infra | LLM's)
Lucy Svoboda: GoodRx ➡️ Seesaw Learning, VP, GTM Strategy & Operations
Gagandeep Singh: Hello Excellence Consulting ➡️ Learnet, Co-Founder
Krysia Lazarewicz: Academic Partnerships ➡️ Imagine Learning, Vice President Professional Learning & Development
Nancy F.: Cvent ➡️ Coursera, Senior Manager, Sales Strategy and Operations
The Big 10:
Physician, heal thyself. We invariably want to hear Ben’s take on things, and this is no exception. Being a good coach means acknowledging where your players fall short and creating actionable remedies. Whistling past the graveyard isn’t a strategy…focusing on what has to be done to win (i.e., creating greater learning effectiveness) is what matters.
We always enjoy Ryan’s well-written and entertaining insights into the world of learning, and it’s been fun to get to know his son Leo a little bit as well. In addition to appreciating Ryan’s seafood tower/higher education analogy, the lobster tail of his analysis is that what you study makes more of a difference than where you studied it. Ryan highlighted the FREOPP report stating, “choice of major explains more of the variation in ROI [return-on-investment] than choice of college.”
The point of technology is to create consistent excellence at scale. If in fact Edtech’s success is measured according to the students who are already thriving, it would be like a doctor’s office that only serves healthy patients while excluding people who need the most help. A fundamental truth of life is that you can get what you want if you help enough people get what they want, and the vast majority of people want the skills and knowledge to not just survive, but thrive.
Leaders are readers. You are shaped by the books you read and the people you meet. Despite the current fashion at many elite institutions to hate on Western civilization and its contribution to modern society, the surprising popularity of Professor Brooks’s course provides a ray of hope. When you study success, you’ll notice that greatness always comes from turning obstacles into opportunities.
AI has the potential to steamroll STEAM. The balance of power between math/science and the humanities is going through a shift. Peter Thiel has argued that writers and creatives will go through a renaissance. The question he posed…”Do you want your neurosurgeon to have great dexterity or a perfect MCAT score?”
College campuses have historically been places where controversial ideas could be debated. Learning from points of view different than your own is the essence of how you gain wisdom and knowledge. I’m sure the donor class is reeling from the spectacle of what’s taken place at their alma maters, so it’s not surprising that the pressure has put a hose on the fire.
With over two decades of sitting atop the largest and most innovative public university, Michael Crow is nothing if not decisive. Refreshing candor, clear thinking, and relentless focus on the goal are ingredients of his success as a leader. Also leaning into ASU’s notoriety as a place for fun only makes his achievements that much more impressive.
Prof G pens an open letter to new college grads to share his observations from life. For all of the grumbling and complaining about the United States, if you don’t recognize how lucky you are to be here at this time and in this place, you need a checkup from the neck up. Obviously, the USA brand has been injured by everything from growing inequality to a confused justice system. However, compared to any other place on Earth, at any other time in history, you won the lottery. Take agency in your future and try to make the World a better place.
Odyssey Secures $10 Million Series A Funding to Expand Education Opportunities for Families Nationwide | PR Newswire
Congrats to Yass Prize finalist Odyssey on the raise. 29 states now have some form of ESA, education choice tax credit, or education tax scholarship. In a country that can’t agree on what day of the week it is, approximately 75% of adults favor school choice. To date, Odyssey has helped over 140,000 students access $400 million in state funding.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy shares 2 keys to success: have a great attitude, and ‘be an incredibly ravenous learner’ | Amazon
The secrets to success are to have a great attitude and to be a ravenous learner. Neither of these are Earth-shattering, but impactful coming from the CEO of a $2 trillion market cap business. For him, what made school interesting was thinking of it as a game, which seems to be a common theme among highly-competitive people. Getting to the top involved a meandering journey that went from wanting to be a professional athlete, to a broadcast host, to a startup entrepreneur. Now, he’s the head honcho of the “Everything Store.”