From Dropout to Network School: Rethinking Education for the New Age

How I accidentally solved education by finding the school I always wanted

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The Great Unbundling

I wanted to leave school at 15. Missing assignments, disconnected from classrooms that felt like factories churning out compliance rather than curiosity. The traditional path—high school, college, corporate ladder—felt like an elaborate game of permission-seeking that had little to do with actual learning or value creation.

Now I’m at Network School in Singapore, and everything makes sense. I love school now—but this isn’t the school you know.

What’s Wrong with Traditional Education?

The lie lies in its unanimity. Everyone pretends the system works when deep down, we all know K-12 and especially college are pretty broken. But since there’s no clear 10x alternative, the masses don’t jump ship.

Here’s what I’ve observed:

• Degree inflation everywhere: A degree has become a status symbol, universities are talent aggregators with luxury brand pricing
• Teaching to the tool, not the problem: As Elon said, schools got it backward—we should teach to solve problems, not memorize abstract tools
• Permissioned everything: College, jobs, all the traditional paths require jumping through hoops that may have nothing to do with competence
• The burden of understanding is on the teacher, not the student—yet most educational institutions flip this backward

Legacy students rack up student loan debt. Internet students rack up credit card debt. Both are trying to solve the same problem: How do you get credible signals of competence without spending four years and six figures?

The Network School Alternative

Network School feels like a modern version of the Ancient Greek Lyceum—education that incorporates not just thinking, but physical fitness, practical skills, and real community. It’s startup Stanford, but with a crucial difference: we’re building the school while attending it.

What Makes NS Different

1. Problem-First Learning Instead of abstract curriculum divorced from reality, we start with real problems. Want to learn coding? Build something that matters. Want to understand economics? Create wealth. The relevance creates flow, and flow creates deep learning.

2. Talent Curation What top universities do best is aggregate talent. NS does this too, but based on curiosity and competence rather than test scores and family wealth. It self-selects for continuous learners in free markets.

3. Compressed Timelines Why spend four years when you can get transformative education in 6-12 months? Intensive microcredentials with proof of work for concentrated skills and knowledge.

4. Real Network Effects This isn’t just about individual learning—we’re collectively writing the newest testament of how education should work. Each student contributes to the institution while learning from it.

The Bundling and Unbundling of Everything

We’re living through the great transition where old institutions—university, church, traditional employment—are being unbundled and rebundled in new ways.

What’s being unbundled from traditional college:

• Information access (internet made this free)
• Credentialing (portfolio and proof of work matter more)
• Social signaling (can be achieved other ways)
• Network access (online communities and events)

What can’t be easily unbundled:

• Peer socialization and community
• Structured learning progression
• Mentorship and feedback loops
• Rites of passage and shared meaning

Network School rebundles the essential parts while discarding the bloat. We keep the academy, gymnasium, and shrine—the spaces for learning, physical development, and meaning-making—but make them relevant to the modern world.

The Economics of Alternative Education

Free is overpriced if it doesn’t create value. Traditional college costs six figures and four years for uncertain outcomes. NS costs a fraction of that for compressed, practical education with immediate applicability.

But it’s not just about cost—it’s about opportunity cost. Four years of prime learning and earning years spent in lecture halls versus building real competence in real markets with real mentors.

The ROI calculation is clear when you consider:

• Speed to competence
• Network quality over network size
• Immediate applicability
• Lower debt burden
• Higher agency and ownership

What We’re Building

This isn’t just about creating an alternative school—we’re prototyping the future of human development. The components include:

For Individuals:

• Philosophy and wealth creation theory (foundational skills)
• Programming and persuasion (permissionless leverage)
• Health, wisdom, and practical life skills
• Clear progression paths and rites of passage

For Society:

• Talent factories that actually produce talent
• Reduced credentialism and increased competence-based evaluation
• More apprenticeships and internships
• Open-source, forkable educational models

For the Future:

• Network states and new forms of governance
• Companies as schools that pay you
• Continuous learning ecosystems
• Merit-based progression systems

The Path Forward

I’m proud of myself for staying true to my instincts about traditional education. Sometimes you outgrow teachers, sometimes you need to find new ones. The key is maintaining intellectual honesty about what you don’t know while actively seeking better scaffolding.

What makes someone intellectual? It’s not degrees or credentials—it’s the ability to think clearly, learn quickly, and create value in the world. It’s being on the bleeding edge of knowledge in your domain while maintaining humility about everything you don’t know.

The ideal progression: Learn → Build → Teach → Repeat. Each cycle, you’re 80% competent for the next level, you learn the remaining 20%, then compound and repeat at the next project or challenge.

Conclusion: The School I Always Wanted

I’ll graduate from Network School—the school I always wanted but didn’t know existed. It’s solving the problem of educational cost while encouraging talented individuals from around the world. It’s creating the conditions for accelerated learning, meaningful community, and practical competence.

The future of education isn’t about reforming broken institutions—it’s about building better alternatives that make the old system obsolete. Network School is proof that when you start from first principles and focus on what actually matters, you can create something extraordinary.

We are collectively writing the newest testament of how humans can learn, grow, and create value together. And for the first time in my educational journey, I’m excited to be in school.

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Currently learning at Network School Singapore. Previously: college dropout, now: continuous learner in free markets. Building the future of education while getting educated in it.