There’s something wrong with the education system. It’s been on my mind for quite a while, but I’ve never properly put it down on paper. I figured it would be a good time to do so now, since a good friend of mine shared his experience recently. Before I dive into that, though, I think it would be beneficial to take a step back to provide some context about my situation.

I would consider myself quite obsessed with the notion of “the best”. I don’t mean this in the sense that I want to be the best at everything I do, but rather I want to do everything in the best way possible. It sounds like a bit of a cop out, but let me give an example. Before I even start playing a video game, I’ll always spend days researching tier lists and skill builds, formulating strategies and planning out all of my equipment and stat distributions. I’m the type that wants to be sure that what I’m doing is the most optimal.

This applies to life as well. The socially accepted “golden path” starts with going through a good school, getting good grades, attending a good university and then getting a good job. As a result of following this path, I’m now working at a major tech company in cyber security, an industry that boasts the upper echelons of pay, job security and freedom. Yet despite this, I would still hesitate to say that I’ve “made it”. The people in this industry who are really succeeding are the ones with a passion. I hate to say it, but it’s something I lack and something I’m extremely jealous of.

The most skilled experts in my area are all people who have been obsessed from a young age, enough to dedicate their free time to learning and exploring. They’ve neglected school and university to dive into the deep end, and emerged victorious with a plethora of knowledge that they would never have be able to obtain through conventional means. This seems natural when it’s spelled out—of course someone who devotes more will come out ahead. The issue here is that this devotion comes at the cost of straying from the golden path.

In a sense, you could say I’ve set myself up for mediocrity. Since I allocated the majority of my capacity to topping the system, I can’t compete with those who were brave enough to avoid the system altogether. Could I be doing better? Yes. Do I want to be doing better? Yes. Do I think I made the wrong choice? No. Succeeding unconventionally is not reliably reproducible. I’ve only gone one life, so I’m quite content not taking the gamble and opting for the safe route. Rather appropriate for someone with as little ambition as me, wouldn’t you say?

I’ve seen so many “inspiring” stories about people who have dropped out of university only to found multi-billion dollar companies, and people who use them as examples to irresponsibly encourage people to “pursue their dreams”. What they don’t tell you is the number of people who have tried, and failed. I’m fortunate enough to be able to enjoy the work that I do, but expecting to enjoy your job is the epitome of greed. You don’t work for fun, you work for money. Only a select few are lucky enough to even scrape by on their passion.

It’s ironic, though. Second to proven skill (i.e. actual experience), school is the golden standard for hiring and yet there is an inverse correlation between school and skill. Even someone like me who went through all of the orthodox schooling routes can testify that the majority of content taught at school had very little part in getting me to where I am today. I just went through the motions to get the grades and found myself here. I didn’t care. I just played the game.

Due to this, I can’t help but feel like I’ve wasted the dozen and a half-odd years I spent “learning”. Sure, they were an investment. Even if I didn’t learn as much as I would have liked, it was a necessary prerequisite for obtaining my position. Still, there’s definitely something wrong when people who aren’t going to school are learning more, both in quantity and quality, than people who are attending educational institutions. Some major reforms are long overdue.