Between Resources & Action
The brain drain that occurs when investment banks poach brilliant students for mindless spreadsheet monkey jobs - don’t worry, it’s a “right of passage,” they say - is just sad. What bothers me most is not the salaries, or the culture, but rather the huge opportunity cost incurred by diverting all those brilliant minds away from the world’s larger problems.
Imagine where we’d be today as a society if college graduates were required to spend 1-2 years post-graduation working on social innovations, or starting something on their own! I don’t mean working for a non-profit, I mean working on creative, sustainable, and scalable solutions to large problems that society faces, and actually doing - not just researching and studying.
I see that as another unfortunate chasm that exists today, and that has existed for a long, long time: that of academic research and action. Here at Oxford, and back at Harvard and countless other universities, some of the world’s brightest minds sit in their offices, libraries, and lecture halls, and hypothesize. It’s certainly a useful exercise, but sometimes I wish there was just a bit less thinking, and a little more doing.
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Juventas Fugit is designed and written by Justin Wohlstadter, who, when not writing in the third person, can be found in a coffee shop talking about startups, thinking about the future of education, and generally procrastinating something important.
- Passions: startups that positively affect the world, education innovation, good design, learning, and meeting those with an equally insatiable curiosity.
- Play: director of product design at Enterproid and partner at BOLDstart Ventures.
- Previously: built the early-stage venture arm of Penny Black. And many other crazy, less successful ventures involving fire extinguishers, measuring philanthropic impact, and creative spaces.
- Pedantry: most of the important stuff I taught myself or learned from friends, but I’m fortunate to have (barely received) degrees from Harvard and Oxford. At Oxford I wrote my dissertation on how internet innovation will disrupt access to higher education.
- Procrastination: can be found on Twitter, Linkedin, AngelList and other web spaces, and be reached via email at my first name at this domain.
