What is the point of education?

What have I learned so far in my life? I’ve spent almost two decades in school and university. Education (by which I mean the training you receive at schools and universities) has been the center of my life and, frankly, pretty much all I’ve done since I was born. Yet sometimes I catch myself wondering what it was all for. Sure, I’ve learned a lot about language, culture, history, math, physics, economics, finance, and countless other things. But when I think about how much of that will actually be relevant for my future life, the answer is shockingly little.

Moreover, I’ve probably forgotten 90 % of the details over the years. And I know I’m not alone in that. For as long as I can remember, people around me have complained about being forced to study subjects that seem pointless at first glance. I too have made those complaints more times than I can count. Especially back in school, I genuinely believed that most subjects were useless and that once I reached university, I’d finally be learning exciting, practical things I could actually apply in my future. Man, was I disappointed.

During my first internships, I was surprised to find that the math, languages, and general knowledge I had learned in school were far more useful than the economic models I had studied at university. That led me to the conclusion that the true point of education can’t simply be the knowledge you acquire. Still not fully grasping it, I began to view education more as a societal formality ‒ something you go through because that’s just how the system works. Especially in business, I started to believe that many jobs could be learned just as well, if not better, through hands-on experience.

Over the years, however, I began to realize that many things I had always taken for granted were actually shaped by education. Experiencing different education systems across countries definitely opened my eyes to this. For instance, while studying in Taiwan, I was struck by the differences in strengths and weaknesses between students there and those back home. Their math skills and diligence were exceptional, yet I often found myself leading when it came to tasks involving conceptual thinking, critical analysis, and creativity. Whether or not this reflects a broader pattern isn’t the point. What stood out to me was the insight that education shapes far more than just what we know.

To make this point clearer, let’s take the German university system as another example. In my undergrad, I was thrown into a lecture hall with 500 other students, listening to one professor monotonously teaching his subject. I was a number and no one cared whether I came or not, whether I participated or not, whether I graduated or not. I had my 180 ECTS study plan, and it was completely on me to figure out how to organize my studies and fulfill that plan. This kind of system creates a high level of self-organization, discipline, and independence ‒ all very abstract skills that have little to do with actual knowledge transfer.

Now comparing that to my studies in France, it is fundamentally different. I get ten emails a day, always telling me exactly what I have to do, where I have to be, and when. Teachers know me by name, I have to attend class, and I’m expected to contribute meaningfully. It’s also much more focused on practical application than on theoretical knowledge. Such a system, beyond the knowledge transfer, encourages collaboration, sparks discussion, and fosters social exchange. Whether one system is better than the other comes down to personal preference in the end, though there are certainly objective pros and cons to both.

These differences, however, highlight one thing: It’s not so much about learning what to think, but about learning how to think. It’s about developing the ability to solve problems you’ve never encountered before. It's about becoming a person with a particular mindset and approach to the world. It prepares you to be a lifelong learner. In hindsight, this might sound obvious, but have people truly internalized it? The constant complaints about the relevance of specific topics suggest otherwise. Those very subjects we dismiss often play a role in developing the subtle, transferable skills that matter most. And those skills can't be picked up on the job.

While this might not be your conclusion, asking the question in the first place is more relevant than ever. The rise of artificial intelligence has shaken the very foundations of how we think about education. Human knowledge appears to lose value by the day. Will we even need to educate people at all in the future? While that prospect may seem unsettling, I also see hope in it. Millennia ago, scholars gathered to study purely for the sake of curiosity. That fascination has largely disappeared in today’s outcome-driven world. But maybe, when the need disappears, the wonder will return...