by Brivael

Every single one of the brightest people I’ve run into over the last few years realized the exact same thing at the exact same time: the degree system is a Ponzi scheme.

The sequence is always identical. They get into a top school. Within six months, they realize that what they’re being taught is 20 years behind what they already know how to do on their own. They realize that the only real product of a degree is a social signal for HR and future mothers-in-law. They drop out. They start a company.

The latest example: @khadri_othmane. $1M+ ARR in just a few months. He’s going to be a billionaire. Not because he has some magical talent—but because he thinks for himself and realized that the entire system around him is just theater.

And that’s where we hit the real French problem: a US dropout is a potential hero. A French dropout is a failure parents hide at dinner parties. The ratio of dropouts starting companies between the US and Europe is about 4 or 5 to 1. Not because young Europeans are less intelligent. But because the social cost of leaving HEC or Centrale is massive—and we keep treating a degree like proof of value.

That’s where the snake eats its own tail.

We value degrees → nobody dares to drop out → the brightest minds stay trapped in useless curriculums → they graduate at 24 with a resume and zero products shipped → they go to McKinsey or BNP → they never build anything.

We need to break the signal. Massively. Publicly. Until starting your own company at 19 becomes the default path, and spending 5 years at Centrale is considered the weird thing to do.

Direct message to the guys entering a grande école right now: don’t stay. Seriously. You are in the most gilded cage in France, but it’s still a cage. The only thing you’ll actually learn there is how to obey the next competitive exams. Nobody in the real world has ever hired someone based on their rank in the Polytechnique entrance exam.

Get out. Build. Sell. Fail hard. Do it again.

That’s what will make you somebody. Not a piece of paper signed on Rue Descartes.

This is a digital preservation copy.
You may find the original at: https://x.com/brivael/status/2058292118574284848