Wow, great speech. Recommend you read all the notes, they’re short and packed up tight. Here’s the part that caught my eye:
instead of getting a degree from an institution, get it from a person. (sorta like phds). this is actually how universities used to work – you’d get certified by someone from the guild.
As noted, educational is going in the opposite direction and so becoming more democratic (less about who you know, etc). Standardized tests are a way of minimizing the damage from a crappy network. In my world, the CFA and CAS exams do this.
But let’s not get caught up in the romance. The best way of being extraordinary will never change: you need to learn from extraordinary people by joining a (the?!) Paul Graham Network.
Not Unreasonable 