What do entrepreneurs do when their passion is not in reach 5 days out of 7? They find a solution, a hack.
Hi, I’m Simon. 25 living in London, originally from Belgium. My career so far consisted of a bunch of my own projects and also full-time careers at Microsoft, Cloudflare, and now Vercel. At the age of 15, my parents and I chose the path of self-directed learning. What made us decide on an alternative path was a mix of elements. The key ones being that 8:30 to 16:30 classes with 19-25 other students, the context switching every 50 min, the sensory overload in school and the outdated curriculum was not the ideal learning environment for me. I wasn’t allowed to bring my laptop to boarding school. Teachers either didn’t understand me or wouldn’t because of the workload they faced. Some were just unfit for the job, as an example: a teacher once told me “I don’t like children with an opinion”. So, we took a step back and looked at the broader goal. The aim was to build a learning structure that would comply with the educational requirements and allow me to pursue my dreams and develop my talents in the fields of technology, connectivity and product management.
My view of the high-level goals education should achieve:
-
empower the ability to critical thinking
-
form an opinion based on factual information backed by science
-
offer exposure to a wide range of subjects allowing individuals to find their passions
-
build a social circle that offers continued exposure to new subjects as they emerge
I cannot stress the first element enough; critical thinking is what allows for a democracy to function.
Education is a broad and generic concept. In Belgium, going to school was the most straightforward path, but it was not mandatory at the time. However, ‘learning’ up until the age of 18 was mandatory, and certain learning milestones had to be achieved by a certain age. This also meant that exams would take place at “the examination comity of the Flemish government”. When you weren’t formally registered in a school, you could expect checks as – rightfully so – government needs to keep
