Fab Fridays 19: YCombinator

What YCombinator gets right about Education

Hey Everyone!

Happy Friday and greetings from Panama.

In this week's episode of Show&Tell, David and I talk about what Y-Combinator gets right about education.

I also wrote this thread on what YCombinator gets right about education. For some background, Y-Combinator is the most successful startup studio in the world. It’s responsible for helping starting up billion-dollar companies like Airbnb, Dropbox, and Stripe.

One of my strongest beliefs about education is that knowledge is not something that is delivered, but rather something that kids need to build themselves. And at YC, its leaders understand that people are most productive when they can spend most of their time building. With this in mind, they’ve created an environment where founders can focus exclusively on building products and talking to users. It’s very hands-on and "student centered". In other words, it's a real-life example of project-based learning.
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This episode distills their success into a series of principles that traditional education can learn from. Our conversation ranges from the benefits of project-based learning, to rapid prototyping, to the ingredients needed to build passionate learning communities.

Watch previous Show&Tell episodes here.

Until next week!

Ana Lorena Fabrega