Founder Slams Universities As Costly Daycare, Urges Rigorous Self-Reading
A Casey Handmer post on X arguing that weak university workloads amount to “expensive daycare” turned into a smaller argument about rigor, loans and whether a 75-text reading list proves anything.
In a post on X, Terraform Industries founder Casey Handmer argued that universities demanding too little from students amount to "extremely expensive daycare" financed by non-dischargeable loans. He contrasted that with what he said is Terraform Industries' 75-text reading list, and held up heavy reading plus physical exertion as a marker of serious effort. The post spread further when Danielle Fong riffed on it on X, imagining a kind of textbook gym led by Handmer and Richard Hamming.
If your university isn't making your whole class sweat a lot, you're taking a non-dischargeable loan for extremely expensive daycare.
Commentary on X
Highest ranked@CJHandmer College exists to make you a functional adult not a scholar. Expensive daycare is a great descriptor. Unless they end up in a STEM field, most students will use very little of their college education. At least any education that can be traditionally evaluated.