Structure helps most learners more than pure freedom
Skills matter more than credentials for some. For large numbers of youth, structure, milestones, and guidance still decide whether learning compounds.
I read the degrees-versus-skills argument often. It is true that in a connected world someone who wants to learn can learn a great deal, especially without heavy apparatus. Will that model work for everyone? When I observe college-going youth, structure still helps ensure progress for a large section. Exams give short-term milestones. If not college, we need some other way of providing structure.
Not everyone has the best guidance available. In information overload, direction is scarce. Evaluation is also hard, which is why degrees persist as proxies of capability. Humans will keep needing some proxy. The honest position is not that structure is sacred, or that free learning is enough for all. It is that most people need a scaffolding that converts intention into finished work.
From X
Derived from posts on X as devendrasm: