Vishen Lakhiani critiques traditional university structures—four-year residential programs, fixed campuses, age-segregated cohorts, outdated curriculums, and research-incentivized faculty—and proposes Mindvalley University as a reinvention: short annual residencies in rotating global cities, multi-age cohorts (children to elderly), a curriculum focused on real-world life skills, and practitioners/celebrity teachers to amplify community, celebration, and lifelong learning.
Chapters
Alan Watts, the great Zen philosopher, once said, no literate, inquisitive and imaginative person needs to go to college unless in need of a union card or a degree as a certified physician, lawyer or teacher. Yet even when Watts wrote that in 1972, he couldn't possibly have foreseen the rate of change happening in the world today. This rapid rate of change further makes the way we've constructed modern education kinda insane. Look at what's happening in the world today, with how rapidly things are evolving due to AI, virtual reality, new emerging technologies, new ways of work. Yet college and its curriculums are barely innovating. Despite this, college does have great points. Let's talk about that for a moment. We have the time of our lives. We meet new friends, we discover new passions. All of that is worth preserving. But there are elements of college that we think it's time to completely disrupt. So how can we look at emerging tech, new social movements, new concepts of what it means to be human and bring all of this together to produce for the world a radically new version of the university? Ready to catch a glimpse? Before we go down that rabbit hole, let's first look at what makes modern education so absurd in the first place. The first idea is the four year model. Four years in a bubble in a tiny college town with other kids. Your four years today is a long time. Peter Diamandis, the futurist, said, in four years, between 2022 and 2026, we will see as much change in the world as the entire 20th century. 100 years of change in four years. So when you come out of that bubble, you're coming out into a world that has bypassed you. Now. The second thing is, why stay in one location? Modern colleges are fixed to the ground on just one spot on this diverse planet Earth. What if college campuses move to different locations every year? Maybe a city like Tallinn or Amsterdam or Barcelona. Amazing cities where you can discover new culture and new people. And then there is age. And this seems to be the most absurd of all. College locks you in with a group of other people your age. When I went to university at the University of Michigan, I was 19. The coolest kids I know were the ones who could sneak me into frat parties or help me buy alcohol while I was underaged. What if we got rid of this idea? What if universities were places where people of all ages came to learn together? Older folks could learn from younger folks. Younger folks could gain from the wisdom of their elders. And then our biggest collective beef with college, the curriculum. Neil Gaiman, the Legendary writer said this up school. I've been making a list of the things they don't teach you at school. They don't teach you how to love somebody. They don't teach you how to be famous. They don't teach you how to be richer, how to be poorer. They don't teach you how to walk away from someone you don't love any longer. They don't teach you how to know what's going on in someone else's mind. They don't teach you what to say to someone who's dying. They don't teach you anything worth knowing. And you know what I'm talking about. College has essentially been a method to help you get a piece of paper that is meant to get you a job. But I hate to break it to you, companies and jobs don't really care much for that piece of paper anymore. Labor markets and the skyrocketing cost of college are causing companies to take a second look at education requirements for many higher paying jobs. In today's world, you don't need to go to college. You can get at websites like edX and jump into classes from leading institutions like Harvard or Stanford. But you need to pay all of that money and go into many massive student debt just for that piece of paper. So how do you change the curriculum you teach What Neil Gaiman is talking about. Real world skills. How to lead. How to create a vision for your life. How to be a better parent, a spouse, a better lover. How to have healthy self esteem and emotional intelligence. What to do during those days when you just feel absolutely crap. How to stay fit and healthy. How to nurture your mind. How to tap into your spiritual core. How to connect deeply with the people who matter. And all of this brings us to the fifth problem with college. The teachers. Now I am the son of a schoolteacher. I have great respect for teachers. But the way the incentive system works right now is that the teachers in universities are incentivized mostly to do research to survive. In a classical system, you're awarded more for research than for actual teaching. Many great teachers end up leaving. So where are the best teachers today? They're the ones writing best selling books, giving TED talks, starting companies actually out there in the field, applying things in practice. So what if you could learn from these teachers? Teachers who were breaking Guinness records. Teachers who were selling millions of books. Teachers who were inventing things and starting successful companies. So let's recap. No more four years in the bubble. No fixed campus, no fixed age. Your peers come from all around the world. No outdated curriculums. You learn the skills that truly matter and your teachers are the best in the world. College does have some incredibly good points. The community, the connection. College gave me some of my most profound memories in life. Meeting and connecting with a group of like minded friends. What if we could reinvent the bad stuff and amplify the good stuff? What would education look like then? Well, I think we have an idea. Welcome to Mindvalley University. First, reinventing the timeline. Mindvalley University isn't four years. No, it's a few weeks every year and thousands of students come together and then they go back into the real world to actually get things done. Coming back the very next year with the same community. This could go on for their entire life. This is true lifelong learning. People have come to Mindvalley University and found the person that they ended up marrying. People have come and found business partners. People have found mentors who have completely transformed their lives. The community is so powerful. Next, it's not just 19 year olds. Mindvalley University is for all ages. As you get older and you have kids, you can bring your kids. Classes start for children as young as six. Our oldest participants are approaching 90. Everyone learns from this great diversity of people from all around the world and this great diversity of age. Next, the campus. Mindvalley University happens in some of the most exciting cities in the world. This year it's in Tallinn, Estonia. Next year it's going to be in another amazing city. Come for a week or two or three or just a few days. Check the agenda on the website and choose what events you want to participate in. And then there's the curriculum. Here you learn the things that really matter from the most legendary teachers in the world for these magical weeks. The greatest teachers across the world who teach on Mindvalley descend to one city to share their ideas with the community. You learn from incredible individuals that you've seen on Oprah, whose books you've seen on the New York Times best seller list. People who are breaking Guinness or Olympic world records. Such are the teachers that teach at Mindvalley University. And as you learn and grow with those teachers, you make new friends, new connections. If you bring your kids with you, they get to experience the same. In no other school in the world did children get exposed to teachers of this type. And that's not even the best part. You see, I said we were not just going to reinvent what's off with college. We're going to amplify what's great about college. The greatest memories of college for me, were was about community and celebration, and that's what we do at Mindvalley University. Mindvalley University has an incredible community of people that uplift you, and it is rooted in celebration, experience. Some of the most amazing concerts, parties, festivals, all baked into the education system. So you don't just learn, you celebrate. You connect. You make new friends. You go through a transformation where you become the greatest version of yourself. And you do it while connecting so deeply with peers that you never, ever, ever have to feel alone again. In the past decade, we have reinvented the telephone, reinvented the car, reinvented the TV. But education has stayed the same. The classroom of 300 years ago looks extremely similar to the classroom today. It's time we reinvented education. Welcome to Mindvalley University. Sam.
