Prestige is an ok motivator, but curiosity is a better one. Curiosity never lies. - Paul Graham

Unknowing imitation is almost a recipe for bad design. If you don’t know where your ideas are coming from, you’re probably imitating an imitator.

Instead of simply cancelling student debt, maybe it would be a good idea to loosen the rules about discharging it via bankruptcy. Then you'd both help the people in the greatest need, and start to fix the system (because lenders would have to become less indiscriminate).

Someone graduating from college thinks, and is told, that he needs to get a job, as if the important thing were becoming a member of an institution. A more direct way to put it would be: you need to start doing something people want. You don’t need to join a company to do that. All a company is is a group of people working together to do something people want. It’s doing something people want that matters, not joining the group.