Tommi Pedruzzi: Universities Sell You a Set of Skills That Become Obsolete Upon Graduation for 4 Years and $80,000 in Debt
Notable creator Tommi Pedruzzi posted that universities sell students a set of skills that are already outdated by the time they graduate, at the cost of 4 years and an average debt of $80,000.
He emphasized that the issue is not with the degree itself, but with the "high return promise" attached to it—the narrative that "going to college guarantees a stable, high-paying job" has become ineffective.
This viewpoint has sparked widespread discussion, reflecting the current disconnect between higher education and the job market.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
Tommi Pedruzzi's viewpoint continues the discussion on the "collapse of college value" that has been ongoing for the past few years, with figures like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk publicly questioning the return on investment of traditional college education. The rapid development of AI in the 2020s has further accelerated this trend, as the course content of many traditional majors (such as certain liberal arts and basic business) has quickly depreciated with the proliferation of AI tools.
On the financial side, student debt has exceeded $1.7 trillion, becoming the second largest type of debt after housing loans, while universities continue to raise tuition, creating a mismatch of "high cost + low fit" between education and employment. An increasing number of young people are choosing to enter the workforce directly, pursue vocational training, or start their own businesses, with capital shifting from traditional four-year universities to coding boot camps, AI skills courses, and apprenticeship programs.
Similar to how traditional apprenticeships were briefly replaced by factory education after the Industrial Revolution, and the rise of self-taught programming in the internet age, we are currently in an accelerated phase of higher education transitioning from a "default path" to a model of "skills adaptation and lifelong learning."
Essentially, this is a form of technological replacement: AI and technological changes are replacing traditional universities as "skill factories," restructuring capital from four years of high-cost liberal education to short-cycle, highly targeted skill acquisition, shifting education from a "one-time degree investment" to a structural change of "continuous capability upgrading."
ABAB News · Cognitive Law
The degree did not let you down; it was the promise of "going to college guarantees success" that let you down. The most expensive education often makes you pay the highest price for skills that are already outdated. The future belongs to those who view learning as a lifelong iteration rather than a one-time investment.