The education system of the industrial era has fulfilled its mission.
In the 19th century, Prussia was the pioneer of the modern education system.
The foundation of all modern nations initially required collectivism: the establishment of basic industries, a sense of societal identity, and the compliance of its citizens. This is the greatest value of a centralized education system characterized by large class sizes, standardization, and unified examinations.
But times have changed.
The creator economy will shape the next generation of education systems.
Personalization and decentralization are the future trends in education.
What I’ve learned in one year of entrepreneurship might be more practical than everything I learned in 20 years of schooling.
Traditional education is like a massive molding workshop. Regardless of your original material, it first breaks your ideas apart and then recasts you into a standardized “socially useful” form.
In the language of the internet, it’s not at all user-centered.
True growth should follow this trajectory: discover your talent and passion, experiment quickly in different directions, continuously acquire new knowledge and skills, and ultimately build a lifelong career. Every person’s growth path should be unique.
Everyone’s “code” is different. Therefore, the most suitable education must be personalized, tailored to the individual.
Traditional education serves society—it provides what society needs.
But in the creator economy, education centers back on the individual: what you need, what you want. Creators provide that for you. This is true human-centered education, echoing Confucius’s idea of “teaching according to the student’s abilities.”
The personalization and diversity offered by the creator economy far exceed traditional education. This aligns with both the needs of users and the developmental demands of a society that has moved past its industrial foundation.
If centralized education systems still have a role in the future, they should not focus on teaching specific skills. Standardization is only suitable for cultivating foundational abilities such as logic and learning skills. Yet, traditional education today doesn’t even teach those.
A Better Business Model
There are now over 50 million content creators globally. Sharing knowledge and skills has become one of the mainstream content models.
Freelancers make up 46.6% of the workforce, and according to Goldman Sachs, the creator economy will reach $500 billion by 2027.
Why has the creator economy risen so quickly?
Because, from a business model perspective, it inherently outperforms traditional education systems.
1. High Profit Margins of Knowledge Products
The marginal cost of video courses or e-books is almost zero. This means that whether you have 1 customer or 10,000 customers, your costs remain fixed.
This gives it built-in leverage.
For traditional teachers, a month’s worth of offline classes in a school might earn them $1,000 to $2,000—a high salary by their standards—because the number of students they can serve is fixed.
Schools are limited by physical space and cannot expand indefinitely.
However, by leveraging the internet, creating high-quality products based on your strengths, and applying this leverage effectively, it’s possible to surpass your primary job income with online courses in less than six months.
To achieve this, you only need to learn one thing—how to use content to find your target audience.
2. Lower Operating Costs
Traditional education requires venues, teachers, and textbooks. In contrast, the creator economy only requires a computer and a smartphone for people to learn from you.
Lower operating costs mean better cost-effectiveness.
Customers can get the same quality education at a lower price. Look at the growth of platforms like Pinduoduo—do you think the creator economy or the traditional education system represents the future?
For educators, the creator economy offers a higher return on unit output.
For learners, the creator economy provides more knowledge for the same cost.
As The Innovator’s Dilemma explains, lower costs and higher value are the essence of disruptive innovation.
The Future Belongs to Those Who Understand Self-Creation
AI can already achieve perfect scores on standardized tests. So what will be your competitive advantage in the future?
It will not be about how much knowledge you can memorize, but rather about your ability to create, express, and influence others.
The development of the creator economy has introduced a new way of life:
》 You no longer need to work for an organization. You can build your own brand and become a one-person company.
》 You are no longer confined by standardized education. You can explore your strengths and create differentiated value.
Traditional education teaches obedience. The creator economy teaches creation.
The “mold” of the industrial-era education system should have been broken long ago.
When a major trend emerges, the best response is not to wait to be reformed but to embrace it actively. Whether you succeed or fail, the first step is to ensure you have a seat at the table.