Here's something worth watching: the next wave of serious builders might not have diplomas hanging on their walls. Research keeps pointing in the same direction—more Gen Z kids are ditching the traditional college route, launching businesses straight out of high school or after a semester or two, and yeah, eventually they're the ones running the show while the degree-holders work for them.

It's not random. Tuition keeps climbing, student debt is crushing, and meanwhile these young builders see the opportunity cost: why spend four years and $100k+ on school when you could spend that time actually building something, making mistakes cheap, and shipping products?

The pattern shows up everywhere. In tech, in startups, in Web3—Gen Z entrepreneurs are disproportionately represented among the founders actually getting traction. They're comfortable with volatility, they move fast, they skip the gatekeeping lectures. By the time their peers finish their degrees, the dropout cohort has already iterated ten times over.

The irony? Those traditional paths suddenly look a lot less certain when your classmate is already managing a team and revenue streams.