Balaji Srinivasan is starting a "technocapitalist" school on a private island
Balaji Srinivasan is building a "Network School". Will it be a tech dream school, or a disappointing cash grab?
Because he’s extremely smart and was very early to crypto, former Coinbase CTO and a16z general partner Balaji Srinivasan made a fortune. Now, he’s trying to help others like him do the same.
So, he’s starting the “Network School”.
The school is a variation of the “network state,” Balaji’s idea for an internet community to inhabit a physical space and eventually gain diplomatic recognition from other states. In the case of the Network School, this physical location is an island near Singapore.
The school's goal is simple: provide an opportunity for what Balaji calls the “dark talent” of the world. Dark talent in this context means two things. First, it means people currently living in disadvantaged situations who might otherwise not get the same opportunities for advancement. And second, it means people who don’t fit in with the establishment. As Balaji puts it, “The more respect you have for legacy institutions…, the less suitable you’ll be as an applicant”.
The way the Network School achieves this goal is by:
Teaching students everything about founding tech companies, with the material touching on subjects from crypto, AI, and social media to history, politics, and filmmaking.
Putting every student on a nutrition and fitness plan designed by the tech entrepreneur and longevity expert Bryan Johnson.
Award crypto prizes for completing open-source projects, creating AI content, and finishing microtasks.
Provide an atmosphere where people can learn from each other while also having fun.
At an initial price of $2,000/mo for individuals or $1,000/mo with roommates, you’d be forgiven if you thought the school was just some kind of weird cash grab. However, the idea of a Network State is popular with smart people from Marc Andreessen to Vitalik Buterin to Peter Thiel. And, with Balaji’s vast connections, there will surely be a rockstar list of speakers and teachers, which should provide at least some value.
If nothing else, it’s a very interesting idea for anyone who loves "technocapitalist" ideals.
Interesting move by Balaji Srinivasan—starting a technocapitalist school on a private island really shows how innovation is moving beyond traditional boundaries. It’ll be fascinating to see how this evolves and what kind of talent it attracts. By the way, if anyone’s looking for digital growth support, I’d recommend checking out a trusted Pakistan SEO company—great for scaling visibility in competitive markets .
Balaji sometimes uses the term "post-economic" to describe his massive wealth. It rubs some people the wrong way. I'm not one of those people.
There's no better use of large amounts of financial capital than to deploy it on social experiments like this that give people useful data on important societal questions (like how to most effectively educate people).
So I'm pro-Network state, pro-network school, and pro-Balaji. Not because I'm a technocapitalist necessarily, but because the world needs fewer ideas that are "good in theory" and more people putting their skin (and money) in the game.
I would be very sceptical to where I bring my kids. Sometimes people have kids as if they were lottery tickets, they expect them to fulfil their dreams.
Can I get this but without all the emphasis on crypto please?
My kids goes to public school in our country. The curriculum is 100% locked down, private schools have to follow it too, so it makes no difference. There is strict attendance by law, you can't go anywhere during the term. It's suffocating. I don't want him to go to regular school for 12 years where he learns with completely outdated teaching methodologies, and subjects which are non-optimal for the world he will be released into. We need more AI and project/passion based learning environments. My kid loves Minecraft, he learns stuff 100x faster than in school where each week they learn a new letter (like what? he learns 30 new English words, not his native tongue, every week just from Minecraft). I wish I had the time and freedom to teach him about computers, programming, AI, or just dive deep into thing he's interested and passionate about. But school sucks out all time, energy and enthusiasm out of our kids.
So give me an island we can move to, but please, light on the crypto
Reminds me of DAOs, which as far as I know, never took off.
Doesn't the fact that they need to get together in person belie the entire point of the next work state, which is an online state?
This comment was deleted a year ago