This document discusses deschooling and the impact of traditional schooling. It argues that schooling teaches lessons like confusion, class positioning, and emotional/intellectual dependence through monopolizing 15,000 hours of a person's life. However, schooling does not equal education. The document advocates pursuing passions, defining identity beyond academics/career, learning how value is created, and taking control of one's own learning through entrepreneurial thinking. It suggests parenting, homeschooling, and alternative schools as ways to deschool society by creating new learning paths.

1. 15,000
HOURS

2. WHY ARE WE HERE?
We believe there can be a better future.

3. WHY ARE WE HERE?
We believe there can be a better future.
We believe that we can build our futures and the future of the
world around us.

4. WHY ARE WE HERE?
We believe there can be a better future.
We believe that we can build our futures and the future of the
world around us.
But…how?

5. WHERE DO WE WANTTO GO,
AND WHAT IS KEEPING US FROM
GOINGTHERE?

6. BUILDINGTHE FUTURE —
DESTINATION
We need some ways we can think
about the future.
Optimistic/Pessimistic
Definite/Indefinite

7. BUILDINGTHE FUTURE —
DESTINATION
We need some ways we can think
about the future.
Optimistic/Pessimistic
Definite/Indefinite

8. BUILDINGTHE FUTURE —
DESTINATION
We need some ways we can think
about the future.
Optimistic/Pessimistic
Definite/Indefinite

9. BUILDINGTHE FUTURE
Definite Indefinite
Optimist
United States,
1950-1970
United States,
present
Pessimist China, present Europe, present

10. BUILDINGTHE FUTURE
Definite Indefinite
Optimist ? Most Candidates
Pessimist Donald Trump Bernie Sanders

11. BUILDINGTHE FUTURE —
ORDER
How should a future be
organized?
Hayek gives us two ways:
Constructed
Spontaneous

12. BUILDINGTHE FUTURE —
ORDER
Constructed Order
The USSR, Communist China, Nazi Germany
There’s a central command that gets to decide where
everything is going.

13. BUILDINGTHE FUTURE —
ORDER
Spontaneous Order
Free Markets
There’s no central command determining where things are
going — there is order, but it arises from thousands and
millions of individual choices.

14. WHERE DO WE WANT TO GO,
AND WHAT IS KEEPING US FROM
GOINGTHERE?

15. BUILDINGTHE FUTURE —
DESTINATION + ORDER
Society
Individuals
Spontaneous
Order
Constructivist
Order
Definite
Any technological
revolution
Space-race USSR
Modern-day
China
Indefinite
Great Stagnation
United States
European Welfare
Nightmare

16. WHERE DO WE WANTTO GO,
AND WHAT IS KEEPING US
FROM GOING THERE?

17. WHAT ISTHE ONE CONSTANT
ACROSSTHIS GENERATION?

19. BUILDINGTHE FUTURE —
DESTINATION + ORDER
Society
Individuals
Spontaneous
Order
Constructivist
Order
Definite
Any technological
revolution
Space-race USSR
Modern-day
China
Indefinite
Great Stagnation
United States
European Welfare
Nightmare

20. — PeterThiel, Zero to One
“Indefinite attitudes to the future explain what’s most
dysfunctional in our world today. Process trumps substance:
when people lack concrete plans to carry out, they use
formal rules to assemble a portfolio of various options.This
describes Americans today. In middle school, we’re
encouraged to start hoarding “extracurricular activities.” In
high school, ambitious students compete even harder to
appear omnicompetent. By the time a student gets to
college, he’s spent a decade curating a bewilderingly
diverse résumé to prepare for a completely unknowable
future. Come what may, he’s ready—for nothing in
particular.”

21. 15,000 HOURS
School monopolizes 15,000 hours of a young person’s life.

22. SCHOOLING AS A MINDSET
The Seven Lessons of
Schooling*:
John Taylor Gatto,
NY Teacher of theYear, 1991
*From John Taylor Gatto,“The Seven Lesson Schoolteacher”

23. SCHOOLING AS A MINDSET
The Seven Lessons of
Schooling*:
1. Confusion
John Taylor Gatto,
NY Teacher of theYear, 1991
*From John Taylor Gatto,“The Seven Lesson Schoolteacher”

24. SCHOOLING AS A MINDSET
The Seven Lessons of
Schooling*:
1. Confusion
2. Class Position
John Taylor Gatto,
NY Teacher of theYear, 1991
*From John Taylor Gatto,“The Seven Lesson Schoolteacher”

25. SCHOOLING AS A MINDSET
The Seven Lessons of
Schooling*:
1. Confusion
2. Class Position
3. Indifference John Taylor Gatto,
NY Teacher of theYear, 1991
*From John Taylor Gatto,“The Seven Lesson Schoolteacher”

26. SCHOOLING AS A MINDSET
The Seven Lessons of
Schooling*:
1. Confusion
2. Class Position
3. Indifference
4. Emotional
Dependence
John Taylor Gatto,
NY Teacher of theYear, 1991
*From John Taylor Gatto,“The Seven Lesson Schoolteacher”

27. SCHOOLING AS A MINDSET
The Seven Lessons of
Schooling*:
1. Confusion
2. Class Position
3. Indifference
4. Emotional Dependence
5. Intellectual Dependence
John Taylor Gatto,
NY Teacher of theYear, 1991
*From John Taylor Gatto,“The Seven Lesson Schoolteacher”

28. SCHOOLING AS A MINDSET
The Seven Lessons of Schooling*:
1. Confusion
2. Class Position
3. Indifference
4. Emotional Dependence
5. Intellectual Dependence
6. Provisional Self-Esteem
John Taylor Gatto,
NY Teacher of theYear, 1991
*From John Taylor Gatto,“The Seven Lesson Schoolteacher”

29. SCHOOLING AS A MINDSET
The Seven Lessons of Schooling*:
1. Confusion
2. Class Position
3. Indifference
4. Emotional Dependence
5. Intellectual Dependence
6. Provisional Self-Esteem
7. One Can’t Hide
John Taylor Gatto,
NY Teacher of theYear, 1991
*From John Taylor Gatto,“The Seven Lesson Schoolteacher”

30. 15,000 HOURS: RECLAIMING
YOUR LIFE
Schooling affects us all in ways that are difficult to see.

31. 15,000 HOURS: RECLAIMING
YOUR LIFE
Schooling affects us all in ways that are difficult to see.
There is an imperative to deschool:

32. 15,000 HOURS: RECLAIMING
YOUR LIFE
Schooling affects us all in ways that are difficult to see.
There is an imperative to deschool:
Students, graduates, employees

33. 15,000 HOURS: RECLAIMING
YOUR LIFE
Schooling affects us all in ways that are difficult to see.
There is an imperative to deschool:
Students, graduates, employees
Employers, investors, innovators

34. 15,000 HOURS: RECLAIMING
YOUR LIFE
Schooling affects us all in ways that are difficult to see.
There is an imperative to deschool:
Students, graduates, employees
Employers, investors, innovators
Personal happiness, quality of life, seeing opportunities

35. DESCHOOLINGYOURSELF

36. DESCHOOLINGYOURSELF
Schooling != Education

37. DESCHOOLINGYOURSELF
Schooling != Education
Pursue something you truly love.

38. DESCHOOLINGYOURSELF
Schooling != Education
Pursue something you truly love.
Your Identity != your major, your school, your job

39. DESCHOOLINGYOURSELF
Schooling != Education
Pursue something you truly love.
Your Identity != your major, your school, your job
How do you create value? How is value created?

40. DESCHOOLINGYOURSELF
Schooling != Education
Pursue something you truly love.
Your Identity != your major, your school, your job
How do you create value? How is value created?
Stop asking for permission!

41. DESCHOOLINGYOURSELF
Entrepreneurial Thinking and Living
Entrepreneurship requires
definite, optimistic living in a
spontaneous order.
Entrepreneurship requires active
learning.
Entrepreneurship can build self-
esteem, emotional/intellectual
independence, and definite living.

42. DESCHOOLING … SOCIETY?
Parenting
Home education
Alternative schools
Create the hidden paths.

43. DESCHOOLINGYOURSELF
Set a destination and build a path to get there.
“The road doesn’t have to be indefinite after all. Take the hidden
paths.”
― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the
Future

45. FURTHER READING
Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, Or How to Build the Future
John Taylor Gatto, Dumbing Us Down:The Hidden Curriculum of
Compulsory Schooling
John Holt, How Children Learn
Ivan Illich, Deschooling Society
http://zakslayback.com/2015/04/27/a-deschooling-reading-list-for-
starters/

46. CONTACT ME
discoverpraxis.com
slayback.xyz
zachary@discoverpraxis.com
@zslayback