00:18:50 · David Booth
[00:18:50] S0: But there's also... I mean, there's something on the other side here, which is a lot of, like, the paths that that are chartered through these institutions are often very, you know, played out based on what's worked in the past. And I'd be really curious about one of the critiques I've I've heard and also had of sort of higher education process, I think, is that by now, it's such a well charted, such a well playbooked process to get in that... And, you know, helping people, you know, plan and and plan ahead of that for many years. It's almost this idea that the the hoops that you have to jump jump through are so pre prepared, so pre planned. I love this quote. Actually, I found out about somebody who'd spent some time on the Yale admissions committee, and he wrote that, you know, by the time that somebody who had six or seven extracurriculars and great grades was still in trouble because they needed to have, know, 10 to 12 extracurriculars or, you know, what you'd seen around you were were these people who were obviously very intelligent, obviously very good, but they'd been trained to identify the right hoops to jump through in life, not the, you know, the the right sort of greenfield creative opportunities to come out with. I'd be curious about, like, to to what extent does the the past and what's worked in the past for us doing exactly what's right to get into the right institution really sort of correlate in the future of sort of pushing people, prompting people to think about, you know, their entrepreneurial career from first principles and what they're gonna build together. Like, do do you agree that, yeah, the the admissions process itself is is sort of pushing students into a particular direction or a particular mode of thought that may or may not be what they need in life? How do you correlate it to?
00:20:21 · Jamie Beaton
[00:20:21] S1: So Crimson doesn't exist necessarily to help anyone with any ambition go down any path. What we've identified is a really high probability swim lane for success. So if a student is interested in academics and they wanna be wildly successful, this is a pathway that, with almost certainty, will deliver them that objective if they put in the work and put in the process. So is there ways to be successful in other ways? Could you do a trade apprentice? Could you skip university as a whole and be an entrepreneur? Without that, absolutely. Crimson's built to give you that high probability pathway to these careers that are usually very hard to unlock. Let's take an example of a student who wants to work at Blackstone. If you wanna go to a top private equity fund like Blackstone and you grew up in New Zealand, almost the only way to get there is through one of these top universities. Now is that good? It's probably not good. It's probably bad. Mhmm. But as a Kiwi, if you wanna make that career path happen, then you need the support. And your high school's not gonna train you on all the steps. They don't know how recruiting works at these firms. And so, you know, what you'll find is the kids getting those roles are often from very privileged families that have great networks and get all the information, and they know what they need to do. But for the most people in the world, especially outside of America, they have no idea. And if they don't have that support, they're not gonna be able to, you know, even compete in the arena. They're gonna have no shot. So I would say Crimson isn't the magic solution for everyone, but it's a very systematic way for most of the world's talent to at least have a very fair shot at competing, you know, in these opportunities. Mhmm. Now as far as the... I think... Is is it William Deresiewicz? It's the Yale professor. That's a great book. I think it's, like, Intelligent Sheep or something like that.
00:21:51 · David Booth
[00:21:51] S0: It's... Yeah. It's exactly. Solitude and leadership is the is the piece. Yeah. It's fantastic.
00:21:56 · Jamie Beaton
[00:21:56] S1: I I... Yeah. It's a great piece and also a great book. So I guess how I think about the admissions process is in some countries like China and India, getting into top universities is based on a single exam. So you just grind for basically fifteen years, thirteen years, set an exam very stressful. That's it. What I like about US admissions is there's lot of creativity in in what you wanna focus on. If you wanna focus on art history, if you wanna wanna focus on art history... On entrepreneurship, if you wanna focus on, for example, you know, building a Minecraft server and making revenue for your Minecraft server, all those things can be put on the application. It's a very broad canvas. Now there are some fundamentals you can't skip, academics. Right? So, you know, I would argue for most high schoolers, focusing on academics is is a good and worthwhile thing. And I would say if you think about New Zealand, the admissions process is very easy to get into local universities, and it doesn't it doesn't incentivize a kid to try that hard in high school. So most high school kids cruise in the last couple of years. And I would say a reality where everyone's hustling hard in high school, they're doing sports, community service, leadership, They're running campaigns. They're trying academics. That's a better reality than people just chilling in those formative years. Mhmm. Because you go into your early twenties without what... Without feeling that burn that, you know, a lot of folks have to figure out later on in life. So long story short, do I think that admissions process is perfect? No. Do I think it's better than most other countries? Yes. And this is a good pathway for most students to go down? Yes as well. But it isn't the only way to be successful. And, you know, most folks that become wildly successful probably didn't do this. But if you're a single individual, this is still your best probability shot, in my opinion.
00:23:22 · David Booth, Jamie Beaton
[00:23:22] S0: Yep. A couple of really good insights there with the the idea that in those four hundred years, having something that's aspirational, that's motivating, that's that's ambitious, that would really drive you down any path. Yeah. And that path could be, yeah, elite sports. It could be elite education, it could [00:23:36] S1: be Momentum. [00:23:36] S0: Burning passion you have for a bit. But in the absence of having the capacity for elite sports or or sort of the spark for a single thing you wanna be curious about and pursue, I think you're right to say, like, is a path. And I've often found that, you know, the things that I've achieved that have worked have, you know, come across while pursuing or aspiring to something else. It's the feeling of drive the or the feeling of motivation I have that will sort of open your mind or prepare you to be open to opportunities [00:24:04] S1: Yeah.
00:24:04 · Jamie Beaton, David Booth
[00:24:04] S1: Yeah. [00:24:04] S0: That are adjacent to that. So I really like that. When I think about the admissions process itself, I mean, there's lot of work that goes into it. There's 30 something essays. There's all all sort of that preparation. One I'd be really curious about the way that this has evolved, particularly in the last couple of years. Now when ChatGPT launched end of two thousand twenty two, there was a lot of sort of combination of doom and gloom, and this is the end of ways. This is all of the students starting to generate their essays, starting to use tooling to to, you know, supplement their work. There was... On one side of it, the college is crying afoul and saying they're cheating. On the other side of it, saying, well, actually, no. They're using technology creatively. This is like the calculator all over again. I'm curious about how AI is changing this application landscape, specifically preparation when you think about tutoring, when you think about the possibilities of being opening up through having a, you know, private Albert Einstein on your shoulder teaching you physics must have influenced how you think about revision. What's changed in the past year or two in particular that makes you more excited about the future or has changed the way that you're building your So if