Why Does Motivation Matter More Than the College Lecture?

Gagan Biyani says learning is about 90 percent motivation, so college should be driven by what moves an 18-year-old: building things people will use, earning revenue, and getting a job. He did not learn much in a format he disliked. On campuses he visits, including Stanford, students are not finding the old format workable. He remembers classes about half full twenty years ago, when maybe 20 percent of students shared that view, and he hears attendance is now way under 10 percent.

The Horowitz and Andreessen Academy, in his view, is focused on rebuilding that format so motivation is what pulls students into the work. A lecture they sit through without buying in does not create the learning.