What Are We Going to Do About Schools?

The Breakfast Club’s archetypal characters are heroes because they finally come to terms with the absurd situation they are in. (image: Universal Pictures publicity, fair use)

In a notorious 2003 essay, entrepreneur and self-proclaimed nerd Paul Graham addresses a question that few would ever think to ask — Why are nerds unpopular?

In answering such a simple, but surprising, question, Graham guides us through a series of widening concentric circles as he addresses nerdom, high school social dynamics, the schooling system, suburbia, society, and finally the economy…