Steve Levitt

They've done all the things right.

They've been valedictorian and they've gotten great SATs and ACTs.

And they get to the U of C, one of the most exclusive schools in the world.

And they don't want to learn.

They don't care the slightest bit about learning.

All they want to do is get A's.

They want to check boxes.

To me, that is about the most discouraging thing I can imagine.

These are such talented kids who have been given an incentive scheme, which has beaten all the life out of them.

What were you like at 22, let's say?

Oh, God, I was exactly like that.

I was the worst college student imaginable.

I was way ahead of my time because I was exactly like these box checkers before anyone else was.

So at Harvard, I had no intrinsic interest in anything.

My way of choosing classes was to say, I'm going to take all the biggest classes and

because as long as there's 800 students in it, I'll be completely faceless.

I'll never have to talk to a professor.

They'll be really easy because they always grade the big classes easy.

And mostly I was at Harvard to play wiffle ball and street hockey and video games and drink a lot.

I got straight A's at Harvard, basically, but without ever trying to learn anything.