Of course we're going to reinvent the wheel using tech-industry terms here on HN. :) One of the points that DFW is getting at in this speech is that this is ex

Of course we're going to reinvent the wheel using tech-industry terms here on HN. :) One of the points that DFW is getting at in this speech is that this is exactly what a classic liberal arts education is supposed to do for you (ideally). But both the ideal and the practical reality of that education have suffered terribly at the hands of social institutions that see education primarily as an industrial input and higher education as a credentialing tool. And it's a bit of an uphill fight against some of the less-enlightened sides of human nature to begin with.