Cracking the Code: GitHub University

Why the Next Generation Needs to Build Something Real

If you have not listened to our recent conversation with Matt Dalio, you should.

And honestly, your kids should too.

I do not say that lightly. There are a lot of podcasts out there. There are a lot of smart people saying smart things. There are a lot of conversations that sound interesting in the moment and then disappear from your brain ten minutes later.

This one stuck with me.

Not because Matt was trying to be controversial. Not because he was taking shots at college. Not because he was saying education does not matter.

That was not the point at all.

What hit me was that he and Eric started talking about Arizona State University, and then the conversation moved into this bigger idea around talent, credentials, builders, and what actually matters when somebody is trying to figure out who can help them build a company.

Then Matt said something that stopped me.

He started comparing the Ivy League idea to what he called GitHub University.

Now, for people who do not live in the coding world, GitHub is not an actual university. There are no football games, no dorm rooms, no admissions office, no alumni weekend, no ivy-covered buildings.

GitHub is where coders build and share. It is a place where people put their work out into the world — code, libraries, tools, ideas, experiments, fixes, improvements. Part workshop, part résumé, part reputation system, part proof.

And that is what made the phrase so powerful to me.

Matt was not saying, “Do not go to school.”

He was saying, “Show me what you have built.”

That is a very different thing.

A school name might get you in the door. A degree might start the conversation. A credential might tell someone you were capable of completing a path that was placed in front of you.

But a portfolio shows something else. It shows initiative. It shows curiosity. It shows problem-solving. It shows that you did not just read about the thing — you tried to do the thing.

And I think that is where the world is going.

The Question Is Changing

For a long time, the question was pretty simple.

Where did you go to school? What was your GPA? What was your ACT score? What was your SAT score? What clubs were you in? What internships did you get?

And I am not saying those things are worthless. They are not. Education matters. Discipline matters. Learning matters. Showing up matters.

But I think the question is changing.

The question is becoming: What have you built?

That is the question that keeps bouncing around in my head.

Because when somebody can show you what they built, the conversation changes. They are no longer just telling you they are interested in engineering — they are showing you the device they tried to design. They are no longer just telling you they like gaming — they are showing you the game they are building. They are no longer just telling you they are creative — they are showing you the website, the book cover, the design, the animation, the project, the portfolio.

They are no longer just saying, “I want to do this someday.”

They are saying, “I started.”

And that matters.

This Is Not Anti-College

Let me be very clear.

This is not an anti-college article. I am not writing this to tell kids not to go to school, or to tell parents that college does not matter, or to take a cheap shot at Harvard, Princeton, Chapel Hill, Arizona State, or any other school.

There is value in the college experience. There is value in being around people who think differently than you. There is value in learning how to live, interact, struggle, grow, and be challenged in an environment that is bigger than your hometown and bigger than your comfort zone. There is value in theory and structure — in having professors, classmates, deadlines, pressure, and expectations.

But there is also value in building.

And I think sometimes we have acted like those two things are separate. They are not.

The best version is not school instead of building. The best version is school plus building. Learning plus applying. Theory plus action. Classroom plus portfolio.

Because at the end of the day, if you are going to ask someone to hire you, invest in you, admit you, partner with you, or trust you, it helps if you can show them something real.

Don’t Fake It

Years ago, I wrote a Strategy Addict piece called Don’t Fake It.

The idea was simple. Do not pretend to be something you are not. Do not claim experience you do not have. Do not fake capability. Do not build a reputation on smoke and mirrors.

That article was written in a business context, but this GitHub University idea made me think about the same concept in a different way — because kids are under so much pressure now to look impressive. Build the perfect résumé. Have the perfect application. Join the perfect clubs. Start the perfect nonprofit. Tell the perfect story.

And here is where I may get myself in trouble, but I am going to say it anyway.

Sometimes all of that starts to feel fake.

Not always — there are absolutely young people doing amazing service work, building organizations, serving communities, solving problems, and leading in real ways. But there are also plenty of things being packaged to look bigger than they are. And adults can usually tell. Kids can tell too.

There is a difference between something created for optics and something built from genuine curiosity. There is a difference between “this will look good on an application” and “I could not stop thinking about this, so I tried to build it.” There is a difference between résumé activity and real evidence.

That is why GitHub University hit home for me. It is hard to fake the work. You either built it or you did not. You either tried to solve the problem or you did not. You either worked through the issue or you did not. You either have something to show or you do not.

And if it failed, fine. Talk about that too. Because failure in a real project is still more interesting than perfection in a fake story.

Building Changes the Builder

Here is the part I care about most.

Building something does not just create an external result. It changes the person doing the building.

I have seen this firsthand with young people. When they build something they care about, they talk differently. They explain differently. Their shoulders sit a little differently. Their confidence is not loud, but it is real.

It is not the confidence of, “I hope someone picks me.” It is the confidence of, “I worked on this. I struggled with this. I figured part of this out.”

That is a different kind of confidence.

And I think this matters deeply right now because this generation is carrying a lot. They are told to perform — in school, online, socially, athletically, academically, emotionally. Perform all the time.

That is exhausting.

And a lot of the systems they are performing inside of are systems where they do not have much control. They do not write the test. They do not choose the grading scale. They do not decide who gets admitted. They do not decide who gets picked.

But when they build something, they get some agency back. They can try again, change the design, rewrite the code, redraw the cover, rework the prototype, ask for feedback, launch version two.

That is how life actually works. Life is not one test question and then you are done. Life is iteration. Life is troubleshooting. Life is overcoming and adapting.

Overcome and Adapt

That phrase matters to me.

Overcome and adapt. It is a builder’s mindset. It is also a character mindset.

You do not need to be writing code to understand it. You can be building a game, a book cover, a website, a machine, a business, a performance, a piece of art, a medical device, a community, or a better version of yourself.

Something will go wrong — good, that is where the learning is. The first version may be bad — even better, now you have something to improve. Somebody may not understand what you are trying to do, which means you have to learn how to communicate. You may get stuck, which means you have to learn how to ask better questions.

This is what building teaches that a textbook cannot fully teach. It teaches friction. It teaches humility. It teaches patience. It teaches problem-solving. It teaches the young person that “I do not know yet” is not the same thing as “I cannot.”

That is a huge lesson.

Applied Learning Is the Real Unlock

We talk a lot about learning. We should. Learning is important.

But applied learning is where things start to become real.

You can read about building a house, or you can build one — those are not the same thing. You can learn about business, or you can try to sell something. You can study design, or you can create something and let someone else react to it. You can learn about coding, or you can build something that breaks, fix it, and understand why it broke. None of those pairs are the same thing, and the gap between them is the whole point.

Applied learning creates a different kind of understanding. It sticks because your hands were on it. It sticks because you felt the frustration. It sticks because you had to solve the problem when the clean theory did not match the messy reality.

That is why building is so powerful for kids. It gives them contact with reality. And reality is still the best teacher.

The Portfolio Is the New Proof

A résumé tells people what you want them to believe about you. A portfolio shows them what you have done.

That is why I think every young person should start building some version of a portfolio. It does not have to be fancy. It does not have to be perfect. It does not have to be some polished personal brand machine. In fact, I would rather see something raw and real than something overproduced and empty.

Show the project. Show the sketch, the first draft, the code, the design, the prototype. Show the before and after — and show what you learned, and what you would do differently.

That becomes evidence. And evidence matters, because the economy is changing.

Employers are going to be less excited about training people from scratch when the tools are already sitting in front of us. AI, open-source platforms, design tools, publishing tools, coding tools, video tools, distribution tools — there has never been more access. So if you have access to the tools, the question becomes: what are you doing with them?

That is not meant to be harsh. It is meant to be freeing. You do not have to wait. You can start building now.

What Are You Building?

Maybe this is the question we should be asking kids more often.

Not just: What school do you want to go to? What do you want to major in? What job do you want someday?

Those are fine questions. But they can feel far away. They can feel heavy. They can make a young person feel like they need to have their whole life figured out at sixteen years old.

Most adults do not even have their whole life figured out.

So maybe the better question is simpler: What are you building?

That question gives them somewhere to begin. Build a game. Build a website. Build a device. Build a design portfolio. Build a small business. Build something that helps someone, or something that just teaches you something.

It does not have to be the thing you do forever. It just has to be real.

Cracking the Code

So here is the code.

Learn. Apply. Build. Share. Improve. Repeat.

That is it.

Learn enough to start. Apply what you know. Build something real. Share it with someone who can give you honest feedback. Improve it. Then repeat the process.

That is the code. Not because it guarantees admission to the perfect school, or the perfect job, or success. It does not.

But it does something better. It builds the builder. It helps a young person develop confidence, resilience, initiative, problem-solving, and self-respect. It helps them stop waiting for the world to tell them who they are. It helps them discover who they are by what they create.

That is why Matt Dalio’s “GitHub University” comment hit me so hard. It confirmed something I have been feeling for a while. The next generation does not need more pressure to fake perfect. They need more encouragement to build real.

They need adults who care enough to say: try it, build it, break it, fix it, show me, tell me what you learned — then do it again.

Because in a world changing this fast, one of the most powerful things a young person can say is not just “I studied this.” It is “I built this.”

And maybe that is how they crack the code. Not just to college. Not just to a job. But to confidence, to purpose, to resilience — to becoming the kind of person who can overcome, adapt, and keep building.

Sources of Inspiration

This article was inspired by our recent conversation with Matt Dalio on Entrepreneur Perspectives, especially the discussion around Arizona State University, GitHub University, and the shift from credentials alone to evidence of what someone has actually built.

It also connects back to a Strategy Addict idea I have written about before: Don’t Fake It. The more the world rewards signaling, the more important it becomes to build something real.

Builders come in a lot of forms — including authors. Jerald Kasimov’s own work has been part of that inspiration too.

Additional inspiration comes from the young builders I have watched firsthand — kids creating prototypes, games, designs, websites, books, covers, and projects that give them a deeper sense of ownership and confidence.

And finally, this piece is influenced by the timeless values of integrity, service, excellence, and the mindset to overcome and adapt.