Excellence Isn’t What You Think

Generative AI can now pass the most demanding professional exams in seconds. For the first time in history, machines outperform students in the very domains that schools and universities spend so many years teaching. The old definition of excellence — test scores, rankings, prestigious diplomas — is shaking. If knowledge and reasoning can be automated, what remains of the traditional promise of education? What is the point of learning when machines can already do the work? Which skills will remain valuable in a world we can’t predict? How can we raise children who stay in control of technology rather than controlled by it? Drawing on his experience as founder of Forward College, former policy adviser and McKinsey consultant, Boris Walbaum outlines a bold new blueprint. He shows why the age of AI is the opportunity for education to embrace the full spectrum of human intelligence — cognitive, relational, emotional, technological, practical — and how parents and educators can cultivate these uniquely human strengths. Far from resisting technology, this book argues for a hybrid education where AI supports mastery and exploration, while schools reclaim what machines cannot provide: human interaction, sense making, and the capacity to go forward and act with others. This book reframes success for the AI century. It gives families, schools and universities the tools to prepare children not just to survive technological disruption — but to lead, create, and thrive within it.