the collapse of thoughtfulness
They gave away their stage as a joke, and all they got was a punchline.
The recent decision to feature U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon as a keynote voice on the future of education at a recent major education business summit was not a mistake. It was a signal.
Yes, she mispronounced AI as “A.1.” sauce—twice. TikTok clipped it. The steak sauce brand played along. But the real punchline wasn’t the gaffe. It was the invitation.
The implication that the U.S. Secretary of Education may not really understand a core concept animating the education landscape and society at large, is eye-opening.
This isn’t about tech literacy. It’s about the decay of standards. The erosion of seriousness. The triumph of attention over thought.
Today’s essay is more philosophical. Bear with me.
From Thought Leadership to Influence Auctions
Once a forum for reimagining education through clarity, insight, and frankly moral seriousness, ASU+GSV and other education-business summits today reflect an obsession with:
Who’s raising
Who’s hiring
Who’s trending
Panels are polished and the optics are world-class. But the intellectual center of gravity has hollowed out.
The programming is no longer the main event—it’s the window dressing for networking dinners, venture announcements, and social capital games.
Plato warned us about this: when educators serve applause rather than truth, when the popular replaces the good, the city suffers. "If you want to govern well," he wrote, "you must begin by educating those who can resist the temptations of flattery."
What We Face in Education Is Not a PR Problem—It’s a Depth Problem
The challenges facing education today are immense and real:
Millions of learners are disengaged.
Teacher morale is in crisis in many states
Inequity is widespread (the U.S. Gini coefficient is as high as ever)
As Isaac Asimov predicted, technology is gathering knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom
These are not pitch-deck problems. They are design problems. Cultural problems. Governance problems. They require not just energy, but discernment.
Thoughtfulness Is Not Elitist. It’s Essential.
Confucius taught that a nation must be governed through virtue, not spectacle. “If the people be led by laws, and uniformity sought to be given them by punishments,” he wrote, “they will try to avoid the punishment, but have no sense of shame. If they be led by virtue… they will possess the sense of shame, and moreover will become good.”
Shame, in this case, is conscience. And conscience requires reflection. And reflection requires thought.
James Baldwin said that “nothing can be changed until it is faced.” Thoughtfulness is how we face things honestly. It's not indecision. It’s the discipline of looking beyond the immediate, the performative, the easy answer. It is the essential tool for navigating complexity with courage.
What’s Needed Now Isn’t More Flash
Education summits don’t need viral moments. They need seriousness.
If we are going to address the real crises in education, we need:
Educators and businesspeople alike with depth, conviction, and the humility to ask hard questions.
Less a marketplace of shiny tools. More stewardship of complex systems.
When everyone on stage agrees too quickly, looks too polished, pivots too smoothly—we lose the messy but necessary deliberation that real change demands.
This Isn’t About Nostalgia. It’s About Standards.
Summits like ASU+GSV matter. Their platforms reach real decision-makers. They can curate clarity. They can amplify thinkers. They can re-establish seriousness as the price of entry on their keynote stage.
But, summit organizers, attendees, and sponsors must choose.
Do we want the business of education to reflect the cultural mood of flash and spectacle?
Or do we want to set the standard for what it means to lead education into an uncertain century?
Thoughtfulness Builds Futures
Solving the challenges in education requires more than energy. It requires intellectual courage.
It requires asking hard questions. Welcoming disagreement. Trading certainty for curiosity.
Access plays are not going to help build the future of education. Discernment, deliberation, and design may.
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Adil Husain has over two decades of experience advising education and learning organizations within the K-12, Higher Education and Workforce/Professional space, including 13 of the 20 largest U.S. education companies by revenue, on corporate strategy, product-market fit, customer acquisition, and growth. He is Managing Director at Emerging Strategy, a strategic intelligence firm that helps enterprises within Education and other sectors navigate complex markets, with a focus on international growth.
You can contact Adil here or connect with him on LinkedIn for more insights.
Great article. When conferences get too big they become produced media events. The thoughtful gatherings are under 150 people, invite-only, and in an unconference style (featuring small group discussions and one-on-ones).